• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, January 18, 2007

MySpace has just been hit with four new lawsuits, brought by families of girls who allegedly were sexually abused by people they met online.

"Social networking sites can lead to heinous abuse by Internet predators," an attorney representing the families told Reuters.

The recent suits come on top of more than a year of bad publicity, much of it sparked by stories of sexual predators using the site to find victims. The phenomenon--or at least the perception of it--has grown so acute that a coalition of 33 state attorneys general is calling on the site to ban youngsters under 16 from joining the site.

MySpace, meanwhile, is investigating the feasibility of software that informs parents of some limited information about their children's MySpace profiles, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Whether MySpace is legally liable for actions of people who meet on the site is highly questionable.

Regardless, it's understandable why MySpace would want to placate parents and attorneys general. If nothing else, the company--which needs to attract brand advertisers--has a strong incentive to avoid appearing nonchalant about sex abuse.

But the proposed security measure here--computer software installed by parents--seems ludicrous. If it works, it gives parents extremely limited information--mainly about their children's screen names and what age and city they say they're from--while also making kids feel like their privacy's being compromised. And that's if it works. Which is doubtful in itself: How many computer-savvy 14-year-olds aren't going to know how to defeat software installed by their parents?