Friday, May 12, 2006

Congress is coming after MySpace

And not just MySpace, but any site it defines as a ‘social networking’ website. Scary but true.

According to the bill, it “prohibits access to commercial social networking Web sites or chat rooms through which minors” can access obscene or indecent material, be subject to unlawful sexual advances or repeated offensive comments of a sexual nature from adults, or access harmful information.

The bill terms a social-network Web site as one that allows users to create Web pages or profiles about themselves as well as offers communications including a forum, chat room, e-mail or instant messenger, while a chat room is termed a site that allows multiple users to communicate in real time via text.

These politicians desperately need to do some research, and talk to someone like Danah Boyd. On her blog, Danah (a cultural anthropologist at Berkeley and Yahoo, who is an expert in the digital lives of kids) writes:

Obviously, the target is MySpace but most of our industry would be affected. Blogger, Flickr, Odeo, LiveJournal, Xanga, MySpace, Facebook, AIM, Yahoo! Groups, MSN Spaces, YouTube, eBaumsworld, Slashdot. It would affect Wikipedia if there wasn’t a special clause for non-commercial sites. Because many news sites (NYTimes, CNN, the Post) allow people to login and create profiles and comment, it might affect them too.

Because it affects both libraries and schools, it will dramatically increase the digital divide. Poor youth only gain access to these sites through libraries and schools. With this ban, poor youth will have no access to the cultural artifacts of their day. Furthermore, because libraries won’t be able to maintain separate 18+ and minor computers, this legislation will affect everyone who uses libraries, including adults.

This legislation is horrifying and culturally damaging. Please, all of you invested in social technologies, do something to make this stop.