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Roblox argues 8-year-old waived rights in wrongful death lawsuit (www.courier-journal.com)
submitted 1 week ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Can an 8-year-old waive their rights to sue a company by clicking a box?

That's the stance of Roblox, an online gaming platform that bills itself as a digital playground.

The argument comes as the $41-billion company is embroiled in a lawsuit with the family of a Northern Kentucky child whose death by suicide, her mother says, is related to use of the platform.

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[–] 193 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Minors can't waive rights. Or, in theory they can't waive rights because they don't have capacity. That's my understanding

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  • [–] 72 points 1 week ago* (2 children)

    In my country nobody can waive rights, by default no contract is able to take any rights from you

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  • [–] 21 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    It used to be like that in the US. It was not until the 90s into the 00's that employers were allowed to make employees sign away their right to sue and instead use binding arbitration of the employer's choosing, or manufacturers and retailers forcing consumers to waive their rights to sue in purchasing the product, and so forth.

    Judges used to throw them out. And if a contract had egregious language, it could invalidate the entire contract not just the part that is illegal.

    Since the federalist society conquered the courts all of that changed.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 week ago

    Thank you for pointing out how much damage they have done to our legal system and in turn our society, or what remains of it.

    Not sure how this gets fixed without some kind of major probably terrible event. Fixing the Supreme Court is probably the first step, but kicking them out in local elections is crucial too.

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  • [+] -12 points 1 week ago (4 children)

    I'm splitting hairs a lil bit - you're pretty much correct. Minors are not citizens, so they don't have rights. Minors are wards of the State. They under State protection, and as such don't have the ability to forgo that protection, until they turn 18.

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  • [–] 25 points 1 week ago

    This is all wrong.

    As long as the minor has US citizenship (through naturalization, parents, ect) they have citizenship. We can see this with ICE deporting non US citizen minors (there might be a rare exceptiom, but those are outliers).

    Minors have constitutional rights as they have been ruled by the US supreme court to protest politically in schools (as long as it doesn't interfer with school operation or other students). They even have the ability for the second amendment as long as they are provided permission from the parent and is under adult supervision (hunting, target practice, compitition). Also still protected against unconstitutional searches or seizures.

    Minors are not wards of the state unless they are sentenced to a correctional facility, some kind of state mental hospital, or orphinege. Children are under control of their parents unless some substantial reason (parent or guardian death, judification, extreme mental health).

    As the other poster stated, children have protections such ad labor laws, protections against military service, protections against adult criminal trials (unless ruled by a judge).

    (some of this will vary state by state, but most is the same)

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  • [–] 16 points 1 week ago

    Minors (except immigrants who have not been naturalized) are citzens, and they do have rights. For example, minors can be issued passports, and cannot lawfully be deported. That's because they're citizens.

    Also, you can't just walk down the street and kill a minor. That's an example of a right that everyone has, regardless of whether they're citizens. Generally, the Constitution refers to such people as persons rather than citizens.

    The vast majority of minors are not wards of the state, the only exception being those who are declared wards of the state through explicit legal procedures.

    So nothing you said was correct.

    The real rationale for Roblox being full of shit is that minors cannot execute contracts. And there are what are called unconscionable contracts, which are invalid even if the signatory is not a minor.

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