DOPA Dilema

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I’ve never had a good impression of MySpace what with it’s crappy graphics and poor ease of use. Still, there are 94 million users and growing and is outranking Google and Yahoo in unique visitors this past month. Just recently, the US House passed a bill called the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) in a 410 to 15 vote, which, if passed into law, would prevent sites like MySpace and other social networking sites from being accessed on public computers like schools and libraries. In fact, any web site that allows for publicly posted profiles or any user communication. Fears are, the bill is so broad in scope that thousands of commercial sites could be restricted. If these institutions fail to comply, they will lose their Federal funding.

The Demographics
This is targeted to MySpace in an effort to protect children against the number of sexual predators using such sites to target minors.

“Social networking sites such as MySpace and chat rooms have allowed sexual predators to sneak into homes and solicit kids. This bill requires schools and libraries to establish (important) protections.” – Rep. Ted Poe, a Texas Republican and co-founder of the Congressional Victim’s Rights Caucus

The interesting thing is that 80 percent of MySpace users are above 18 and the largest growing group of users are those 30 or older. I don’t care who you talk to, statistics are showing MySpace on the rise. Site traffic, Google searches, even blog discussion goes up every week and month.

Blogger Analysis
Talk about this bill has got people ranting. Removal of sites like Amazon.com, Slashdot, and even news sites which allow personal user-shared profiles, may cause some political problems. This bill’s definition of a social networking site (shown at the bottom) is so wide that LinkedIn, a professional networking site would be blocked. Already, there are a slew of blog postings against DOPA. One blog looks at the historical nods to a similar concern of predators on AOL ten years ago and analyzes how this is simply moral panic or a Republican re-election strategy. And there’s evidence. Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican is the main DOPA sponsor, but he’s in a tight election race with Democrat Patrick Murphy. It is Fitzpatrick’s election campaign that helped get this vote pushed through quickly. (Detailed DOPA analysis through ZDNet News)

Education Angle
Could this be an end to distance learning via the Internet? A loss of electronic interaction with students across the Web? One teacher believes that DOPA is poorly written and fails to categorize true threats separately from true learning tools like wikis and other sites. Bloggers have been saying that the parents are the ones to monitor and protect their children online.

“It is ridiculous that the legislators, whom are mostly digital immigrants – at best, are passing laws and judgement on technology without fully understanding the implications or consulting with actual librarians and teachers.” – A History Teacher, 28 July 2006

“Just when educators involved in exploring the educational potential of social software apps and sites are gaining traction and mainstream teachers’ interest and curiousity, this knocks things Stateside for six.” – Teaching Generation Z, 28 July 2006

You can find some more discussion and information on the teaching angle of DOPA at the bottom of this post including a great blog by a Georgia computer science teacher who engages this issue in her many posts.

Defining Social Networking
The DOPA bill came about apparently through the result of a poll of suburban voters. But, according to the consensus I see online, the congressmen are blindly reaching for something to stop online predators and the problem with that is that they are making broad generalizations about social networking and chat rooms. The definition of social networking sites according to DOPA:

(i) is offered by a commercial entity;
(ii) permits registered users to create an on-line profile that includes detailed personal information;
(iii) permits registered users to create an on-line journal and share such a journal with other users;
(iv) elicits highly-personalized information from users; and
(v) enables communication among users.’.

I am guessing that there will be a ways to go before a bill like this actually gets turned into a law. Call your senators before they get to vote? You bet.

This issue and its discussion will constantly be evolving. For the latest about it in the news, click here. In the blogosphere, click here. Below are links so you can further analyze this new bill.

PDF of the DOPA bill (May 10 version)
A breakdown of parts of the bill
Discussion/analysis of MySpace and DOPA
Weblogg-ed has plenty of posts on DOPA

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