MySpace.com and Library Filters
Information Today, Vol. 23, No. 7, p. 15, July/August 2006
Posted: 16 Jul 2010
Date Written: July/August 2006
Abstract
The recent eruption of interest and concern about social networking Websites like MySpace.com has brought Internet filtering back to the front pages. MySpace.com and other social networking Websites allow individuals, including children, to create profiles, post photos and establish blogs, which are then shared with other MySpace users and are accessible throughout the Internet. A growing concern has emerged about sexual predators using these sites to locate potential abuse victims.
In response to this concern, Congress introduced the Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006 (DOPA). The Act would require schools and libraries to prohibit access to “social networking Websites or chat rooms through which minors may easily access or be presented with obscene or indecent material; (or) may easily be subject to unlawful sexual advances, unlawful requests for sexual favors, or repeated offensive comments of a sexual nature from adults.”
The debate over filtering and the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) highlighted the tension that exists between free speech and the legitimate need to protect children from obscene content and sexual predators.
Keywords: MySpace.com, Children’s Internet Protection Act, CIPA, Internet law, legislation, Internet filters, free speech, First Amendment, access, technology, blocking, child protection, schools, libraries, social networking Websites, predatory Websites, adult Websites, Deleting Online Predators Act , DOPA,
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