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Georgia Court Says Parents Can Be Liable For Kids Facebook Posts

A son's Facebook prank lands two parents in court. The parents were sued after failing to make their son remove a malicious, fake profile he created.

Parents are more responsible for their child’s social media activity than they may think. A recent story on TechDirt.com recounts a Georgia lawsuit in which two parents were sued because of what their child did on social media.

Their son was caught cyberbullying and suspended from school after he created a malicious, fake Facebook profile that depicted another student with distorted features and inappropriate status updates. The student’s parents were notified that their son had created the profile, but they never made him take the page down.

The family of the bullied student and their lawyer then filed suit against the parents for defamation, claiming that it was the parents’ responsibility to make their son remove the fake profile page. Parents are responsible for how their children use social media and this case pushes the limits of that responsibility even further.

You can find the full details of the case in “Dangerous Rulings: Georgia Court Says Parents May Be Liable For What Their Kids Post On Facebook.”

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Suddenly, Parenting is a National Debate, Again.

Parenting was yet again thrust onto the national debate stage this week. A pair of Maryland parents are under investigation for letting their 10-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter walk home from their nearby community park by themselves.

Parenting was yet again thrust onto the national debate stage this week.  A pair of Maryland parents are under investigation for letting their 10-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter walk home from their nearby community park by themselves, as covered by the Washington Post. 

CNN reporter Kelly Wallace asks ”have things suddenly gotten way out of hand when parents are being arrested — or investigated — for doing what was considered totally normal and appropriate not long ago?”

Did you walk home from school in your elementary school years? Would you let your kids?  Do you think your community is safer now or when you were a kid? Most states don’t have an age regulation on the books when it’s considered negligent to leave kids alone, but putting your child at risk could be considered a crime.

Parenting today is under a microscope by many, and parenting in the digital age is proving to be more complex than imaginable.  Data is now showing that our kids are at risk just as much digitally as they are physically.  This increased parenting complexity, and risk to our children, has sparked major creative technology innovations for parenting in the digital age.  MamaBear, the Ultimate Parenting App™, provides an all-in-one tool for peace of mind parenting, and managing your family through today’s complicated social issues.

It is clearly important that parenting remain top-of-mind and the subject of healthy discussion. This incident raises awareness of the need for parents to protect not only their children, but also themselves, throughout the parenting process. By availing themselves of the latest advances in parenting tools, such as location-based services, social media monitoring, and driving alerts, parents can find it easier to maneuver through the ever shifting sands of today’s social landscape and parent in the style that best suits them.

What if Rafi Meitiv, walking home from the park that day, showed his smartphone to the police officer who stopped and said, “My parents know exactly where I am.”  Could it have been different?

 

 

Photo credit: Meitiv family photo used on WashingtonPost.com