CLEVELAND, OH — SexSearch.com won its second battle in the United States District Court For The Northern District in Ohio last week after a user who had sex with a minor who lied about her age on the site, sued the site for damages.“John Doe” used the site to hook up with “Jane Roe,” who claimed on the site to be 18 years of age. “Jane” had uploaded a current photo of herself on SexSearch.com, along with the lie about her age, and wrote a profile saying she was looking for a long-term mate. The two had sex multiple times and “John” was later convicted of three counts for the statutory rape of “Jane,” who turned out to actually be 14 years old. “John” is facing up to 15 years in prison.
The court found that SexSearch.com was protected by virtue of being an “interactive computer service.” These businesses are explicitly protected by U.S. Code section 230 from third party information entered through their users that could harm people who lie through their sites.
“John” contended that SexSearch.com breached its agreement with him by letting under-aged “Jane” be a member while representing its members as being of legal age. According to “John,” this made the website responsible for “delivering” a minor to engage in sex with him and deceiving him into believing that he was devoid of personal responsibility for getting more information about prospective sex partners.
The court ruled that although SexSearch.com hosted the lying profile, it did not develop it and, therefore, was not responsible for its contents or the effects of the contained untruths on “John’s” life.
Adult webmasters may find it particularly noteworthy that the court also clearly ruled that “John” was responsible for checking out “Jane’s” age for himself when he was standing in front of her and that for him for expect SexSearch.com to have done that for him was not “reasonable.”
