Tween's parents can't sue video chat service for child porn and sex trafficking, 11th Circuit rules
A federal appeals court has ruled that parents who alleged that their 11-year-old daughter was tricked and threatened into making child pornography can’t sue an online service that randomly places people into video chat rooms. (Image from Shutterstock)
Parents who alleged that their 11-year-old daughter was tricked and threatened into making child pornography can’t sue an online service that randomly places people into video chat rooms, a federal appeals court has ruled.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Atlanta ruled Dec. 9 for Omegle.com, a video chat service that shut down and filed for bankruptcy in 2023, report the Volokh Conspiracy (via How Appealing) and the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
The girl, referred to as “C.H.” in the opinion, had been placed in a chat room with a stranger she met through Omegle.com in March 2020. The stranger told C.H. that he knew where she lived, and that he would hack her family’s electronics if she did not take off her clothes and do what he said. After pleading with the stranger, she ultimately complied. The stranger recorded C.H. and took screenshots.
The appeals court ruled that Omegle.com was protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which bars liability for interactive websites based on content posted by users. The 11th Circuit also said the parents, known as “M.H.” and “J.H.,” had failed to make out a claim “for the knowing possession of child pornography” under Masha’s Law. The law is named for a Russian orphan adopted at age 5 by a divorced Pittsburgh-area millionaire who made and posted about 200 sexually explicit images of her that authorities think were viewed millions of times online.
Judge Barbara Lagoa, previously mentioned as a possible U.S. Supreme Court nominee in a Trump administration, would have allowed the child pornography claim under a theory of deliberate ignorance by Omegle.com.
The parents had argued that Section 230 didn’t protect Omegle.com because of an exception under the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act. The Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act eliminates Section 230 protection for conduct that meets the standard for criminal liability for sex trafficking. But in thelaw suit against Omegle.com, the 11th Circuit said, there is no plausible allegation that the website had actual knowledge of trafficking, which is the standard for criminal liability.
The parents’ Masha’s Law argument failed because they did not allege that the website ever possessed or accessed the images that the stranger recorded, or that the website knew anything about the content of the stranger’s recording, the 11th Circuit said.
Omegle.com filed for bankruptcy in December 2023. Omegle.com’s founder said he was shutting the website down because its operation was “no longer sustainable, financially nor psychologically,” Lawfare reported in November 2023.
The founder’s post linked to a court filing in another suit against Omegle.com in which a woman was coerced into taking naked videos and photos beginning at age 11. A lawyer for the victim told Wired that one of the settlement conditions was the shutdown of Omegle.com.
