May 10, 2006 5:30 PM PDT
Lawmakers take aim at social-networking sites
Last modified: May 11, 2006 9:46 AM PDT
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MySpace and other social-networking sites like LiveJournal.com and Facebook are the potential targets for a proposed federal law that would effectively require most schools and libraries to render those Web sites inaccessible to minors, an age group that includes some of the category's most ardent users.
"When children leave the home and go to school or the public library and have access to social-networking sites, we have reason to be concerned," Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican, told CNET News.com in an interview.
Fitzpatrick and fellow Republicans, including House Speaker Dennis Hastert, on Wednesday endorsed new legislation (click here for PDF) that would cordon off access to commercial Web sites that let users create public "Web pages or profiles" and also offer a discussion board, chat room, or e-mail service.
That's a broad category that covers far more than social-networking sites such as Friendster and Google's Orkut.com. It would also sweep in a wide range of interactive Web sites and services, including Blogger.com, AOL and Yahoo's instant-messaging features, and Microsoft's Xbox 360, which permits in-game chat.
Fitzpatrick's bill, called the Deleting Online Predators Act, or DOPA, is part of a new, poll-driven effort by Republicans to address topics that they view as important to suburban voters. Republican pollster John McLaughlin polled 22 suburban districts and presented his research at a retreat earlier this year. Rep. Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican, is co-sponsoring the measure.
The group, which is calling itself the "Suburban Caucus," convened a press conference on Wednesday to announce new legislation it hopes will rally conservative supporters--and prevent the Democrats from retaking the House of Representatives during the November mid-term election.
Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick
For its part, MySpace has taken steps in recent weeks to assuage concerns among parents and politicians (Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly also took aim at MySpace this week). It has assigned about 100 employees, about one-third of its workforce, to deal with security and customer care, and hired Hemanshu (Hemu) Nigam, a former Justice Department prosecutor as chief security officer last month.
"We have been working collaboratively on security and safety issues with an array of government agencies, law enforcement and educational groups, nonprofits and leading child safety organizations," said Rick Lane, vice president for government affairs at MySpace owner News Corp. "We've also met with several state and federal legislators and are working with them to address their concerns. We hope this healthy dialogue will continue."
Fitzpatrick, who represents a suburban district outside Philadelphia, acknowledged that MySpace "is working" on this. Still, he said, children are "unattended on the Internet through the course of the day" when they're at libraries and schools.
"My bill is both timely and needed and will be very well-accepted, certainly by the constituents I represent," Fitzpatrick said.
Backers of the proposal argue that it's necessary to protect children. Hastert said on Wednesday that it "would put filters in schools and libraries so that kids can be protected... We've all heard stories of children on some of these social Web sites meeting up with dangerous predators. This legislation adds another layer of protection."
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so freaking sick of legislation that aims to "protect the children"
yet totally trashes the rights and privileges of adults. this is not
something that needs to be dealt with on a congressional level.
and besides, kids will be kids.. THEY WILL FIND A WAY TO GET
TO THESE SITES. all this law will end up doing is allow congress
to chip away another piece of our rights so the next time they
want to limit our freedoms, this can be cited as a precedent.
there are much larger problems in this country... this crap is just
a diversion from the bigger issues.
This should be a "no-brainer" for our "edge-u-kayshun" president and the likes of him. Instead of *restricting* our children's use of MySpace.com et al, why don't we *educate* them about the "risks and perils" of the internet and all the "boogiemen" waiting out there? Most of the teenagers I talk to about it in our community are totally aware of why you don't give out personal info on a webpage. How insulting to their intelligence is this!? Let's give them a little more credit, please.
Besides, if kids don't use MySpace, where will the pervs go then to look for "fresh meat"? As it is now, finding and arresting them is like "shooting fish in a barrel". By having sites like MySpace, we're making law enforcement's job just that much easier.
Fear-mongering Repukelicans will do anything to get a vote! This story reminds me of when I was little and mommy told me, "Never get in a car with a stranger." Did they take all the cars off the road? "I don't think so, Scooter!"
Get off the computer Congressman, and get a life!
DOPA, is part of a new, poll-driven effort by Republicans to
address topics that they view as important to suburban voters.
Republican pollster John McLaughlin polled 22 suburban
districts and presented his research at a retreat earlier this year.
Rep. Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican, is co-sponsoring the
measure"
More like part of there "lets focus everyone's attention away
from our total lack of ability to govern" strategy...
And more importantly, this vaguely worded sorry excuse for
legislation is not gonna do anything to protect children from
cyberstalkers...
And did I mention it was vague and poorly worded...
"cordon off access to commercial Web sites that let users create
public "Web pages or profiles" and also offer a discussion board,
chat room, or e-mail service"
that could be construed to mean any site where you have a
profile and a discussion board...
that includes cnet...
and then where would i go to watch flame wars?
The Act broadens the definition of "social networking websites and chat rooms" so as to include any online activity or medium. The Act's description of "Internet safety for minors" includes sites through which the minor "may easily access other material that is harmful to minors." "Harmful to minors"? Such language is highly subjective at best and watered down at worse.
However, the real bottom line is that discussing the language of the Act is irrelevant. The Act applies only to computers in libraries and in schools. The majority of U.S. households have at least one computer -- which is in the minor's bedroom.
Maurene Caplan Grey
Grey Consulting
www.grey-consulting.com
Hey...
Maybe we got something here...
"is part of a new, poll-driven effort by Republicans to address topics that they view as important to suburban voters."
Thats a VERY loaded line. This should never have gotten past the editor. CNETs 'journalistic' quality has always been scraping the bottom, but this is worse than usual.
What happens when someone tells YOU...that you cannot have something?
I have faith in parents' ablilities to raise their children, in their own families' values.
Pat
EBay had the same problem when it first started and was perceived to be overrun by rip off artists.
It instituted identity verification processes like phoneconfirm.com and the overreaction was "Big Brother is here!" But, they were wrong. All it did was help limit the use of the system to rip people off. Similarly, Myspace could be using any number of innocuous identity confirmation systems and processes to make their system have fewer underage users and put the fear of castration into the hearts of perverts.
You note, 97 percent of sex offenders have phone numbers ... so perhaps use a phone confirm system when someone signs up for myspace and put sex offender phone numbers on the black list? Gosh what an idea. But we can't do that ? that's like Big Brother. No it's not, it's common damn sense. We do it every day down at the local gas station with people who posted bad checks. We put the faces of bad people up in the post office. We exclude people who don't wear ties from fancy restaurants. We ask questions of strangers who wander into the cubicle farm unannounced: "Say can I help you? Are you looking for someone?"
And, hey, while you're at it, should we blacklist phone numbers from households that have underage users who repeatedly get deleted and then create new myspace profiles? Or put a limit to the number of sites associated from a specific phone number?
Both myspace management and the reporters covering myspace are focusing on the throbbing pants of teenagers and perverts (and the First Amendment rights of pre-teens, by god!) rather than the simple, but relatively boring, technical fixes and processes that will make the Great Myspace Freakout of 2006 look about as stupid as the Y2K hysteria.
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And I really don't see libraries trying whitelists any time soon.
- Because we obviously can't handle ourselves
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by PSKSUNDANCE
May 11, 2006 8:59 PM PDT
- Once again, it is obvious that Congress has been pushed around by lobbyist that have figured out that parents don't know how to monitor their kids. Then again, they do have a responsibility at the library. I don't know why libraries are not all interconnected with an IT department to manage that kind of stuff. I believe that library computers should be set up like company computers. Libraries are there for the purpose of doing research. Although I know that not all people don't have access to the internet, I don't think that library computer is the right place for personnel web site creation and chat unless it is work, or school related. In this age of cheap access and even cheaper, over a time period, computers, I really don't understand why so many people flock to libraries to use a computer, anyways.
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See all 64 Comments >>At any rate, social network sites have no real place in the libraries. You have to know that the real reason this is even news is because pedefiles have been using those sites to attract targets. For that reason, I have no problem with Congress going after the this issue. It is only sad that they do have to take the issue up themselves.
Another reason this is a problem is because of privacy issues. Nobody monitors what is going on with the computers. I know the few times I used one at the library it was to pay bills and granted, I would not want somebody looking over my shoulder while I was typing in my credit card number, however it is a public place and I should not expect to be able to do that without somebody taking notice. What I would really expect is for someone to come up and warn me that anybody could be looking over my shoulder so I should use my credit card, in such a public place, with care. I would think that people would do the same thing with something as intimate as talking to "friends or dating."