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Restrictions On Social Sites Proposed In Georgia
A state senator in Georgia, Cecil Staton, has introduced a bill that would require parents' permission before kids could sign up at a social networking site such as MySpace and Facebook, and mandate that the sites let parents see all material their kids generate there. Quoting: "[Senate Bill 59] would make it illegal for the owner or operator of a social networking Web site to allow minors to create or maintain a Web page without parental permission [and require] parents or guardians to have access to their children's Web pages at all times. If owners or operators of a company failed to comply with the proposed law, they would be guilty of a misdemeanor on the first offense. A second offense would be a felony and could lead to imprisonment for between one and five years and a fine up to $50,000 or both." The recently offered MySpace parental tools fall short of the bill's requirements. This coverage from the Athens Banner-Herald quotes Facebook's CPO saying that federal law forbids the company to allow anyone but the account creator to access it..
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Funny this from GA. Southern states have a rep for "close" familial relations. I doubt that most child-sex-crimes are perpetrated by outsiders anyway no matter what state we're talking about. Sure, the "be afraid of the internet" cases are the ones that get the headlines, but for the most part, it's mom or dad who are directly at fault. So why not just ban parenthood? Parenthood seems much more risky to children than the net.
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
I was about to respond with the typical "parents' responsibility" blather, but then I thought about it some more and realized it's more insidious than that.
It really is about parental control, and parents should be up in arms about this. As it stands (in America, at least), once your kids are waiting on the corner for the public school bus in the morning, your kids belong to the State. A child student has to have parent's permission for an asprin, but not for an abortion.
Parental rights are increasingly in jeopardy in America.
This is one step down a slippery slope, and a good time to make a stand. The bottom line is that your kids are yours to raise -- no matter how much some may disagree with your parenting tactics -- and we are standing to lose that right. This is only the first step.
Sony ha
... requiring parents permission anytime kid wants to get on the bus? How about letting kids in the mall only with written permission?
you know, shit can happen on the bus....
in fact, shit can happen anywhere.
How about a site hosted in Romania or Israel?
State laws can not and will not replace neglecting parents.
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SVM, ERGO MONSTRO.
Such is the life of a slashdotting parent. When a predator victimizes a child, the parents get blamed for not better protecting their children. When a parent uses parental controls (because we cannot monitor our kids 24 hours a day) we get blamed for taking away their "rights."
Well, as a parent I'm legally responsible for my kids, so NO, they DON'T have the same rights as adults. Sorry to burst your bubble.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
Well you may not be able to monitor them all the time, but they have brains of their own so you can hopefully teach them so that you don't need to. I'm young enough to have been a minor on "the internets" and as long as you aren't ultimately meeting someone in person, its about as safe as you can get. I mean you're in your damn house for chrissake. All of that internet related paranoia comes from watching to much scaremongering news. Teach your kids not to meet strangers out doors (the don't get into any vans for candy lesson), and it'll be fine. If your real fear is that they might lose some of their innocense become you can't control what they see, then that's a different issue entirely. But there are hardly any real safety issues.
And careful what rights you take away. Few would argue with limiting access to (say) firearms or tobacco, but sheltering your kids so they don't grow up faster than you want them to can be unhealthy. Unless they're really too stupid to make the right decision even after you explain it to them, don't just invoke authority and tell them too damn bad on what they want to do or see. Makes them bad citizens when they grow up and the govment does the same thing.
Relax I just want some peanuts.
None. If you'd bother reading the AC I was responding too, it had nothing to do with this actual proposal. He was asking if we treat the kids like "citizens" with all the freedoms of everyone else, or like property. While I'm legally responsible, they DO NOT have the same rights as adults.
I agree with him on the level that they should be doing more to catch the predators and less to incovenience the victims, but sometimes that's just not practical.
You'd get on my case if I complained someone stole my cell phone out of my car when I didn't lock it. You'd get on my case if someone stole my TV when I didn't bother closing the doors on my house. You'd get on my case if someone stole my bike when I didn't bother chaining it.
Why are you going to get on my case when I use some parental controls to attempt to help keep my kids safe?
So no, I don't necessarily agree with this law, but I also don't agree with the attitude that kids should have all the rights that adults have, including viewing all the content they want on the internet without restriction, when the parents are responsible, and the attitude that parents are some kind of Nazis when they restrict what their kids can do.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
It's not only a stupid idea, it's an unworkable stupid idea that's going nowhere. Yeah, it's been "proposed in Georgia", but it might as well have been proposed on the moon. It has no support in Georgia and shouldn't reflect on Georgia.
Speaking as a parent who has raised children, I don't think watching your kids means being invasive in every aspect of their lives. It doesn't mean pre-emptively reading their diaries. It doesn't mean saying that they can't have private phone conversations. And to me, that's what saying you have to have access to their myspace account amounts to. Watching your children means spending a substantial amount of time with them. Going to all of their school functions. Volunteering to be their coach. Talking to their friend's parents. Setting curfews and sticking to them. It isn't so much watching as participating.