Contributing Editor Mary Tsao also blogs at Mom Writes.

Last week, danah boyd from apophenia wrote a post about what she thinks is wrong with the anti-social networks legislation recently proposed by Congressperson Fitzpatrick (R-Pa).

According to Fitzpatrick's website, the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) would "fight child predators attempting to contact children who use online social networks in schools and libraries. The legislation would require schools and libraries to implement security systems to prevent students from being exposed to obscene and objectionable material." Full text of the bill can be found here.

While it's questionable if Fitpatrick's proposed legislation actually would protect children, it's no question that it will serve to further increase the digital divide between those youth who have access to computers at home and those whose only available access to the Internet is at their schools or libraries.

Liz Ditz from I Speak of Dreams calls this legislation "stupid" and suggests that it is "security theater -- something that looks good, but reacts to a false threat and reduces our freedoms."

Liz provides more information than I can summarize in one short post, including numerous links to other posts she has written about Facebook, MySpace,and the personal and educational benefits to children of social networking, blogs, and blogging. [Sidenote: If you are a parent, especially one with a child enrolled in a public school in the U.S, and you aren't reading Liz daily, start. Today.]

Liz also provides a link to Doug Johnson's three-point attack on this legislation. He suggests one thing parents and educators can do is write a letter to their congressperson. Will Richardson has started a wiki with a draft of a letter that's easy to edit and print. He also provides a link to find your Representative.

As Liz has done and as I am doing here, bloggers also can blog about DOPA and inform their readers about the uselessness and possible harmful effects of this proposed bill.

Nancy Willard from the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use has this to say about DOPA:

"In my personal opinion, the biggest problem about this proposed legislation is that it will do absolutely nothing to protect teens from seduction by -- or seeking out connections with -- predators.

The legislation is so vague, I am quite certain that if it does pass it will be ruled unconstitutional. And this is going to waste everyone's time and money. And do nothing to help kids."

And Danah summed it up when she wrote:

"This legislation will not protect minors, but it will continue to erode their (and our) freedoms. There are so many amazing things that teens do with social technologies. To lose all of this because of the culture of fear is terrifying to me. [...] We need to give youth the knowledge to know the risks of their actions, the structures to be able to come to us when something goes wrong and the opportunity to grow up and connect to their peers. Eliminating cultural artifacts because we don't understand them does not make our lives any safer, but it does obliterate so many positive interactions."

[Photo credit: BBC News]

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Mary Tsao | Mom Writes