Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Another breath of fresh air!

Last week the House passed the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) by a lopsided vote of 410-15. As a politician, how can you say you are against deleting online predators? I would love to hear the dissenters on that one. They are brave souls!

Although well-intentioned I'm sure, the bill was not well conceived and doesn't solve the problem it addresses. Larry Magid in his editorial eloquently points out the flaws of this bill.

DOPA attempts to get rid of online predators by requiring "recipients of universal service support for schools and libraries to protect minors from commercial social networking websites and chat rooms." Putting the onus on schools and libraries to protect minors? How, do tell, does this get rid of predators? All this does is drive the problem further underground as teens will have to be more secretive of their online use. And, as Magid points out, prevents social networking sites from being a positive teaching tool.

It would take a miracle, but let's hope each and every Senator sees the fundamental flaws in this bill before raising his or her hand to say "aye."

No comments: