Restrictions On Social Sites Proposed In Georgia 349
A state senator in Georgia, Cecil Staton, has introduced a bill that would require parents' permission before kids could sign up at a social networking site such as MySpace and Facebook, and mandate that the sites let parents see all material their kids generate there. Quoting: "[Senate Bill 59] would make it illegal for the owner or operator of a social networking Web site to allow minors to create or maintain a Web page without parental permission [and require] parents or guardians to have access to their children's Web pages at all times. If owners or operators of a company failed to comply with the proposed law, they would be guilty of a misdemeanor on the first offense. A second offense would be a felony and could lead to imprisonment for between one and five years and a fine up to $50,000 or both." The recently offered MySpace parental tools fall short of the bill's requirements. This coverage from the Athens Banner-Herald quotes Facebook's CPO saying that federal law forbids the company to allow anyone but the account creator to access it..
people or property (Score:4, Interesting)
bad karma? (Score:2, Interesting)
First post!
As usual...idiots (Score:4, Interesting)
And how, precisely, do you intend to enforce that? One of the reasons the CDA [wikipedia.org], in 1996 and 1997, and the COPA [wikipedia.org] in 1998 and 1999, were shot down was because this concept is unworkable. Then and now. You simply cannot verify who is sitting at the keyboard.
And then of course we get into the weird definitions. What is a 'social networking site'? Just Facebook and MySpace? Or
Re:Uhh... what? (Score:1, Interesting)
We can put a man on the moon, and soon Mars; but we can't take care of our own kids without legislation being introduced. Sheesh, the Republicans are acting more like Democrats these days, and the Dem's are acting more like Republicans! What's going on!?
Lies, Damned Lies... (Score:3, Interesting)
What a yutz. Let's say this guy gets his law. What practical method is there for a state legislature to require a website based on servers in some other state to verify the identity of people who want to edit pages there?
Some online services marketed to adults take a credit card as a way of proving you're an adult. They place an authorization on your card, perhaps even charging some nominal fee, which if accepted by the card issuer is sufficient proof of age. How hard is it for a teen to slip Mom's credit card out of her purse, write down the card number, expiration date, and the verification number on the reverse, knowing that if it's just an authorization, she'll have no way to know, and if it's a one-off charge of a buck or three, she still probably won't notice. Or maybe Precious Child has his own Visa Buxx, and uses that to prove he's an adult.
So that's clearly out. Is he going to create some state agency to give online credentials to adults? Uh-oh. I just realized that in posting this comment, I'm within the definition of 'create or maintain a Web page', and I don't believe I've shown anyone my drivers licence here.
The internet provides fertile new ground for evildoers, whether they're pedophiles or politicians.
Re:people or property (Score:3, Interesting)
If the state asumes liability for everything then let them be equal citizens with all the freedoms that the state currently claims they aren't able to process untill they reach a certain age. Usualy 18. And we can have five year old voting with ten year olds buying alcohol and such. I doubt anything like that would ever happen but if they aren't old enough to make certain decisions for themselves then wouldn't monitoring their other decisions be somewhat neccesary? Wouldn't that by default mean parrents should be able to override their decisions?
Re:As usual...idiots (Score:3, Interesting)
If they say any sites with interactive, user created content, that leads to a lot of problems.
If they're very specific. Sites might find ways around it.
In the first case, what happens to all the small sites like PhpBB forums and the like when they have to deal with implementing this?
I may be in the minority here, but... (Score:3, Interesting)
This is no different than our current approach to discipline (which by the way is apparently working well): his rights currently extend only to being fed and clothed and healthy. His privileges (including toys, visits with friends, computer games, television, etc.) are given in direct proportion to his responsibility. As he acts responsibly, they expand. As he abuses our trust, they contract until he rebuilds our trust.
You may ask, how will you monitor his activities away from home? Naturally we're still figuring that out, but we already have a good start when he visits friends' houses, where he already knows that we expect him to follow our home's rules. For example, he knows (and obeys) our restrictions on what television he may watch, or video games he may play; we verify his obedience with parents. I expect our monitoring will include frequent vanity-Googling-by-proxy - searching for his name, and seeing what pops up. I also expect it will include a healthy dose of two-way trust. He already knows that he can trust us, and that we have his best interests in mind, and we will work together with him to build an appropriate presence online, as part of his responsible upbringing. As attentive parents, I also fully expect that we'll have a very good idea of his avatar choices and will be able to find them on any popular sites. Furthermore, since his rights to privacy don't yet exist, we will not hesitate to install keylogging and screenshot software on his computer, which will continue to live only in the common family room, will continue to be locked to system changes, and let him know that we monitor everything he does - just like we already often listen to his phone calls with less-responsible friends, and we make sure both parties know that we're listening. This is all part of parenting. I would never turn him loose in a city by himself, and letting him loose online is no different.
I'm quite certain that this post will generate some "are you nuts" or "what kind of fanatic are you" replies. Yes, I am a fanatic, in that I'm absolutely convinced of my beliefs (including trusting that God will change my mind if I'm wrong). I am raising my children according to my own beliefs, and teaching them everything I believe, because honestly, if I didn't believe it enough to pass it on to my most dearly valued family, that would show that I didn't really believe it.
Re:Some Myspace age data (Score:3, Interesting)
Finding kids to molest is much easier at the local mall where the odds of finding a 'child' are better.
Re:why not ban parenthood? (Score:3, Interesting)
that's not suprising at all. hopefully there are protocols in place to identify this kind of stuff.
and while we're on the subject of child abuse, what of adults brainwashing/indoctrinating their kids? can this be legally prosecuted as a form of child-abuse? a friend of mine showed me clips of a documentary called Jesus Camp [youtube.com] recently about some pretty extreme evangelical communities that seriously scared the living shit out of me. I'm much more concerned with the indoctrination of children with fanatical beliefs in their home communities than their exposure to diverse online cultures through social networking sites.