LOS ANGELES, USA - A California appeals court has ruled that Internet servers like MySpace cannot be held liable when minors are sexually assaulted by people they meet on the websites, an opinion filed late on Tuesday showed.

The ruling by the Second District Court of Appeals in Los Angeles is consistent with federal appeals court rulings, and comes a day ahead of the sentencing, also in Los Angeles, of a Missouri woman accused of harassing a teen-age girl to the point of suicide using a fake MySpace profile.

The appellate court consolidated several similar lawsuits brought by minor girls dubbed 'Julie Does' and their parents or guardians, claiming that MySpace failed to implement available age-verification software or set the default security on the girls' accounts to 'private.'

But the Los Angeles-based appeals court found that a section of the Communications Decency Act immunizes Web servers against the girls' claims of negligence and product liability.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs could not be reached for comment. MySpace, which is owned by News Corp , had no immediate comment.

The opinion is 'very important' in light of recent calls by several states' attorneys general for online classifieds site Craigslist to remove what they claimed were illegal sex ads, Electronic Frontier Foundation spokeswoman Rebecca Jeschke said. The controversy erupted after two people were allegedly killed by others they met through the online ads.

Social networking sites were also watching the so-called MySpace Mom case in Los Angeles, in which Missouri mother Lori Drew was indicted on felony conspiracy charges for harassing her daughter's rival with cruel messages via a fake MySpace profile.

A federal jury cleared Drew of the most serious charges but found her guilty of three misdemeanor counts. She faces up to a three years in prison and fines when she is sentenced on Thursday. The case made worldwide headlines and brought calls for social networking sites to crack down on such activities.

'The idea is, you hold the speaker responsible not the soapbox,' Jeschke said. 'If you want any kind of social interaction on the Internet this is very important.'

The opinion is Julie Doe II et al v. MySpace Inc, Case No. B205643, Second District Court of Appeals.