Oy.
From ZDNet:
Reining in social-networking sites: Last summer, over the objections of civil libertarians, librarians and educators, the House overwhelmingly approved the Deleting Online Predators Act, which would restrict ambiguously defined social-networking sites in schools and libraries that receive federal funding. The proposal ultimately died last year, but on the first day of the 110th Congress, Sen. Ted Stevens, a veteran Alaska Republican, reintroduced identical language in what he portrayed as a renewed effort to protect children online.
Anyone have any details? A quick look at the Stevens homepage makes no mention…
Technorati Tags: dopa social_networking education
Dude, the Republicans have no power to actually put this on the agenda now. This is utterly meaningless.
Yeah, but it would be so much fun to hear the Honorable Senator from Alaska talk about his various internets…
Dude, the House passed the thing like 410-10 or something, so don’t think it still doesn’t have some support. I agree it will be harder to advance, but rumors also had it that the new CIPA language was going to address social networks as well.
Here are the details (available via THOMAS):
S.49
Title: A bill to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to prevent the carriage of child pornography by video service providers, to protect children from online predators, and to restrict the sale or purchase of children’s personal information in interstate commerce.
Sponsor: Sen Stevens, Ted [AK] (introduced 1/4/2007), Cosponsors (None)
Latest Major Action: 1/4/2007 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
That’s all that’s been released for now. The full text of the bill, and its title, should be published soon. It appears to be a rehash of both DOPA and Stevens’ bill to force ISPs that carry adult materials to tag all content as “adult” or face jail time. I’m not sure if we should read much into it; senators routinely re-submit legislation at the start of the new session. If it’s going to go anywhere, it needs to get through Sen Patrick Leahy, and it’s doubtful he’ll let it go very far without serious scrutiny.
Text of the bill is now up. Search http://thomas.loc.gov/ for bills introduced by Senator Stevens and go to S. 49 for the details.