You already know you’re responsible for taking care of your child at least until they reach 18 years of age. But did you know that you could also be held financially liable for their actions, even if they didn’t mean to hurt someone?
In the United States, the actions of your children, both online and in the “real world,” can have significant legal and financial repercussions. Keep reading to find out what can go wrong and, more importantly, what you can do to protect yourself.
Importance of Understanding Liability in Parenting
As the saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” so being aware of the liability you have as a parent can protect both your children as well as your family’s assets. Generally speaking, you can be held liable for virtually anything your child does, including compensating injured people in car accidents to reimbursing a person or business for property damage.
Parents bear the burden of responsibility for their children until the age of majority. While in most states, this is up until the age of 18, other states have extended the age of majority to 19 and 21. For parents with college-aged children in states with a higher age of majority, this can lead to even further legal exposure.
The laws of each state are different, and some states have imposed maximum limits on how much money a parent will pay. However, the crux of understanding liability in parenting comes from the concept of vicarious liability.
Vicarious liability is defined as being legally responsible for the actions of another. Often, this legal term is used in the context of employment where a company may be held liable for the actions of an employee if they did something while on duty and in the scope of their employment.
From a parental perspective, parents are considered supervisors of their children. As such, they are presumed to be liable for anything their child does. As you can imagine, this can expose a parent to a significant amount of liability.
The situations in which your child can find themselves are practically infinite, but we’re going to attempt to cover the most common circumstances that can expose parents to lawsuit risks.
Social Media and Digital Interactions
The world is a lot more complicated than it was when we were kids, and social media is a hotbed of legal risk. Further, it’s estimated that 90% of teens (age 13-17) actively use social media, so most parents are vulnerable to a lawsuit if their child does something that causes another harm, either to their mental health or their financial or reputational interests.
Posting Inappropriate Content
A lot of the legal hot water parents find themselves in because of their kids is because children’s and teenagers’ frontal lobes are not fully developed. As a result, they are not as advanced at decision-making and impulse control. Further, they are less likely to understand the consequences of their actions.
This combination can be toxic in an online environment. Examples of actions a kid or teen may take can include posting defamatory statements or explicit material, which can ultimately lead to legal action.
Cyberbullying Incidents
Friend groups and cliques are nothing new, but what is new in the digital age is the ability of kids to reach almost anyone online 24/7. Cyberbullying, sadly, is incredibly commonplace, with 58% of kids claiming they’ve been the victim of this type of behavior. When it rises to the level of harassment, stalking, or hate crimes, a parent can be liable for the resulting emotional distress and other fallout.
Copyright Infringement
Even for adults, copyright laws can be complex to understand. For a minor, it can be easy to inadvertently commit copyright infringement. Sharing copyrighted materials like songs, music, and images can lead to an expensive lawsuit.
Physical Interactions and Play
Kids and teens love to play, and accidents are bound to happen. Unfortunately, an injury, even an unintentional one, can lead to a lawsuit.
Accidental Injuries to Others
While pure accidents may not rise to the level of legal liability, if you or your child were shown to be negligent in any way, it could lead to a lawsuit. This includes accidental injuries in a variety of settings, including your home, other people’s homes, sports fields, playgrounds, and social gatherings.
Damage Caused During Play
Most of us remember throwing the ball around as a kid, but we probably didn’t think about how our parents could be on the hook if the ball broke a window or caused other property damage. Typically, any property damage caused by your child, even during an innocent game of catch, can lead to a parent having to pay the repair or replacement cost.
Sports and Recreational Injuries
It’s not uncommon for injuries to happen during sports and other forms of recreation. Even if the parties signed waivers releasing liability, you could still face a lawsuit if your child acted in a way to cause an injury that may have been prevented with reasonably prudent actions.
Liability for Injuries
Examples of when a parent can be held liable for injuries to others would be if a parent failed to educate the child about the risk of injury, or if the child was not properly supervised. Preparing your child with some basic information about sports etiquette and how to avoid unnecessary injuries can go a long way toward preventing an injury and a possible lawsuit.
Property Damage
It’s vital to educate children about respecting the property of others. Any damage done to another’s property can potentially lead to legal action and require the parents to reimburse the property owner.
Peer Influence and Group Activities
Peer pressure is nothing new, and kids can easily succumb to being influenced by their friends. Even the “best” most level-headed kid can get caught up in the moment and do something they wouldn’t ordinarily do.
Influence on Risky Behavior
Situations that involve kids congregating can easily cause harm or damage to a person or property, exposing parents to a potential lawsuit. Whether it’s from the pressure of needing to fit in or merely going with the flow, your child must understand the consequences of their actions and act accordingly.
Liability in Group Activities
As the number of kids involved in an activity increases, so does the risk. There’s the potential for groupthink, and there are also more bodies that can get injured. The most important thing a parent can do here is to be aware of what could go wrong and have the proper protections in place to mitigate the risk of a lawsuit and minimize the potential for paying any fees out of pocket.
School Environment and Events
Schools have a duty to keep kids safe from physical and emotional harm, but their liability isn’t endless. When a child is actively to blame for something, that level of liability can easily extend to the parents.
Bullying and Harassment Issues
While a school can be liable for leaving harassment unchecked, parents can also be liable if their child acts in a way that harms a child and it is shown the parents did not take adequate steps to prevent or address the behavior.
For example, California passed “Seth’s Law” in 2012, and many other states have followed suit. Laws like Seth’s Law outline specific requirements schools must follow to stop bullying in its tracks, especially in terms of gender identity and sexual orientation. The law was passed in response to a 13-year-old boy named Seth who committed suicide after being bullied.
In this case, the school was found liable, which was the impetus of Seth’s Law being passed. With more schools becoming aware of the dangers of bullying, especially in the world of cyberspace, parents are now at risk of coming under fire for failing to rein in their children.
Damage to School Property
Over the course of a year, students spend about 1,000 hours in the classroom, with additional hours for after-school events and extracurricular activities. This is a lot of time for kids to get into trouble, and any damage a child does to school property could result in parents being held liable. This may be true for both accidental and intentional damage.
For example, the parents of one Oregon middle school student found themselves embroiled in a lawsuit seeking $19,293 in damages because their child poured chemicals on surfaces in a science classroom.
Consult an Asset Protection Attorney
Given the myriad ways that a parent can find themselves at the losing end of a multi-million dollar lawsuit, it’s advisable to be educated about the risks and engage in some prudent planning with the help of an experienced law firm. This can include discussing this topic with your child, ensuring your child is adequately monitored, and having adequate insurance coverage in the event of a legal dispute.
For more information about how your children might unintentionally increase lawsuit risks and how to protect your assets from a lawsuit, contact Blake Harris Law.
