US Senator, Ted Stevens – the same person who made the phrase “The Internet is a series of tubes” famous last year – is at it again.
Early in January, Stevens introduced Senate bill 49, which among other things, would require that any school or library that gets federal Internet subsidies would have to block access to interactive Web sites, including social networking sites, and possibly blogs as well. It appears that the definition of those sites is so vague that it could include sites such as Wikipedia, according to commentators. It would certainly ban MySpace.
Look, here’s a free bit of advice for all concerned, but technologically handicapped, parents, law makers, and bystanders:
Stop Shifting Responsibility
Parents, Guardians, and (when at school) Teachers/School Staff have a responsibility to monitor their child’s behavior. If you’re not doing that – you’re just plain irresponsible and possibly negligent.
Would you subscribe to a pay-TV service that had open-access pornography or other particularly violent content, and just let your child have free reign over the TV? No, of course not – you’d keep an eye (and ear) on what they’re watching.
Would you let your child wander off alone through the streets, without ensuring that they have some sort of supervision? Again, no – of course not.
Internet access is really no different. It’s just like a city street running right to your computer, with all the disturbing behavior just around the corner.
As your child matures, you make judgement calls as to giving them greater freedom and responsibility: They can stay up later, watch more mature movies, and go meet with friends without direct supervision. You set boundaries (“be home before 5pm”, and “No MA-rated movies”), and see how it works.
The same judgement calls need to be made about Internet usage. Having their own email account, and IM accounts is a gradual trust thing.
Dictating that Schools should ban certain types of sites, and expect that it’ll be a cure-all, is just pure self delusion.
— On a side note, gotta love this spelling suggestion.
