at it again

[owlmoose]

Once again the U.S. Congress is trying to decide what websites are inappropriate for children to visit, and this time the target is social networking sites. Particularly MySpace (the shark attacks of 2006) but LJ is also mentioned.

CNet article

PDF of the law

Basically, it expands the current law requiring public and school libraries to filter Internet access to cover MySpace, Friendster, LiveJournal, et. al.

The whole thing makes me crazy for too many reasons to elaborate on now. Maybe later.

Comments

Re: I

[furitaurus.livejournal.com]

We don't seem to have that same problem over here, we have a different one, in this case we hear 'Its for the ethnic minorities' think of how child protection has gone crazy over there, and translate that into how political correctness has gone over here- Mad. Bonkers.

Perhaps many parents are so indifferent or inadequate that their children do stupid and dangerous things

Allow my ruthless side to take over here and say 'I agree'

However, society as a whole should not be restricted so as to make the world suitable for those under the age of comprehension to the detriment of those of us who are capable of choosing our own entertainments etc.

Well as I said, perhaps the compromise of leaving libraries (where the public should be allowed to use computers freely) alone but maintaining the school part of the policy, because a school is not a public place, that way everyone wins, the parents get protection, and the public keeps their freedom.

We have a slightly different problem over here. In our case, like yours, our governing party is not to be trusted, however whilst you feel that the opposition (I assume to be the Democrats) is worthy of your trust, our opposition is not. We live in a country with a national conundrum. Labour have no trust or credibility anymore, the Tories are weak and frankly there's something about David Cameron (spell?) that I find very unsettling, and the liberal democrats have neither the experience of leading the country, nor do I like what they have done to the roads in my area (our local council is Lib Dem)
I don't know if you've been keeping an eye on British politics but because of the three major labour blunders- Prescott's affair with his secretary, Charles Clarke's blundering over the release of violent immigrants from prison, and to cap off, he said he had no idea where they were, and finally Patricia Hewitt's bizarre claim that the NHS is having its best year ever, only to be booed hissed and mocked by the many nursing staff and doctors who attended that particular speech, she is now something of a joke around here. But the consequences of this has been that the recent local elections have been disastrous for labour, they've lost more than 300 council seats and the Tories gained a significant number, but, most worryingly are the number of seats won by the British National Party I don't know exact figures but they won some key constituencies for both labour and the Tories. This is what it has come to people are so fed up with the three main parties that they are turning to the extremists to turn up the pressure. I read and saw on the news a man standing for the BNP, talking to a black woman and she was actually going to vote for them! This is how bad it is here, Ikon. The very people who the BNP want thrown out of the country are voting for them! It is madness.

Re: I

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

The Democrats aren't that much better, really. They have the potential to be, but they haven't acted on it in years, preferring to complain and cringe and do nothing. Highly frustrating.

Furi, there is a lot I'd like to respond to in your other comment but I don't have time to go in-depth right now and a quick answer wouldn't do either your points or my feelings about them justice, so for now I will leave it at "what Ikon said" and come back with a more thorough response later. I do want to mention, though, that computers and the Internet have become an integral part of libraries in the last decade or so and you could no more remove them than you could remove all the books. In fact, in some kinds of libraries it might almost be worse.

I

[kunstarniki.livejournal.com]

In re libraries - have you heard the comment of one columnist (whose name has escaped me) on
Beloved Leader dreaming that his Pres. Library will be a 'think tank' where the opinions of de Toqueville will be studied? "This will be the emptiest 200 million dollar library in the world." That summed it up nicely, I thought.

Re: I

[furitaurus.livejournal.com]

So when it comes to the election, what do you do? Do you not vote at all or vote for the Dems? It's very tempting over here not to vote at all.