It's official: House declares war on social networking

Our nannies in the House of Representatives officially declared war on social networking yesterday, overwhelmingly passing a law that would prohibit public schools and libraries from allowing anyone not an adult to use "chat rooms" and "social networking" sites. The definition is so broad that most of the Internet could be blocked.

The law, titled "Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006," could block not only MySpace, but also Amazon.com, most major newspaper sites, Wikipedia, personal weblogs published on sites like Blogger.com.

The standards, according to cnet:

(i) is offered by a commercial entity;

(ii) permits registered users to create an online profile that includes detailed personal information;

(iii) permits registered users to create an online journal and share such a journal with other users;

(iv) elicits highly personalized information from users; and

(v) enables communication among users.

The bill now advances to the Senate, where it can be voted on by boobs who think the Internet is made out of tubes.

Comments

Amen, Steve. I'm a conservative who believes the federal government has the responsiblity to keep us safe from domestic and foreign aggression and parents have the responsiblity to keep an eye on their kids. The last thing we need is more government interference.

Am I the only one that thinks the government is trying to make it appear that a certain stigma applies to those that oppose these sorts of laws?

IE: Since you oppose these laws, you must, of course, be a online predator?

There should be no need for this law
Parents should monitor all online content of their children(but they are generaly too lazy,its the old sit them in front of the tv with a new twist)
Computers in schools should be for education not personal use
Librarys are a bit more difficult(ahh just close them cos nobody reads books anymore their all too busy using chat rooms)

As a librarian, I think that this is the most assinine thing I've seen yet! Not only that it's impossible to enforce. Why don't they get the pedophiles out of libraries as well as away from schools and parks instead.

It just pisses me right off that they allow sex offenders and predators to use a library, which exposes them to children, and makes me 'babysitter' to them as well as any children that come in.

Our government has their priorities totally messed up.

It's mostly fodder for reelection, but it also accomplishes this scenario: a library denies all access to these websites, rather than check age. So then those that would use the internet free of charge are forced to pay companies for internet access.

I am sick of these bills that are name-only. You can get away with anything, so long as it has a good name. No worries though. I predict a change within my lifetime. Either a revolution or an apocalypse. Cheers.

I think that they're just freaked out that we citizens have developed a way to communicate our ideas independent of the mass medias web of influence, and they're afraid that Americans will actually get each other smart again and start voting and stuff...

Most of the kids I've talked to about this are a zillion times more internet savvy than some old koots sittin' up on some hill somewhere selling themselves to the highest bidder. I think the vast majority of kids are way bored with obscene online content anyway.

I propose that we place web cams in the limos, domiciles, and workplaces of all publicly elected officials for the purposes of accountability.

They are not protecting kids. They are trying to control our dialogue...