Progressive Overload

I just ran across a story today that was reporting that around 29,000 sex offenders have been found on MySpace.com. There was a mention of North Carolina's Senate Bill 132 which could possibly effect a lot of websites.

Senate Bill 132 is targeting social networking sites in an effort to reduce access for children without parental consent.

§ 75?40. Requiring parental permission for minors to access commercial social networking Web sites

According to the way this bill defines what is and isn't a "Commercial Social Networking" site, it might actually ultimately include web sites that only have a little social aspect mixed in, but don't consider themselves a traditional social networking website.

The Bill's Definition of a social networking site:

A commercial social networking Web site is an Internet Web site that:

1. Is operated by a person who derives revenue membership fees, advertising, or other sources related to the operation of the Web site;
   
2. Facilitates the social introduction between two or more persons for the purposes of friendship, meeting other persons, or information exchanges;
3. Allows users to create Web pages or personal profiles that contain information such as the name or nickname of the user, photographs placed on the personal Web page by the user, other personal information about the user, and links to other personal Web pages on the commercial social networking Web site of friends or associates of the user that may be accessed by other users or visitors to the Web site; and
   
4. Provides users or visitors to the commercial social networking Web site mechanisms to communicate with other users, such as a message board, chat room, electronic mail, or instant messenger.

A commercial social networking Web site does not include an Internet Web site:

1. That provides only one of the following discrete services: photo?sharing, electronic mail, instant messenger, or chat room or message board platform; or
2. The primary purpose of which is the facilitation of commercial transactions involving goods or services between its members or visitors.

Proving Age Isn't Easy

There are countless problems with determining a person's age, or even identity, over the internet.

How are we supposed to know if the kid hasn't just nabbed Dad's credit card from his wallet while he was asleep?

How are we supposed to know when we need to get "parental or guardian permission" of this new user?

I know this isn't a new problem to solve...it just could become a problem I will have to worry about soon.

I Don't Like Sex Offenders Either

My concern with this bill shouldn't be construed that I don't want to protect children from monsters. But do we really need this law?

If this bill gets passed, the only thing that will be accomplished is the "slowing down" of our beautifully (and rapidly) growing internet world.

Sex offenders will still prey on children who don't have parents that are involved enough to actual be a parent.