DOPAcabana
Great news! Our well-paid politicians in Washington have introduced a bill into Congress, with the oh-so-appropriate acronym of DOPA (Deleting Online Predators Act). The law would require any schools and libraries that receive federal E-Rate money to block any social networking sites from their computers.
Now, you may be saying to yourself, “Wait a goshdarn minute! This sounds somewhat brainless and misdirected!” And you’d be wrong. It’s a whole lot of brainless and misdirected. Here are just a few reasons why:
1) The text of the bill defines “social network site” so broadly, it would include not just MySpace, Friendster and FaceBook but forums for cancer information, mental health, and the discussion of tabletop role-playing games.
2) The bill won’t actually delete online predators, or any other kind of predators. It will only keep people of all ages from accessing social internet sites at schools and libraries. At internet caf?s? Nothing. At home? Nada.
3) Is there any easy way to set filters to block any and all social network sites? I don’t know of any. Would schools and libraries really have to enter the addresses for each and every site prohibited by the law in order to comply?
4) Does anyone really believe that this law would keep kids or predators from being on the same social network sites?
If anyone needs me, I’ll be in the back, hammering nails into my nose.
Meanwhile, on the internet social networking front, Meredith Farkas has written the most thorough look at libraries and social network sites I’ve seen in one blog post, and it should be required reading for any and all librarians who have anything to do with the internet and/or anyone under the age of 30.
See, here’s the thing: sites like MySpace or FaceBook may be fads (or they may not be), but the internet is inherently social, and it’s not going away anytime soon. It’s not like TV, it’s not like radio, it’s not like telephones. Librarians and teachers and politicians and parents have to stop treating it like it’s any of those. This isn’t about being cool or hip or intoxicated on technology, this is about understanding how human beings interact with each other. Legislation like DOPA just shows how utterly clueless people can be about both technology and human interaction.
May 12th, 2006 at 5:13 pm
Why don’t we just censor all the Internet in libraries that receive E-Rate money, after all, isn’t it all one big social network? Oh, I forgot, Congress has already done that. I may have to join you in the back. I hope you have enough nails to go around.
May 13th, 2006 at 9:42 am
I think that while they’re at it, they should make sure that students going to E-Rate funded schools are not allowed within, say, 500 feet of an adult or any kid more than a year older than they are, or (for that matter) any other kids while their at school. E-mail is a DEFINITE no-no, as are cell phones. There should be no cameras (cuz you never know who might get a picture of you and what they might do with it). Sports can cause injuries… they’ve gotta go.
Oh, and since food can be fattening, lets ban that too. Might as well get rid of all of it because there’s no telling which calorie is the one that’ll put that extra pound on you. And we all know what an epidemic we’ve got right now of over-weight kids.
Hmmm… I think I have a future in politics.