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31 Whittier L. Rev. 589 (2009-2010)
Implementing a Standard of Care to Provide Protection from a Lawless Internet

handle is hein.journals/whitlr31 and id is 611 raw text is: IMPLEMENTING A STANDARD OF CARE TO PROVIDE PROTECTION FROM A LAWLESS INTERNET I. INTRODUCTION Imagine discovering that someone you trusted deeply violated your confidence in them by posting offensive nude photographs of you on the Internet, taken without your knowledge or consent, for the world to see. Even more horrific, imagine that the same person also published your address and telephone number on a popular website such as Yahoo.com. Without a doubt, any sense of personal privacy and security would spiral beyond control and the only conceivable comfort in this scenario would be to remove the exposing material from the Internet. Cecilia Barnes found herself in precisely this situation when she discovered that her ex-boyfriend had taken nude photogra~hs of her and posted them on a website run by Yahoo!, Inc. (Yahoo). Unfortunately, the harassment Barnes experienced at the hands of her ex-boyfriend did not stop there as he furthered his attempt at revenge by soliciting sexual encounters for her through Yahoo's chat rooms,2 while also disclosing her rivate telephone and contact information on public Yahoo profiles. Her ex-boyfriend utilized the Internet for the specific purpose of committing a dangerous, cruel, and highly indecent attempt at revenge.4 What further exacerbates the excruciating damage for victims suffering from this type of online misconduct is their inability to obtain access to any avenues of redress. 1. Barnes v. Yahoo!, Inc., 570 F.3d 1096, 1098 (9th Cir. 2009). 2. An online chat room is a popular form of Internet communication, analogous to an in-person conversation, but carried out on a computer through the exchange of messages, which appear on sender and recipient screens almost instantaneously. Matthew Collins, The Law of Defamation and the Internet, 24 (2d ed., Oxford U. Press 2005). 3. Barnes, 570 F.3d at 1098. An online profile is described as a page containing any information that a member chooses to include so that other members of the website can view the information anywhere in the world. Id. 4. Id. 589

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