{"id":145,"date":"2006-05-12T11:19:11","date_gmt":"2006-05-12T18:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=145"},"modified":"2007-12-09T13:52:46","modified_gmt":"2007-12-09T21:52:46","slug":"myspace-the-predators-feedin-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=145","title":{"rendered":"MySpace – The Predator’s Feeding Ground"},"content":{"rendered":"

News Corpse readers know that I am not a fan<\/a> of MySpace. But they will also know that I am even more opposed to government intrusion into civil liberty and free expression. Consequently, I find myself in the awkward position of defending MySpace from the congressional thought police<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The truth is that DOPA, the “Deleting Online Predators Act”<\/a> (PDF), is an assault on much more than MySpace. This bill, offered by Michael Fitzpatrick<\/a> (R-PA), purports to protect minors from sexual deviants patrolling the Internet by banning access to social networking sites on computers in schools, libraries and other federally funded property. Here’s how the bill defines “social networking”<\/em><\/p>\n

“…a commercially operated Internet website that allows users to create web pages or profiles that provide information about themselves and are available to other users and offers a mechanism of communication with other users, such as a forum, chat room, e-mail, or instant messenger.”<\/span><\/p>\n

That definition is so broad that it would also prohibit access to sites like Flickr<\/a>, Wikipedia<\/a>, DailyKos<\/a>, and virtually every public blog on services like Blogger<\/a> and Live Journal<\/a>. Even Instant Messaging services would be at risk.<\/p>\n

Fitzpatrick, the bill’s author, argues that the bill is necessary because, <\/p>\n

“…this new technology has become a feeding ground for child predators that use these sites as just another way to do our children harm.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Trying to blame social networking for the behavior of sexual deviants is short-sighted and distracts from efforts to implement effective legal reform. While the incidence of online child assaults has been sensationalized by the media, it’s actual occurrence is much less than that of the offline variety. Many more children have been assaulted by teachers, but I don’t hear calls for banning children from schools. The practical effect of this legislation, other than arbitrary censorship, is that children from low income families will be disproportionately excluded from access because they are less likely to have computers at home and are more dependent on public terminals.<\/p>\n

But protecting children isn’t really what these folks are after. DOPA is the product of the House Suburban Caucus<\/a>. Its founder, Mark Kirk (R-IL), recently commissioned a poll to identify issues that would appeal to suburban families and take attention away from the bigger issues facing the nation like Iraq, NSA wiretapping, gas prices, etc. The caucus now includes 18 Republican members. They are gaining some measure of influence and have recently met with Karl Rove and Denny Hastert.<\/p>\n

In the end, this is just another cynical political scheme by Republican fear mongers to forestall the electoral beating they anticipate in November. The refrain is all too familiar now. If it isn’t terrorists on our doorstep, it’s perverts in our kids’ bedrooms. And their response always seems to be more chipping away at freedom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News Corpse readers know that I am not a fan of MySpace. But they will also know that I am even more opposed to government intrusion into civil liberty and free expression. Consequently, I find myself in the awkward position of defending MySpace from the congressional thought police. The truth is that DOPA, the “Deleting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[56,1,7,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-censorship","category-general","category-internet-freedom","category-socialmedia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-2l","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":195,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=195","url_meta":{"origin":145,"position":0},"title":"Deleting Online Predators – An Update","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/28\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"In May, I wrote about The Deleting Online Predators Act (PDF), a bill designed to ban access to social networking sites from schools, libraries, and other federally funded locations. Unfortunately, the language was so broad that the bill would end up banning everything from MySpace to Wikipedia, and everyone on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":183,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=183","url_meta":{"origin":145,"position":1},"title":"The MySpace World Domination Conspiracy","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/28\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"OK, here it is. This blows the lid off of the totalitarian overlords once and for all. The mother of all conspiracies and MySpace is at the center of it. Go back with me to February 2002, when the existence of the Total Information Awareness (TIA) Office at DARPA was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Media"","block_context":{"text":"Big Media","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=136","url_meta":{"origin":145,"position":2},"title":"The Fox Befouling Of MySpace Has Begun","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/25\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"It was inevitable. Rupert Murdoch's purchase of MySpace was going to destroy it. Everyone knew that. Now the evidence is at hand and on display in the New York Times. The decline begins with monetizing everything that moves. With Fox as the parent company, MySpace becomes just another mainstream vehicle\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":270,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=270","url_meta":{"origin":145,"position":3},"title":"MySpace: Going Down The YouTubes","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/30\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"In an article last April, I predicted the decline of MySpace as a result of over-commercialization and desertion by bored users: \"These examples of commercialization foreshadow precisely how the culture of MySpace will become tarnished and unappealing. Its members will come to feel disinterested and exploited.\" Now the Washington Post\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":450,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=450","url_meta":{"origin":145,"position":4},"title":"MySpace Seeks Peek Into Voting Booths","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/29\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"In another assault on personal privacy by News Corp. and its progeny, MySpace has announced that they will begin offering a \"viral fundraising tool\" to candidates for president. The stated purpose of the tool is to allow members to make contributions to the candidates of their choice. On the surface\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":947,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=947","url_meta":{"origin":145,"position":5},"title":"Facebook Catches Up With MySpace","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/16\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"In a market share race that is mirroring the cable news ratings battle, Facebook has caught up with its once much bigger rival MySpace: \"Facebook hit the mark in April 2008 by posting 115 million unique monthly visitors. Myspace has maintained similar traffic numbers for the past year, but Facebook\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Media"","block_context":{"text":"Big Media","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}