House Passes Ban on Social Site Access

Krishna Dagli writes to mention a C|Net story covering a House of Representatives vote on restricting access to social sites on public terminals. The bill, which passed the House in a 410-15 vote, would bar users from accessing sites like Amazon, MySpace, or Slashdot from terminals in libraries and schools. Adults would be able to 'ask permission' to access such sites. From the article: "'Social networking sites, best known by the popular examples of MySpace, Friendster and Facebook, have literally exploded in popularity in just a few short years,' said Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican and one of DOPA's original sponsors. Now, he added, those Web sites 'have become a haven for online sexual predators who have made these corners of the Web their own virtual hunting ground.'"

Comments

Re:They just don't get it.

[Billosaur]

If politics mattered so much to you, you'd take the time to vote, rather than bitch about inaccessibility for "informed people who have shit to do." Evidently, since you have shit to do *other* than politics, you are content to delegate to those people who will gladly worry about politics for you.

Perhaps it is because it's Friday, but I don't remember the parent mentioning their voting/not voting. One would like to believe that anyone that passionate about the subject does in fact vote. I know I do, but the parent has a point: a lot of people vote who a) follow strictly party lines no matter what, b) vote for "the nice people who left that flyer at my house," or c) don't have a clue what or who is on the ballot but are going to vote anyway.

The people who don't vote are the people you have to convince when it comes to issues. Groups that vote tend to be polarized, and you can pretty much tell which way they will lean in an election. It's the non-voter that holds the real power, if you can find an issue which fires them up enough to get them to the polls. The problem is, you just never know what that issue is.

Re:They just don't get it.

[voice_of_all_reason]

I'm a big fan of making laws that get overtuned for being unconstitutional a criminal offense. After all, they tried to punish people for something that wasn't illegal in the first place. Therefore, they did something illegal.

Re:Yet another way the poor kids get left out

[BalanceOfJudgement]

Oh I dunno..

The wholly human act of 'socializing', maybe?

Hell, when my sister was homeless a few years ago, the only way she was ever able to talk with my mom and me was through IM, sitting at a desk at the back of the library.

Re:Yet another way the poor kids get left out

[Chris Burke]

They have no statistics on how many pedophiles find their next victim on myspace.

No, they don't. However they certainly do have statistics that show that the majority of pedophiles find their next victim by walking down the hallway to the victim's room.

Of course the idea that some kid may be going to the library to use myspace.com so they can talk to someone about what's going on at home, and now that will be cut off, doesn't occur to them. Think of the Children! But don't actually think...