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Deleting Online Predators Act - R.I.P.

Posted by Zonk on from the myspace-just-a-little-bit-safer dept.

elearning 2.0 writes "It looks like the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) has died a slow death. DOPA was proposed during the height of last year's moral panic around the issue of child safety and sites like MySpace. The legislation would have banned the use of commercial social networking websites in US schools and libraries which receive federal IT funding — therefore undermining much of the pioneering work being done by educators in the e-learning 2.0 space."

10 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. It will be back by kaufmanmoore · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We will see it again just in time for the 2008 campaign cause theres nothing like flashing the mug shots of creepy old men across the tv with ominous music while stating that ur opponent supports child predators.

  2. huh? by User+956 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It looks like the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) has died a slow death. DOPA was proposed during the height of last year's moral panic around the issue of child safety

    What do you mean "last year's" panic about child safety? The whole "child safety" cliche is every politician's trump card. I don't think it went out of style when we began 2007.

    --
    The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
    1. Re:huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      No, but last year's panic was specifically about MySpace. These things are cyclical. Suicide, drugs, violence, sexual predators... Pretty much each year sees one of these become a "major" story that represents "an urgent new danger to children". In reality nothing changes, but society is always coming back to these. Somebody that has studied sociology probably knows more about this phenomenon. I'd be surprised if they didn't, because many people that work with children regularly, i.e. teachers, or kids that were reasonably mature and intelligent are well aware of this cyclical behavior.

  3. Oh well, back to the parents then... by pandrijeczko · · Score: 3, Insightful
    ...who are going to have to unvelcro themselves from their armchairs in front of their HDTVs and actually go and spend some time educating and spending time with their kids in order to show them how to behave responsibly - both online and offline.

    Parents need to start financing their own kids rather than expecting the rest of us to pay for them - via taxes for the salaries of politicians to make this unnecessary rubbish up.

    --
    Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
    1. Re:Oh well, back to the parents then... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      but there are bad elements out there that try and pry your darling away from your upbringing.

      Then teach your kdis to be responsible, society isn't supposed to sorround them in bubble wrap because you're too stupid to teach them to not meet up with random strangers. Also it takes one kid to find a work around for whatever filters the school uses then everyone will be abel to bypass it. The network staff will probably be too overworked with other things to fix the hole for a long time.

      Anyway, all things considered MySpace is probably rather tame compared to what other things kids can see on the internet much less what else they can run into in real life.

  4. Re:BS Meter Went Off by rubycodez · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I seriously doubt blocking myspace at libraries and schools will make any dent in the number of teens using it, and any rule about proxies is just a challenge

  5. How is myspace educational? by nganju · · Score: 3, Insightful


    Aside from the obvious problems with the sentence "pioneering work being done by educators in the e-learning 2.0 space", how does banning myspace et. al. prevent learning? Are teachers seriously encouraging kids to get on myspace during class time for educational purposes?

    I don't see anything wrong with banning social network sites inside school libraries. Wikipedia, Nasa, etc. are legitimate learning sites, I don't see how myspace compares to these.

    --
    There are 2 kinds of people in this world. Those that can keep their train of thought,
  6. Re:It just didn't work by Chris+Burke · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Just more data that shows that this and just about every similar measure whether in cyberspace or meatspace is ignoring the fundamental problem:

    Children are vastly more likely to be victimized by someone they know than by a random stranger online or otherwise. Your typical sexual predator does not search for victims online, they look for victims down the hall.

    All of this hand-wringing and legislating is just a way to avoid recoginizing this admittedly sad and disturbing fact.

    --

    The enemies of Democracy are
  7. e-learning 2.0 space by Acy+James+Stapp · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'd like to see you say that to my face, buddy. I'll pop you right in the jaw. We speak English in these parts.

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    -- Too lazy to get a lower UID.
  8. Re:Online predators by Grimbleton · · Score: 2, Insightful
    I think "nefarious" would have to be spelled out from the start. I just passed the "Legal Age" a few years back (I'm 20 now), and I still hang out with the 15-17 crowd from time to time, and let's face it, they're just as big a group of perverts as I and my social group were at their age.


    If I were magically imprisoned because someone decided that "hanging out at telling dirty jokes and throwing innuendo around" was nefarious, there would be a serious problem. And I see it as a potentiality.