Prohibit Hanzel from Breadcrumbing Gretel

Oh goody, the latest internet bill has come up! The Social Networking Prohibition Act - I guess they chose the name because prohibition has always worked so well in the past. It's a tamer version of a Georgia bill - SB 59 - which states that the owners of said social networking sites cannot legally allow a minor to sign up from a protected computer. What's a protected computer you ask? Any computer within the great State of Georgia yee haw. Now since this isn't a federal bill, I'm unsure of how an owner in New York can be prosecuted for it. I'm also confused as to who will be monitoring all the Georgia computers to make sure no minors sign up. It's a good thing minors don't know how to lie about their age online.

Here's the bill http://www.legis.ga.gov/legis/2007_08/fulltext/sb59.htm

OK, so here's my defense of public computers being used for mysp - I mean social networking sites. Information literacy is crucial to a comfy lifestyle, right? I mean, schools, colleges and professional workplaces demand a certain level of information literacy. Where's the one place you can utilize and practice these skills - such as, typing, uploading files, manipulating images, searching, managing simple webdesign, etc.? And where's the two places a child without a computer at home can access this - dare I use the word - tool? Ummmmm

I can see the concern and how, on the surface, it doesn't seem like Jenny Stupid Teenager posting pictures of her staining little Betty Hoeface's tennis shoes with cool aid vodka puke is a good thing but if we accept the idea of play as learning in children then we should assume that the same should be true of adolescents or even adults.

It is the responsibility of the parent to try and keep their children safe. Knowing what their child is doing at the library or at home is just a part of good parenting. And accepting that they probably don't know the half of it but that there's a fairly good chance the teenager will see adulthood is part of it too. I really feel for the children who become victims and I would hope to god that Fox would never have anything horrible happen to him - I just don't get how shutting down sites will shut down perverts. If nothing else, I see it widening the cutely termed information divide.