It's beginning to smell like an election year. CNET's Declan McCullugh reported last evening on a freshly introduced piece of legislation that would effectively ban access to MySpace, Facebook and their ilk in public schools and libraries (or, more specifically, those who receive universal service funds.)
The bill is called the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) and is co-sponsored by Rep. Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican, and Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, a Republican from Pennsylvania. It's effectively an add-on to the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) signed by President Clinton in 2000 and later approved of by the Supreme Court that requires universal service funded schools and librarys to "block or filter Internet access to pictures that: (a) are obscene, (b) are child pornography, or (c) are harmful to minors, for computers that are accessed by minors."
(BTW, it would be educational to get a real sense of the impact of CIPA three years after it went into effect).
CNET says about DOPA:
"(Republicans) endorsed new legislation 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."
It's debatable how far a ban would go. We've pasted much of language of the bill after the jump and you can Download it here. If the bill ever does gets passed, one would presume that it would go through re-writes to create more specific definitions. That said, you never know what will get fastracked in an election year.
Still, make no mistake, MySpace and Facebook were the genesis of this bill. Take it from Congressman Fitzpatrick's press release on the legislation:
“Sites like Myspace and Facebook have opened the door to a new online community of social networks between friends, students and colleagues. However, this new technology has become a feeding ground for child predators that use these sites as just another way to do our children harm.”
McCullough notes in an email to readers of his Politech list that since it is backed by House Speaker Hastert, "it probably stands a good chance of being enacted."
Again, click below for the wording of much of the bill (which is pretty minimal)...
(This bill will) amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require recipients of universal service support for schools and libraries to protect minors from commercial social networking websites and chat rooms...
...(the legislation) prohibits access to a commercial social networking website or chat room through which minors may easily access or be presented with obscene or indecent material; may easily be subject to unlawful sexual advances, unlawful requests for sexual favors, or repeated offensive comments of a sexual nature from adults; or may easily access other material that is harmful to minors...
Definitions:
COMMERCIAL SOCIAL NETWORKING WEBSITES.—The term ‘commercial social networking website’ means a commercially operated Internet website that (i) allows users to create web pages or profiles that provide information about themselves and are available to other users; and (ii) offers a mechanism for communication with other users, such as a forum, chat room, email, or instant messenger.
CHAT ROOMS.—The term ‘chat rooms’ means Internet websites through which a number of users can communicate in real time via text and that allow messages to be almost immediately visible to all other users or to a designated segment of all other users.
Moreover:
...the Federal Communications Commission shall annually publish a list of commercial social networking websites and chat rooms that have been shown to allow sexual predators easy access to personal information of, and contact with, children....
...Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Federal Trade Commission shall issue a consumer alert regarding the potential dangers to children of Internet child predators, including the potential danger of commercial social networking websites and chat rooms through which personal information about child users of such websites may be accessed by child predators; and establish a website with a distinctive Uniform Resource Locator to serve as a resource for information for parents, teachers and school administrators, and others regarding the potential dangers posed by the use of the Internet by children, including information about commercial social networking
websites and chat rooms through which personal information about child users of such websites may be accessed by child predators.
Banning access to MySpace and Facebook in schools and libraries is positive for children (I have no doubt). Too much internet interactivity is harmful for the process of studing, cause it takes a lot of time and hinders to concentrate on the subject. Anyway, school and library exist for other purposes.
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