Bebo party story is fake--lawsuit is not

Don't believe everything you read on Bebo.

That's the message an angry mother is sending by suing six U.K. newspapers that lifted a story off social-networking site Bebo about her daughter's supposed wild party.

The Bebo invite promised the "party of the year," for the teenager's 16th birthday. Subsequent posts on Jodie Hudson's Bebo account spoke of underage drinking, sex acts, and violence that occurred at the celebration.

Several newspapers ran the story, along with pictures lifted from Jodie Hudson's Bebo account, alleging that 400 partying teens responded to the Bebo and Facebook invites and chaos ensued. Some even said that Jodie's mother had punched her in the face out of anger.

But the story isn't true, according to mother Amanda Hudson, and she's suing for defamation and breach of privacy. According to U.K. newspaper The Independent, she also claims that she has received abusive phone calls regarding the party and her daughter has suffered from the "privacy breach."

In a letter to the newspapers, she explained that there was no underage drinking, no sex, no violence, and no stealing--all parts of the story her daughter told on the Web. She also said that the family hired private security to maintain the bash, and police were never called to the family's $8 million Spanish villa on May 3.

Lawyers told the paper that the case may be a legal landmark because there is no precedent in disputes involving third parties who use or publish information from social-networking sites. Hudson's lawyer, David Price, noted that the case raised important issues of libel, privacy, and copyright and added that, due to social-networking sites, teenager's embellished rumors are now on display like never before.

The new development also raises questions about why the daughter and fellow Bebo friends would tell the fictional tale and whether the reporters validated the information they found on the site. Hudson claimed they did not contact her daughter for permission. However, the information was publicly posted online, and similar situations have led to law enforcement shutting down parties after discovering them online.

The story has since been removed from the UK TimesOnline, although it remains on Sky News, Daily Mail Online, and The Register.

[theonlybuster]

Sounds like her daughter wanted to give some competition to the My super Sweet Sixteen crew on MTV... either stat or get **** status at her local school

[professionaladventurer]

So the daughter posted the story and the papers picked up. Now mom is suing the papers for defamation of character? How is it that mom will win, when the daughter was the one who wrote the stories?

[Rabbid_Wolf]

Granted the papers should not have pilfered the story off the website, but even so the girl did the damage/good to her own reputation by making up the ficticious story. And who is to really say wether or not it is ficticious? What kind of parties does this ultra-rich family have? I mean, what would you party like if you had an $8MIL Spanish Villa to hold your sixteenth birthday party in? If it was me back when I was sixteen, I would probably held the biggest blow-out I could get together and the hades with what others thought about it! Party on!

[dargon19888]

Its actually an interesting case.

Did the newspapers run the story as fact or did they report about the bebo posting?

If they took the story on bebo as fact, then there may be some liability/culpability because the newspapers have to check their facts.

Definitely interesting because the newspapers are reprinting blogs and content as if their own.

[benjaminstraight]

Go figure.

[The_Decider]

To sum up:

Teenagers act like teenagers.


Journalists are retarded.

[Magallanes]

journalist are (not all) a bunch of lazy morons.

[rdupuy11]

Whose to say her ficititious story did damage to her reputation?

To have damage, there must be damage...I say the girl posted it, as an aid to her reputation.

[No Man]

Jodie Hudson is 16. Even if the newspapers can get away with claiming that information taken from Bebo can be published without verification, it was still information taken from a minor without parental permission. And unless the UK laws on this are different than US laws, that's quite illegal, for this exact reason.

[teresaisbored]

I Sort of Agree Wif The Story that you posted but how do you know bout it?

[messrock]

the media should check their facts before printing and the girl should be held responsible for every thing