America Online hires adult monitors to keep its children-only chat rooms safe from sexual predators. But one of those monitors seduced a California girl online and was about to meet her for sex before he was caught, according to court documents.
AOL officials declined to confirm or deny specifics of the case. But spokesman Nicholas Graham said the company fired the employee immediately after discovering the incident in April 2003 and reported it to the FBI and local law enforcement authorities, who notified the family.
The girl has now filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The AOL employee, then 23 and working from an Oklahoma call center, began the relationship when the girl was 15, the lawsuit says.
The girl, who was living in Kern County at the time, and the employee -- whose sole job at AOL was to monitor chat rooms -- conducted a sexually charged relationship online that lasted nearly two years, the suit contends. The two swapped explicit photographs and videos, had phone sex and made plans to meet for the first time to celebrate her 17th birthday.
But before the two could meet, another AOL worker grew suspicious and logged on to the defendant's computer and found evidence of the relationship, according to the suit. Graham said the employee was caught through "internal controls" but declined to elaborate.
One advocate for abused children said she was "disappointed and saddened" that AOL had not prevented the incident -- or at least discovered it sooner.
"The Internet danger is so rampant in our country right now," said Tamara Tucker of the Missouri-based Child Abuse Prevention Assn. "The man should never have had such unprotected access to the children."
The lawsuit accuses AOL, parent company Time Warner Inc. and the employee of inflicting emotional distress upon the girl. AOL and Time Warner are also accused of negligently failing to supervise their employee and of false advertising for saying the service was safe for children.
"You're truly looking at a situation where you have a wolf looking over the chicken coop," said Olivier Taillieu, the girl's Beverly Hills attorney. The Times is not naming the plaintiff because she was a minor and is not identifying the defendant because he was never charged with a crime.
The girl, now 19 and living in Los Angeles County, waited two years after the relationship ended before filing the suit in part because "it's a very confusing and painful time for her," Taillieu said.
