Four US families have filed separate lawsuits against the owners of MySpace, amid claims their daughters were sexually assaulted by people they met on the social networking website.
The negligence and fraud suits filed against News Corporation at the Los Angeles superior court allege that the five girls aged between 14 and 15 were drugged before being assaulted.
A lawyer representing one of the families said that MySpace had failed to offer appropriate levels of care for its younger users.
"In our view, MySpace waited entirely too long to attempt to institute meaningful security measures that effectively increase the safety of their underage users," said Jason Itkin.
But MySpace's chief security officer Hemanshu Nigam, formerly employed by the US justice department as its internet child exploitation unit's prosecutor, said that MySpace had taken "proactive measures to protect our members".
Over-18s using the website cannot contact people aged 14 or 15 unless they know their email address, while children aged under 14 cannot register at all.
"Ultimately, internet safety is a shared responsibility," My Nigam went on to say.
"We encourage everyone to apply common sense offline-security lessons in their online experiences and engage in open family dialogue about smart web practices."
News Corp, which bought My Space for $580 million (£294 million) two years ago, was also faced with a similar lawsuit in 2006.
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