Perhaps bubble wrap is in order

I take the prevention of pedophiliac predation on children very seriously. Extremely seriously. But it sure seems that some Congresscritters like to hop on the War on Pedophilia train as eagerly as others do the War on Terror train, with some awful legislative proposals cropping up like kudzu whenever someone’s looking for a Campaign Issue to Exploit.

Some in Congress want to make sure there’s no space for MySpace at public schools and libraries. Concerned about reports of pedophiles trolling wildly popular “social networking” websites for teenage victims, Rep. Michael G. Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) has introduced a bill to prohibit anyone under 18 from accessing them on school or library computers.

“The social networking sites have become, in a sense, a happy hunting ground for child predators,” said Fitzpatrick, a father of six children, including three teen girls. His legislation, called the Deleting Online Predators Act, “is essentially a bill to protect children from the Internet.”

It also would ban access to chat rooms and could block a variety of online forums. In addition, the bill would require the Federal Trade Commission to create a special website for parents and teachers warning of the potential dangers of social networking sites. Those sites, among the fastest-growing on the Internet, allow people to create their own Web pages and share photos and messages.

Street corners, schools, and city parks are popular places for pedophiles to troll, too. Should we ban those?

But the legislation raises questions about how much the federal government should regulate the Internet and about the value of social networking sites in an era in which many teens have few real places to gather. “There’s so much fear, even in suburban regions, where teenagers aren’t allowed to just go and hang out,” said Danah Boyd, a UC Berkeley graduate student who is studying social networking sites.

Teens — particularly those from poor families or rural areas — need school and library computers to gain access to social networking sites, she said. “Of course there are bad situations. But … I can tell you a number of kids who have been molested in school by teachers,” Boyd said. “Does that mean we don’t send kids to school?”

Ah, but it isn’t about promoting responsibility, diligent parenting, and reasonable behavior. It’s about Taking Dramatic Action to Garner Votes!

In response to letters from some members of Congress, the FTC issued a consumer alert Tuesday about social networking sites with safety tips for parents and kids.

But Fitzpatrick wants more. “The Internet is a great resource for children. It’s a wonderful thing when used well … but we need to recognize there’s a real risk in the interactive social networking sites,” he said. “It’s a problem for families. It’s a problem for all of us.”

Yes. But does every risk warrent federal action — especially over locally governed resources like school and library computers? There are a lot of problems and risks that we, as a family, face, and that we are concerned about for Kitten. I don’t expect Uncle Sam to resolve many of them, especially through heavy-handed tactics.

And heavy-handed they are, since this particular legislation considers a whole slew of things beyond MySpace as potential banning targets.

This legislation broadly defines social network sites as anything that includes a Profile plus an ability to communicate with strangers. It covers social networking sites, chatrooms, bulletin boards. Obviously, the target is MySpace but most of our industry would be affected. Blogger, Flickr, Odeo, LiveJournal, Xanga, Neopets, MySpace, Facebook, AIM, Yahoo! Groups, MSN Spaces, YouTube, eBaumsworld, Slashdot. It would affect Wikipedia if there wasn’t a special clause for non-commercial sites. Because many news sites (NYTimes, CNN, the Post) allow people to login and create profiles and comment, it might affect them too.

I don’t ask for a profile here — except insofar as, well, I require registration with TypeKey. Does that make me a social network site? In some ways, I suppose — which means, boom, no access from libraries or schools. Not that I think I get that much access from those places, but there’s sort of a “principle of the thing” at stake here: why should my site be considered a risk to children?

(via BoingBoing)