I'm sure that many of you have seen the rash of news media reports this year discussing the use of MySpace by online predators to contact young children, and calling on the government to "do something" about it. While this certainly does happen, I don't know how widespread the problem is, and I suspect the news media has overhyped it because it makes for dramatic television. The U.S. House responded on July 28th, 2006 by passing the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA), by a landslide margin (410-15). I find this legislation to be deeply troubling, and that is why I am posting this bulletin.
There are many ways that Congress could have decided to respond to the problem of online predators. The most obvious approach is to seek to educate children and their parents about the danger of interacting with strangers online, in exactly the same way that we educate them about the danger of interacting with strangers in real life. DOPA creates the appearance of attempting to do this by directing the Federal Trade Commission to establish a website with this sort of information on it, but its primary purpose is different. DOPA's primary purpose is to make it illegal for any school or library which receives federal funding (about 2/3rds of them) to allow people under the age of 18 to use any website that enables users to create a personal profile, keep an online journal, chat with friends, or otherwise express themselves. The United States Constitution protects certain fundamental human rights. Foremost
among these are the right to freedom of speech and the right to freedom of association. We protect these two rights in particular because they are prerequisites to democracy. The ability to vote for the representative of your choosing requires an environment in which you can consider and discuss the options freely. It is obvious that much of our democratic discourse has moved online in the past decade. Given how important these rights are to our identity as Americans, I am deeply troubled that so many of our representatives would be so eager to pass a broad prohibition on online discourse by minors. DOPA will have three primary effects. The direct impact will be to remove online social communication tools from most schools and libraries. I'm talking about websites like MySpace, Facebook, Livejournal, Friendster, Google Groups, Blogger, Slashdot, and MemeStreams, as well as instant messagers like AIM and other chat software. Even adults will find it difficult to access these resources from libraries as they'll be forced to ask that library administrators remove blocks and filters for them. The secondary impact is that DOPA sends a message to schools and libraries that don't receive federal funding, as well as parents, that a complete ban on the use of online communications tools is a reasonable response to the problem of online predators. It is no more reasonable then prohibiting teenagers from going outside of their house because there might be criminals outside of their house. The tertiary impact is that a generation of young people who grow up with these restrictions will be taught that communicating online is a dangerous activity that responsible people avoid, and they will not learn to use these tools to think and interact. As these tools play an increasingly critical role in the function of our democracy in the 21st century, this will have a significant, negative impact on the future of our society. In spite of the landslide margin with which this bill has passed the House, there are things that we can do about it. A decade ago, when Congress passed their first broad Internet censorship law, the use of the Internet as a communications medium was a niche activity. That is no longer the case. Literally tens of millions of Americans use online social communications tools every day. MySpace in particular is one of the most popular websites on the Internet. This community has the power to demonstrate that representatives who attack the first amendment online face significant political consequences. What you can do: 1. Repost this bulletin. Everyone on MySpace ought to know what is going on. 2. Contact your Senator. The Senate will have to pass a similar bill in order for this to become law. There is a short period of time for us to communicate to the Senate that this is not acceptable. 3. Contact your Representative. Chances are your representative voted for this legislation (see the links below for a list). Let them know what you think. 4. If your Representative voted for this bill, and is up for re-election this year, don't vote for him or her. Let their office know why they don't have your vote. Information Resources: The Bill:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.R.5319: Who voted for it:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2006-405&sort=vote News Story:
http://news.com.com/Chat+rooms+could+face+expulsion/2100-1028_3-6099414.html Thanks for your time,
Tom Cross
tom@memestreams.net (No, I'm not the "the" Tom. I'm not associated with MySpace but I do enjoy using it.) | 
