Capitol Hill: Views on social networks aired

CNET's coverage of Tuesday's hearing on Capitol Hill about the proposed Delete Online Predators Act (DOPA) suggested that a crackdown might be coming. In the US House of Representatives subcommittee hearing, "politicians accused MySpace.com and other social-networking sites of failing to protect minors from sexual predators and other malign influences and said a legislative crackdown may be necessary." They were arguing over whether to require schools and libraries receiving FCC universal-service funds for Internet access to ban students' and young library patrons' access to the social networks or "requiring some form of an Internet ID that would prove a person's age, or doing nothing at the moment," according to CNET. All hearing participants appeared to agree that the intentions of the bill – to protect online kids from sexual predation – are noble, but a number of testifiers argued against the law, especially its wording and timing. Both First Amendment specialists and social-networking companies have said it's too vaguely written to enforce, and a representative of the Young Adult Library Services Association said "the bill uses the term 'social networking sites' to describe almost all interactive Web applications in which users converse or otherwise interact with each other," NewsFactor reports, and so would ban whole swaths of the Internet in schools and libraries. Rep. Paul Gillmor (R) of Ohio, a member of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications & the Internet, testified that "a delicate balance must be struck." He said: "Although I agree with the concepts promoted by H.R. 5319 [DOPA], I believe today's discussion is simply the beginning of an in-depth dialogue between policy makers and industry leaders because social-networking and chat technologies are not inherently bad and offer many benefits – yet we must ensure the safety of our children."

For an in-depth discussion on DOPA and the social networks, see an interview with Henry Jenkins at MIT and Danah Boyd at University of California-Berkeley at the Digital Divide Network.