Some kids
put some awful stupid statements in writing.. Libel, the things one writes, are
easier to prove than the foolish things that one says (slander).
Parents
may not think about these things until they get sued and then it may be too
late!
In San Antonio, Texas, an
assistant high school principal filed suit against two former students AND
their parents for alleged defamatory statements made on the internet. She is
suing for “defamation, negligence and gross negligence” for the “lewd,
defamatory and obscene comments, pictures and graphics.” She is also suffering
because multitudes of individuals have and continue to contact her.
What’s
her assertion against the parents? The suit contains the following language as
“allowing access to the Internet, unsupervised and without restraint poses an
obvious risk and unreasonable danger that such children would utilize the
Internet for illicit purposes.”
106
civil lawsuits against bloggers and others in social networks and online forums
were reported by Citizen Media Law Project at the Berkman
Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.
So, if
either the homeowner or other resident relative writes a defamatory remark
about someone else or deliberately writes incorrect information about someone
else resulting in a lawsuit will your unendorsed homeowners’ (HO) policy
respond with defense and coverage? Not likely.
You may
not be able to supervise your child at all times but there are ways to help
afford you some protection.
For
instance, there may be two potential and relatively inexpensive ways to obtain
coverage. One is by adding a Personal Injury endorsement to your homeowners’ or
renters’ policy. The other is by adding an Umbrella policy to your personal insurance portfolio of converges.
Our thanks to Irene
Morrill for this post.
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