Legislation Seeks to Ban Social Network Sites in Schools & Libraries
The Federal Government is seeking to require schools and libraries to block social networking sites, in a an effort to stop online predators. The act is called the Deleting Online Predators Act ([pdf](http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politechbot.com%2Fdocs%2Ffitzpatrick.social.networking.051006.pdf&siteId=3&oId=2100-1028-6071040&ontId=1023&lop=nl.ex)) and as reported here, the kicker is the broad language used:
> If you’re wondering what would qualify as an “online social network,” the bill defines it as “a commercially operated Internet website that allows users to create web pages or profiles that provide information about themselves and are available to other users and offers a mechanism for communication with other users, such as a forum, chat room, email, or instant messenger.”
To summarize: The opinion of those putting forth this act is that minors essentially shouldn’t be allowed to communicate online using equipment at libraries & schools.
This is a bad sign, for a few reasons.
First, we should be encouraging young people to go online often and to take advantage of the capabilities technology affords us, not restrict their access. Sure, there’s some bad neighborhoods online, but that’s no different from real life. Teach kids to know the difference between good and bad, and they’ll be fine. But, take away their ability to learn valuable computer skills and they’ll fall behind.
Secondly, we all want to see sexual predator scum elimated off the face of the earth, but at what cost? Surely the risk associated with online social networking by minors is outweighed by the benefits.
I find this approach to solving problem rather unsophisticated and somewhat embarrassing as an American. The technology isn’t at fault here, it’s the villians who are up to no good. But instead of going after the criminals or setting up methods to protect children, our government’s response is to go after the technology as a whole.
This is the equivalent of making the use of telephones illegal because some people are using telephones to facilitate drug dealing. It’s absurd, and will be an unsuccessful approach to solving the problem. In other words, if MySpace were to go away, it wouldn’t make pedophilia go away.
0 Comments
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post.