Parents Legally Liable For Kids' Internet Misconduct?

By Eric Sinrod, 

Many parents have worried about their children spending too much time online, viewing Internet content that might be inappropriate, or being contacted by unsavory characters in Cyberspace. However, very few parents likely have considered the prospect that they may be sued for the online misbehavior of their kids.

Well, that chicken has come home to roost, as exemplified by a recent complaint filed in San Antonio, Texas by an assistant high school principal against two former students and their parents as a result of alleged defamatory statements made by the former students on their MySpace.com Web page.

In her recent complaint, the assistant principal has brought claims of defamation, negligence and gross negligence against two former students who attended the high school last year. She did this after an academic dean apparently showed her a printout of a Web page posted on MySpace.com that contained the assistant principal's photography and her name, as well as "lewd, defamatory and obscene comments, pictures and graphics," according to the complaint.

In addition, this Web page "indicated by implication and direct statement that [the assistant principal] is a lesbian, which she is not," as stated in the complaint.

The complaint asserts that the assistant principal is married, has small children, and has experienced "many sleepless nights and worried days" because of this Web page and people who allegedly have tried to contact her through the Web page.

The assistant principal alleges that one of the students has admitted to creating the offensive Web page, and that records subpoenaed from MySpace.com by the local police department demonstrate that the computers used to create and update the Web page were located at the two students' homes.

The complaint argues that the two formers students are liable for defamation because they created a Web page that contained false statements about the assistant principal that have caused her damage. However, the more remarkable part of the complaint contains claims against the parents of the former students.

The assistant principal declares in her complaint that parents generally owe a duty to supervise the activities of their children on the Internet. In this instance, the complaint further urges liability on the part of these particular parents because they knew that the former students were using the Internet and that they were using computers, supplied by the parents, to create Web pages.

In addition, the assistant principal asserts that the parents of these former students knew that the students had "animosity" toward her based on prior disciplinary issues relating to the former students.

The core allegation in the complaint that deserves attention goes like this: "Allowing access to the Internet, unsupervised and without restraint poses an obvious risk and unreasonable danger that such children would utilize the Internet for illicit purposes . . . ."

Plainly, parents should do their best to supervise the online activities of their children. Does that mean that parents can be on top of their kids 100% of the time? Probably not. Sure, steps can be taken to minimize all sorts of risks, such as teaching kids what is proper Internet behavior, insisting that the family computer stays in a public place in the home, that filters restrict access to certain types of sites, and the like.

But computer and Internet use are becoming a constant for modern youth, and parents cannot be with them on the Internet every single second. Moreover, kids generally are more tech saavy than their parents.

Thus, when a parent does the best that a reasonable parent can do, should the parent be on the receiving end of a lawsuit if a child has not behaved perfectly on the Internet? And in this case, was it really foreseeable by these parents that the two former students would created this type of Web page simply because they have Internet access and there had been a prior disciplinary issue with the assistant principal?

And let's think about this instance a bit further - while the statements on the MySpace.com Web page allegedly were false and certainly painted the assistant principal in a negative light, one must wonder whether these statements would be believable to everyone who visited this page.

The fact of the matter is that the Internet now contains millions of pages. While it is not right, often Web pages are created that contain false and unflattering information about specific people. Some times, the best approach is just to ignore and not call attention to and highlight this information.

While the assistant principal has succeeded in launching a lawsuit, it is not yet clear whether it will stick against the parents of the former students. Furthermore, while this columnist has steered clear of mentioning the names of the parties involved in the lawsuit, the suit is a matter of public record, and it certainly has made a greater spectacle of the negative comments made by the former students against the assistant principal.

If she wins her lawsuit, the assistant principal still may lose by generating more interest in her predicament. And if she can pin the tail on the parent donkey in her case, perhaps other parents across the country should consider locking down their computers and preventing their kids from any independence in Cyberspace.

Eric Sinrod is a partner in the San Francisco office of Duane Morris LLP (http://www.duanemorris.com) where he focuses on litigation matters of various types, including information technology and intellectual property disputes.  His Web site is http://www.sinrodlaw.com and he can be reached at ejsinrod@duanemorris.com.  To receive a weekly email link to Mr. Sinrod’s columns, please send an email to him with Subscribe in the Subject line.

This column is prepared and published for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice.  The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the author’s law firm or its individual partners.

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