Parents of girls who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of adults are suing the popular social-networking Web site MySpace, The Associated Press reported.
Families from New York, Texas, Pennsylvania and South Carolina filed separate suits Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Jason Itkin, an attorney representing some families, said the suits allege that MySpace and its parent company News Corp. has been slow in providing safeguards.
"MySpace waited entirely too long to attempt to institute meaningful security measures that effectively increase the safety of their underage users," Itkin said.
Daniel Weiss, senior analyst for media and sexuality for Focus on the Family Action, said the lawsuits should alert other parents to the danger.
"There may be some benefit to social-networking sites" like MySpace, Xanga and Facebook, he said. "But, news like this should cause parents to think long and hard about whether these benefits really outweigh the risks, which, in the case of these teens, were tragic."
MySpace plans to introduce technology next summer that will allow parents to monitor some aspects of their child's online profile.
