Rep. Michael G. Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) introduced a bill in Congress this week that would ban anyone under 18 from logging on to MySpace or other social networking services from school or library computers. Snip from LA Times article:
"The social networking sites have become, in a sense, a happy hunting ground for child predators," said Fitzpatrick, a father of six children, including three teen girls. His legislation, called the Deleting Online Predators Act, "is essentially a bill to protect children from the Internet."
It also would ban access to chat rooms and could block a variety of online forums. In addition, the bill would require the Federal Trade Commission to create a special website for parents and teachers warning of the potential dangers of social networking sites.
Hey, where's the bill to protect children from the follies of pandering congressmen? Link.
danah boyd adds,
The important thing is that it's not just social networking sites and MySpace. It would eliminate Neopets, Flickr, AIM, YouTube, Yahoo! Groups, Blogger, Odeo, Slashdot — and a whole lot more. It would kill Wikipedia except that it's commercial only.
Here's more on danah's blog.
(Thanks, Kathryn!)
