Dateline NBC wasn't involved in this one, and whether or not the plaintiff in the lawsuit against SexSearch.com was aware once he saw her at her house that she was only 14 is irrelevant. He's already been convicted on those charges.
Court Says Site Not Liable For Age Liars
But "John Doe" lost a second court battle after shifting blame to the website operators, for not properly verifying the age of "Jane Roe," whose website profile said she was born June 15, 1987, making her 18 at the time of contact. Roe made a sex date with Doe via the website, and the two consummated at her house. Doe was soon after charged with felony statutory rape. Obviously, he didn't verify her age, either.
Regardless, Doe sued
Though this newest case is disturbing, the outcome is good for website operators using structured data on their sites. And as for John Doe and Jane Roe, well, Goldman puts says it nicely:
…the court rightly realized that the legally significant event did not occur when Doe read Roe's online profile and self-reported age. Instead, the locus of harm occurred offline--as the court says, "Plaintiff clearly had the ability to confirm Jane Roe’s age when he met with her in person, before they had sex, yet failed to do so."
It also brings another issue to light that has been around for some time. The "If 18 Click to Enter" tradition that is required and useless for keeping minors off of adult websites.
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