Federal lawmakers—less than eager, obviously, to portray themselves as soft on online predators—have voted overwhelmingly in favor of a bill that would force schools and libraries to keep minors who use public computers out of chat rooms and social-networking sites. But the bill’s language is so broad that it might also blacklist sites like Amazon and Slashdot, according to CNET News.
The "Deleting Online Predators Act" (The Chronicle, May 12), which passed through the House of Representatives yesterday by a vote of 410-15, was crafted in response to the runaway success of MySpace, on which teenagers post personal information —and, lawmakers fret, on which child predators lurk.
The bill may be a good bit of public relations, but it offers no guidance as to what constitutes a "chat room," and it provides the Federal Communications Commission with only a vague description of what counts as a "social-networking site:"
In determining the definition of a social networking Web site, the Commission shall take into consideration the extent to which a Web site—
(i) is offered by a commercial entity;
(ii) permits registered users to create an online profile that includes detailed personal information;
(iii) permits registered users to create an online journal and share such a journal with other users;
(iv) elicits highly personalized information from users; and
(v) enables communication among users.
Those terms, it seems, could apply to nearly any Web forum or e-commerce site that allows users to create personal profiles. —Brock Read
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