twopointouch

The American House of Representatives passed Resolution 5319, the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA), by a 410 to 15 vote yesterday. This will require schools and libraries to block access to social networking sites and chat rooms by children. Organisations that do not block access will lose their government subsidies. The subject has excited intense interest among people who don’t use such sites: Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican told CNN that social networks "have become a haven for online sexual predators who have made these corners of the Web their own virtual hunting ground."

Well, actually, the evidence for this moral panic just isn’t there. Danah Boyd provides an excellent commentary on the shortsightedness and ineffectuality of these ‘reforms’:

This legislation will not protect minors, but it will continue to erode their (and our) freedoms. There are so many amazing things that teens do with social technologies. To lose all of this because of the culture of fear is terrifying to me. I found out about my alma mater talking to strangers online in the 90s. I learned about what it means to be queer, how to have confidence in myself and had so many engaging conversations. Sure, i found some sketchy people too, but i learned to ignore them just as i learned to ignore the guys who whistled and honked from their cars when i walked to the movie theater with my best friend. We need to give youth the knowledge to know the risks of their actions, the structures to be able to come to us when something goes wrong and the opportunity to grow up and connect to their peers. Eliminating cultural artifacts because we don’t understand them does not make our lives any safer, but it does obliterate so many positive interactions.