No legislative solution to social networking problems?

Posted byWaldo Jaquith 3 Comments on No legislative solution to social networking problems?

My friend Bennett Haselton calls out politicians who promise to crack down on social networking sites, demonstrating that their proposals are fundamentally unworkable.

Published by Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Char­lottes­­ville, VA, USA. more »

3 replies on “No legislative solution to social networking problems?”

  1. OMFG. It would be like, totally great if this helped illustrate that there is no substitute for parenting, and that government cannot fill all of the gaps. n00bz.

    Okay, I’m too ()*@#@ old to be able to pull that off.

    I’m all for making sure that companies are transparent and responsible. That is, companies ought to be clear on what they do and do not do with respect to users, and that when presented with a valid request from law enforcement, they have systems set up that allow them to comply with those requests (and that all users are aware of these systems).

    What I am not for is fundamentally shifting the onus of responsibility from Gail in Fredricksburg (worried about her blossoming stripper of a daughter) to Myspace, Inc. Bennett does an excellent job of going through (and knocking down) the arguments. But that’s not enough. What we need now is a succinct and damning soundbite response that we can use against grandstanding politicians who want to ride this train to constituent approval.

  2. Indeed. Too many parents take the easy way out of raising their children, and politicians who pander to the “let the government take care of you” mindset do us all a disservice. People should take care of themselves, and parents should take whatever steps necessary to monitor their children’s lives — online and otherwise.

    Our middle and high school kids know that we read the books they read, listen to their music, check the web history… and we’re also facebook and myspace friends. I neither need nor want any public official to “protect” me or my children from the Internet.

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