Republicans prepare to ban MySpace.com

I consider myself a Republican, and I don’t particulary like MySpace (Even though all my freinds do), but this is way to extreme. And from the way it is worded, this sounds like they would be banning the internet, because anyone can buy a godaddy domain and make a webpage that gives away personal info.

Out of curriosity though, would this apply to AIM?

This is yet another example of those making the laws not having a clue about what the law will do in the real world. I’m quite sure there are plenty of religious websites that this bill would ban from library and school access.

But the headline reads “Republicans…” I see one Republican “A Pennsylvania congressman …”

That said, why should my tax dollars be spent so a kid can go to myspace.com at school or in the library?

Paul wrote:
“Neither party has a lock on stupidity.”

That is the biggest understatement I think I have heard this year!

It isn’t Republican vs Democrat, its “Stupid A” vs “Stupid B”. As long as people behave like mindless sheep and blindly vote-in members of their own “tribe” each election, we are all doomed.

It seems reasonable to restrict adult material from children so perhaps MySpace should be segmented into an “adults-only” and “family-friendly” zones. I’ve been to the site and there seems to be no restriction on posting explicit photos on user pages (I believe that MySpace is now policing this but I’m not 100% sure.) Users who violate the policies should be banned from MySpace or equivalent social networking zones. Time was that people used USENET and there was less ability to restrict access to individual content so MySpace is actually a step TOWARDS restricting objectionable content. I, for one, won’t let my kids onto MySpace until there are better restrictions in place to keep them from straying into adult zones. However, there is little to prevent the bad guys from trolling for kids (or posing as kids) so the only thing I can do it maintain (as best as I can) a dialogue with my kids to let them know to not reveal intimate details on line (this should be as obvious as not riding in cars with strangers.) MySpace isn’t the problem any more than GM is the problem for creating cars but it shouldn’t be so easy to stray into adult content on MySpace.

My $0.02 worth,
Fred van West

If you want to stay a political player you have to play to the electorates fears and seem proactive to the cause. It’s the nature of a democratic Republic, and had been practiced since the days of the Roman Republic. Why does it continue to amaze people? The average person wants security, to be taken care of and protected by a powerful government. Average people makes up the majority of voters.

Murphy Brown, baby. Murphy Brown.

This will not pass. They don’t even really hope it’ll pass, probably. It’s just posturing! Sometimes you have to pander, and so pander you do.

Ultimately the only reason a power-seeker or power-holder panders is because he believes it will work, and he is often correct. In this kind of situation they are whoring, sure, but we are all johns sometimes.

and forbid libraries from making such access available.

They can only vaguely define which sites should be banned, and propose “a sort of annual blacklist” for Libraries to be kept informed as new sites appear – “sort of”??? – yet intend to make it a Federal offense if access is “available” at any future date?

Bullsh*t!!

Next they’ll tell all the companies with WiFi hotspots that they must verify age – without specifying how, of course – or else be charged with “enabling” pedophiles.

And the FCC will be developing the list of “blacklisted” sites and chatrooms?? The FCC?? When did they get buget $$ for oversight of the Net?? – or is that one of the other bills in the RSA = Really Stupid Agenda.

Reading it again just makes me angrier!

The “Deleting Online Predators Act” would also require the FCC to publish a sort of annual blacklist of “commercial social networking websites and chat rooms that have been shown to allow sexual predators easy access to personal information of, and contact with, children.”

So, when a commercial site is shown to allow predators easy access to children, that site will be added to next year’s annual blacklist???

Blank has it exactly right, in #3:

“You have to wonder nowadays how there could possibly be people out in the world that still don’t have a clue as to how the Internet works.

Yet again, here’s a congressman who has no idea what he’s talking about. None…zip…zilch.”

Just what we need, another unenforceable law. When you elect idiots (of either party – both would be necessary to pass this) yuo get idiotic laws.

I’d like to see someone find a way to monitor content. Look what happened to Mobog – it turned into an amateur porn site about 10 mintues after it went live.

Who is Congress to tell me how to raise my children and tell me what they can and can not see?

They are MY children and it is MY job to make sure what they are doing on-line and what information they can give out. It is MY job to make sure they know how to live in cyberspace safely and if they are not mature enough to live there then they won’t. If they make a webspace it will be with ME sitting next to them making sure it is appropriate for them and does not include information that can be used against them in some sinister way.

They problem with the United States today is there is no parenting anymore my mother knew everything i did even though she worked 2 jobs and went to night school to further herself. I knew what was right and wrong, and what the concenquences were when i did something wrong, an A$$ beating and the 1 hour lecture of why it was wrong.

My friends parents also taught their children what was right and wrong and had no problem giving me a kick in the A$$ when i did something wrong as my mother did with my friends and no one had a problem with this. You may have noticed i am only mentioning my mother in this because my father left when i was an infant and she raised me alone, so i don’t take ” this one left me that’s why i’m messed up” as an escuse. We all complain about the government taking our rights away but what we need to do is show them they have no right or NEED to tell us how to raise our families !! Until we all become BETTER parents( and i don’t care who you are or how good a parent you think you are you need to be better at it ) people need to wake up and see the things being done by todays Bush adminastration were brough to light is the Bush adminastration 12 years ago, and we have only proven that they were right and we have no family values. so until we step up and take back our children and teach them what live is all about we are doomed to becoming nothing more then the machine they are making for us.

Sorry to rant but i am sick and tired of everyone pointing fingers at this one and that one when WE are to blame !!!

Hey, I have an idea. Why not make the parents responsible for making sure their kids aren’t accessing inappropriate content! I know it sounds kinda crazy. I mean, making a parent be responsible for his/her kid is pretty unusual. But it’s a wild idea that just might work!

I don’t mind libraries blocking sites as long as it is that individual library that chooses to block the site. I don’t want the federal government telling my library what to block.

Sorry to rant but i am sick and tired of everyone pointing fingers at this one and that one when WE are to blame !!!

And I’m sick and tired of people ranting while their brains are turned off.

Regardless of how old you are, the world we live in today is not the same world you were brought up in. Even 12 years ago, few families has a computer in the house. Today, many families have several. Then most families had one telephone with maybe a couple of extensions. Now most of us have a cordless telephone in several rooms plus cell phones for ourselves and our kids.

Just those two paradigms have created a whole different world out there. Information is not only at our fingertips 24/7, but we expect it. We demand instant communication with everyone. The issue isn’t how we are bringing up our children, but what impact society is having on an influential period in their lives. We use to worry about teens hanging around a street corner. The street corner is now inside servers at MySpace and other internet meeting places.

Today the worry is whatever “white lies” we tell our kids, they will know the truth even before we tell them. Hillery Clinton got a lot of flack when she suggested that it takes a village to raise a child. That has expanded to the Global Village is raising our children whether we like it or not.

Curiously the 34-year-olds become 14

Mobilize.org is launching a new campaign in response to Congress’ attempt to censor the communication of our generation. We have created the action alert below and built a website, http://www.mobilize.org/SOS. We are hoping to get as much grassroots action as possible around this important issue, especially from the online community.

Breaking News:

Legislation introduced this week will ban social networking, even sites used for educational and professional opportunities. What’s next? HR5319 will censor the communication of our generation and tell us who we can talk to, when and how. Tell Congress that social networking is a movement that we built, a movement that we are going to fight for.

Visit http://www.mobilize.org/SOS, take action, tell your friends and get mad.

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The bill blocks the use of these sites in public libraries, which is for many, the only access that they have to a computer. Our hope is to be able to amend the bill to take these facts into consideration. We agree that there need to be safeguards put in place for “sexual predators” and any of other crimes that might occur because of the accessibility of information on these sites, but to ban them in schools (including using school computers afterschool) and public libraries, is for many – banning social networking.

thanks,