/ KVUE News Team

05:38 PM CDT on Tuesday, June 20, 2006

By MICHAEL MENDOZA / KVUE News

Reaction was mixed Tuesday after reports that MySpace.com is being sued for not doing enough to protect young users from predators.

Some say the girl's parents should have known better.

Many people frequent the Spider House Coffee Bar, a popular Internet cafe, in Central Austin.

"We've got free wireless, and a lot of people come here -- business professionals come here and work", said Liz Moulin-Franco, a bartender for three years.

Lowell Coleman likes to have coffee at the Spider House and frequently checks his MySpace.com account.

"It's a friendly networking-type thing," he said. "What's great about it is you're able to prescreen before meeting a person."

But Coleman says he knows not everyone on MySpace.com is who they say they are.

"Then again, if you're a sexual predator, it does give you the accessibility to go ahead and prey on a particular person."

Moulin-Franco agrees, "No one has a real profile."

Recently, police say a 14-year-old was sexually assaulted by a man she met on MySpace.com, Peter Solis. The teen's parents are now suing MySpace.com for $30 million for not protecting their child.

David Deschodt, who has an 11-year-old, wonders were the girls' parents were.

"What was that kid doing on a website without any supervision?" he said.

Other parents KVUE News spoke to said children should always be supervised when using the Internet. Many weren't blaming MySpace.com.

"I don't know if MySpace.com can be accountable. I really think it's up to the parents to monitor." said Lacey Cominsky who has an 11-year-old. "There needs to be more personal responsibility. I think I know there's punitive damages that encourage a corporation that makes a lot of money to change their policy. It's not about the plaintiffs just getting that money."

Currently, Myspace.com is the third most popular Web site in the world.