By nature, humans are not happy unless they are faced with some challenge, real or perceived. For most, it is enough merely to know that it is there so that you have something to blame all of your problems on. For the rest though, those of us that have the brains to back up the bitch, we solve problems.
'Course, there will always be a few imbeciles who were promoted higher than they needed that take matters into their own hands to look important. Often, this involves creating policies that turn out to be illegal or more scare-tactic than actual force. Take this school district for example.
"High school students are going to be held accountable for what they post on blogs and on social-networking Web sites"
US v. Baker- E-mail messages were ruled as not "constitut[ing] a credible threat," i.e. because they cannot rule for intent, or even for actual ownership of said messages, the internet provides insufficient evidence. Although a website might save an IP address, or a Myspace account might say it is written by Jimmy, it cannot actually be proven who did or said what on the internet.
"evidence of "illegal or inappropriate" behavior posted on the Internet could be grounds for disciplinary action"
The Federal government will not back them up on that claim. Firstly, "illegal or inappropriate" is too vague to be supported in a legal suit. Secondly, inappropriate is subjective, and illegal can apply to the messages or the content, and as the messages are not created in an illegal manner (the internet is not illegal, for now:D) then they are technically not illegal.
"District officials won't regularly search students' sites, but will monitor them if they get a worrisome tip from another student, a parent or a community member."
And if this is in fact the case, then they can say goodbye to federal and state funding. No self-respecting teacher is going to have the task of "read students blogs" added to their duties, and no miserly government organization is going to give money to a school in order to employ someone to monitor everything a student says.
Freedom of speech, although rendered subject to a few conditions by Congress, does in fact mean that you can tell your friends that your teacher is a moron and that you wish you could set his house on fire.
You just can't actually set it on fire.
Other than that, Let Freedom Ring, ladies and gents.
We've blamed the government.
We've blamed the parents.
We've blamed Myspace.
All of those may have contributed to the problem, but honestly, none of them has control. That responsibility, that privilege even, is completely in the hands of the children. Ultimately, they make the decision to arrange a visit with an online friend, or to lie about their age in order to join in the latest trend. Mostly, it starts innocently. I doubt that you can name anyone who would willingly be solicited by someone nearly three times their age.
Some of you may be right now thinking, "If their parents had just paid more attention to them, they wouldn't have gotten into this trouble," and I'm sure that some of you believe that. But you may want to think back to your teenage years. Your mother said you could not go see that movie, so you snuck out and did it without telling her. Your father forbid you to go out with that boy or girl because they were too wild, so you pretended to go to a friend's house and did it anyway. Children hate being told what to do, and as soon as the words "you can't," "do not," or "I forbid you" reach their ears, they immediately want to do that thing even more.
"Why can't the government put better controls on the internet?" Why can't the government have a CIA member posted on every corner and a camera in every street light? Frankly, the government is spread far too thin to uphold every law all of the time. By being a citizen in this country, you agree to an unwritten contract that you will follow the laws the government lays down. Most of the time, the government only has to enforce the big laws, like murder and treason, in order to keep people from breaking the little laws, like speed limits. You have to realize though, the government does not have the manpower to enforce all of its laws, and so relies on scare tactics.
"Myspace should change in order to protect everyone!" Tom and the rest of the team members who do not get as much recognition (and a big thanks to them, by the way), all deserve a big round of applause for the work they already do. They patrol the profiles of 60 million members as often as they can trying to track down signs of innapropriate content. Can you boast looking through sixty million profiles today? Let alone the twelve pictures per profile, the one to three new blogs a day per each, and hundreds of bulletins every day? Let's not lay any more on there doorstep. You might think about being helpful instead of just complaining that they aren't good enough.
So instead of laying blame, would you mind thinking of a good solution? Perhaps we should leave well enough alone for a while.
The Abadon
Slashdot Mirror
By nature, humans are not happy unless they are faced with some challenge, real or perceived. For most, it is enough merely to know that it is there so that you have something to blame all of your problems on. For the rest though, those of us that have the brains to back up the bitch, we solve problems.
'Course, there will always be a few imbeciles who were promoted higher than they needed that take matters into their own hands to look important. Often, this involves creating policies that turn out to be illegal or more scare-tactic than actual force. Take this school district for example.
"High school students are going to be held accountable for what they post on blogs and on social-networking Web sites"
US v. Baker- E-mail messages were ruled as not "constitut[ing] a credible threat," i.e. because they cannot rule for intent, or even for actual ownership of said messages, the internet provides insufficient evidence. Although a website might save an IP address, or a Myspace account might say it is written by Jimmy, it cannot actually be proven who did or said what on the internet.
"evidence of "illegal or inappropriate" behavior posted on the Internet could be grounds for disciplinary action"
The Federal government will not back them up on that claim. Firstly, "illegal or inappropriate" is too vague to be supported in a legal suit. Secondly, inappropriate is subjective, and illegal can apply to the messages or the content, and as the messages are not created in an illegal manner (the internet is not illegal, for now:D) then they are technically not illegal.
"District officials won't regularly search students' sites, but will monitor them if they get a worrisome tip from another student, a parent or a community member."
And if this is in fact the case, then they can say goodbye to federal and state funding. No self-respecting teacher is going to have the task of "read students blogs" added to their duties, and no miserly government organization is going to give money to a school in order to employ someone to monitor everything a student says.
Freedom of speech, although rendered subject to a few conditions by Congress, does in fact mean that you can tell your friends that your teacher is a moron and that you wish you could set his house on fire.
You just can't actually set it on fire.
Other than that, Let Freedom Ring, ladies and gents.
The Abadon
We've blamed the government. We've blamed the parents. We've blamed Myspace. All of those may have contributed to the problem, but honestly, none of them has control. That responsibility, that privilege even, is completely in the hands of the children. Ultimately, they make the decision to arrange a visit with an online friend, or to lie about their age in order to join in the latest trend. Mostly, it starts innocently. I doubt that you can name anyone who would willingly be solicited by someone nearly three times their age. Some of you may be right now thinking, "If their parents had just paid more attention to them, they wouldn't have gotten into this trouble," and I'm sure that some of you believe that. But you may want to think back to your teenage years. Your mother said you could not go see that movie, so you snuck out and did it without telling her. Your father forbid you to go out with that boy or girl because they were too wild, so you pretended to go to a friend's house and did it anyway. Children hate being told what to do, and as soon as the words "you can't," "do not," or "I forbid you" reach their ears, they immediately want to do that thing even more. "Why can't the government put better controls on the internet?" Why can't the government have a CIA member posted on every corner and a camera in every street light? Frankly, the government is spread far too thin to uphold every law all of the time. By being a citizen in this country, you agree to an unwritten contract that you will follow the laws the government lays down. Most of the time, the government only has to enforce the big laws, like murder and treason, in order to keep people from breaking the little laws, like speed limits. You have to realize though, the government does not have the manpower to enforce all of its laws, and so relies on scare tactics. "Myspace should change in order to protect everyone!" Tom and the rest of the team members who do not get as much recognition (and a big thanks to them, by the way), all deserve a big round of applause for the work they already do. They patrol the profiles of 60 million members as often as they can trying to track down signs of innapropriate content. Can you boast looking through sixty million profiles today? Let alone the twelve pictures per profile, the one to three new blogs a day per each, and hundreds of bulletins every day? Let's not lay any more on there doorstep. You might think about being helpful instead of just complaining that they aren't good enough. So instead of laying blame, would you mind thinking of a good solution? Perhaps we should leave well enough alone for a while. The Abadon