House bans MySpace, other social networking sites from public libraries

[donsu]

http://michaelcastellon.blogspot.com/2006/07/house-bans-myspace-other-social.html

It's probably no surprise to many that I get a little nervous when elected officials write really broad and vague laws that restrict information:
"Social networking sites such as MySpace and chat rooms have allowed sexual predators to sneak into homes and solicit kids," said Rep. Ted Poe, a Texas Republican and co-founder of the Congressional Victim's Rights Caucus. "This bill requires schools and libraries to establish (important) protections."

Even though politicians apparently meant to restrict access to MySpace, the definition of off-limits Web sites is so broad the bill would probably sweep in thousands of commercial Web sites that allow people to post profiles, include personal information and allow "communication among users." Details will be left up to the Federal Communications Commission. I hesitated on using the word ban to describe this legislation, but that's apparently where all this is heading, especially with such broad and sweeping language. With such language, what is to prevent the measure from blocking all social networking sites like Amazon, Digg, etc?

Consider:

The role of computers in libraries is to provide general access to information, much as the same way books and magazine provide general access to information.
-snip-
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sigh

[AndyA]

1. Censorship is alive and well and growing in America!

After all, The Constitution is just a G*d-damned piece of paper to The Decider!

PLEASE VOTE THESE IDIOTS OUT OF OFFICE!

[nickinSTL]

2. speaking as someone who works in a public library...

how in #@!! are we supposed to enforce that?

Not to mention the obvious broader implications regarding what exactly will be covered by this...can people still post their info on Amazon? Or do we have to block that as well? :mad:

[bananas]

9. Sounds like it would include DU and any bbs or forum site. nt

[nickinSTL]

13. yeah, I had that thought, too...

just didn't say so, as I was afraid it might be a bit too... :tinfoilhat:

But, I should have known better.

[bklyncowgirl]

17. As a librarian I totally agree

It's bad enough having to police the porno peepers--no we have to try and keep people off of My Space?

We have a large Hispanic population who use chat rooms to keep in contact with their friends back home.

We got off the E-Rate gravy train last year because the amount of work required to apply and the requirement to filter the pc's and the fact that they've been known to reject libraries because they signed the damn form with a black pen instead of a blue pen or omitting a line in one of their long complex forms (no second chances here folks) thereby wreaking havoc with budget planning. We lost money on the deal but it was worth it. I'm just hoping that this does not apply to non e-rate libraries.

[lostnfound]

3. Total information awareness / Total control desired.

Such is the focus of this initiative much more than an attempt to protect children.

[spanone]

4. My comment: Fuck the House of Representatives. They represent few.

[citizen snips]

5. Thats bullshit

half the internet and even this website is banned at my school.

[Uncle Joe]

6. Our highways allow drunk drivers and speeders

to cause crashes killing innocent people, maybe we should shut the roads down.

[Norquist Nemesis]

7. Pffffffttt! Faux will be on this like white on rice.

Considering who owns MySpace, that is.

[Initech]

8. I'm reminded of a Bill Maher quote from last season:

"Parents are so concerned about protection that it's no wonder they even had sex in the first place!"

What fucking douchebags. So much for freedom of speech... :eyes:

[Posteritatis]

10. This is more or less like

shutting the Canadian and Mexican borders to all minors because two or three tourists got raped in Tijuana or Vancouver over the last year. For Christ's sake, this "everyone online is a pedophile!" bullshit is ridiculous.

[w4rma]

11. Banning all messageboards? The hell with that. (nt)

[mnhtnbb]

12. Little steps in shutting down the internet

The powers that be know this is the big threat to their existence and they want to gain CONTROL.

How will people ever figure out what's really happening without blogs, chat rooms, etc?

[Stinky The Clown]

14. Welcome to ReligiouslyInsaneville

These moral thumb thumpers need to prevented from breeding.

[fordnut]

20. How do they reproduce

The neocons are so against sex I wonder where do they keep comming from?

[DarkTirade]

15. ... despite the fact that ALL minors' myspace profiles are private

unless you are already on their friends list. (only reason I know this is because my little sister is on my friends list, and before she added me, I couldn't message her or comment on her page or anything. :) )

[ContraBass Black]

16. That sounds like the time Greece tried to ban online gambling

And banned video games.

[BR_Parkway]

18. So the Rapture Ready board and all those Christian websites would

be blocked? You post personal information there, we must protect the children.

Will these idiots ever wake up and see that the harm they do to the ones they hate also harms each and everyone else?

[EvolveOrConvolve]

19. The real problem is that sexual predators are already in the home

A sexually molested child is almost invariably molested by someone they know, and that isn't some freak they met on MySpace or DU, or even FreakRepublic (although the ChoMo to Kid ratio is probably pretty high over there).

We (the American Govt) does very little to combat the threat from within...