House OKs Wiretapping and New .kids.us domain

proj_2501 writes: "Yahoo! has a story about how the US House of Representatives has overwhelmingly approved two new bills: one for the creation of a federally overseen TLD called .kids.us (participation is voluntary), and the other for more ease of wiretapping to supposedly prevent dangerous meetings between kids and 'child predators'." Remember, an equivalent bill has not yet been introduced in the Senate.

Comments

Re:Why should the government raise your children?

[happyclam]

It's time to stop sugar-coating reality for the kiddies. Tell 'em about real life early on, and they'll be more wary. They'll also be able to deal with all the information available on the web in the appropriate manner. Kids aren't as stupid as people like to think.

You're not a parent, are you?

The reason children in the US are not legally allowed to vote, drink, buy cigarettes, have sex, own a gun, drive a car, etc. is that they are too inexperienced to know the right path through any complex decision.

It's not because of "sugar-coating reality" that 12-year-old girls are lured, raped, and killed. And it's not because of bad parenting. In a few cases it may be because the parents themselves don't know how to monitor or discuss Internet technologies and how bad people can exploit them. In many cases it may be because the children, although having been told not to give out personal information, do so anyway because (a) they forget, (b) they think they really aren't vulnerable (it won't happen to THEM), (c) they don't realize the information makes them vulnerable, (d) they have come to trust the other party because they can't distinguish between lies and truth through chat rooms, or (e) all of the above.

That's not bad parenting. That's the reality of the vulnerability and gullibility of children.