The US House of Representatives just passed the Deleting Online Predators Act by a vote of 410 to 15, which just goes to show how little congressmen really know about the Internet. The new law would forbid minors in any publicly funded institution (schools, libraries, etc) from accessing any web site with a social networking element to it. OUT-LAW.com has this to say about the DOPA.

The law suggests that the FCC consider as social networking sites any site that allows users to edit a profile, chat to users or post personal data.

Under that loose definition a very large number of sites would qualify, including Amazon.com, which allows users to post lists of preferences and create profiles of authors, Ebay, in which each user has a profile which changes as they shop, or any number of major news sites, where users can discuss stories online.

And I agree. Not that I think kids should be using eBay from school… but there are plenty of legitimate web sites online, such as news sites or learning sites, that would be banned. For example, it seems to me that Wikipedia would qualify as having a social networking element.

It’s shameful that Congress would vote in such a poorly worded, open-ended law without any resistance. You see, since it will be up to the FCC to determine what web sites are offensive, this essentially puts an information weapon into the hands of our government allowing them to censor certain information from a child’s education. I hate to imagine such a tool could be wielded in the deceptive hands of a snake like Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld, or King George II.

Now look. I really don’t see any good reason for kids to be using MySpace at school. But there’s just no reason why our government should be allowed to stop them from using it at the library. For every kid who encounters a stalker there are thousands who have no problems. You don’t punish the kids for the mistakes of the occasional pervert.