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Restrictions On Social Sites Proposed In Georgia

Posted by kdawson on from the shoulder-surfing dept.

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..

3 of 349 comments (clear)

  1. people or property by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This demonstrates the battle between two competing and mutually exclusive legal approaches to minors: 1) as citizens with the same rights as any other, and 2) as the property of their parents.

  2. As usual...idiots by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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 how, precisely, do you intend to enforce that? One of the reasons the CDA, in 1996 and 1997, and the COPA in 1998 and 1999, were shot down was because this concept is unworkable. Then and now. You simply cannot verify who is sitting at the keyboard.

    And then of course we get into the weird definitions. What is a 'social networking site'? Just Facebook and MySpace? Or /., Digg, and Fark as well? And of course, this does nothing for a site based offshore somewhere.

    1. Re:As usual...idiots by mongoose(!no) · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The definition problem could be very problematic.

      If they say any sites with interactive, user created content, that leads to a lot of problems.

      If they're very specific. Sites might find ways around it.

      In the first case, what happens to all the small sites like PhpBB forums and the like when they have to deal with implementing this?