New law would ban MySpace, Facebook at US libraries

I don't see how this law would lessen the risk of becoming a victim of an online predator. It only means one less place to access MySpace or Facebook. The law is an example of unnecessary censorship.

I'd be interested to know if they're also intending on filtering chat access as well, as there are just as many predators in chat rooms as on networking sites.

I have no issue with kids accessing social networking sites from the library, but then I'm also one of those responsible parents who monitors my kids online activities. I think that this is the government sticking it nose into the realm of parental responsibility in the name of protecting the youth.

"Protecting the children" has been the generic basis for quite a bit of questionable legislation lately.

Still, I wonder if this is really about kids and their access to social networking sites. For years the government has been waging a quiet war against the our nation's public libraries. As it turns out, a well informed populace that asks hard questions about the actions of its elected officials, and the laws they enact, doesn't sit well with some people.

Hitting libraries in their respective pocketbooks, for not toeing the line on various issues is a pretty common tactic by the powers that be on all levels. Especially since revenue from grants and endowments, which use to form the backbone of our library system, has been in decline over the past few years.

Stay tuned folks, this could get ugly.

Oh, check out ala.org to stay informed and stay involved.

I see this as a form of censoring. But that could be me. I still don't see how this will "protect" children. I understand we need to protect children from predators, but people and the government usually goes too far or off the map. Such as the a principle from a Rhode Island school whose bright idea was to put a tracking device in every student's backpack. Restricting, censoring, and protecting is getting out of hand.

I think this is a bit extreme. If it's really about protecting children, then perhaps children should be supervised on computers in libraries and other public spaces. Don't make the responsible, non-sexual deviant, non-predator public majority lose their right to participate in their social lives online.

this is pretty useless, there are ways around everything. kids can now look at porn online at school by surfing the web through a website that hosts your internet browsing.

People are having to drop internet and cable because of expenses and now they use the library for their internet needs because it's free.

It would be unfair to do this because that's causing more burden on people who have already given up so much to just get by.

It is ok for a library to try and stop people from coming in just to use the internet. Especially in university or school libraries, it would make sense to restrict internet access to ensure that people are actually coming there to work and I am sure many students would actually welcome the move because it would offer them a space where they can just focus on their studies without any distractions. However, for the government to get involved and to tell libraries how to deal with their customers under the guise of wanting to protect children is absurd. Why not try and educate both parents and children about the dangers of social networking sites instead of trying to ban them which is bound to be unsuccessful?

so, let me get this straight, in libraries kids can't look at myspace...but adults can look at porn.

someone tell me how that works...

(sarcasm for those who don't get it, the porn thing is real though)

This is absolutely ridiculous, if there are going to be online predators, its going to happen regardless of whether the victim if happened to be sat in a library or not.
And on top of this, many people who cannot have interent access from their homes need to go to public places, why should they be denied of facebook and myspace, which have lots of positives: being able to keep in contact with lots of friends on facebook,talk to people from your place you study at, keeping track of where people are, myspace has all the bands waiting to be discovered....and the fact that the websites are set up as innocent social networking sites and nothing else, crazy peados are still going to be out there and THEY need to be stopped.

i dont see the problem with this really. I know its for different reasons but im kind of sick of having to wait forever to look up a book on the computer because some kid needs to check their myspaceand shit. library comps should only be fore looking up books and if you need internet access give them a seperate room.

In this instance and location, access to social networking sites is a misuse of the provided technology.

If librarys charged for linking to sites other than academia and research, not only would this free up valuable monopolised community resources, but the kids would move out of the library and back into the economy supporting internet-cafe.

Blocking one source of access to potential predators with legislation will not protect any child who has a web-enabled phone.

Does this mean American students are going to be less distracted than their UK counterparts and therefore achieve better results?

Who was it who said that now we have the internet, the only people who go to libraries are homeless people and old crossword fans?

Wait, kids still go to libraries?

This is what happens when you have people that don't understand technology, making laws to regulate what they don't understand. Point and case John McCainn has no clue about technology that has been widely available for the past 20 years (computers/internet) but in his world is the best choice to lead the way in new technology to fix our energy crisis.

But this does nothing to protect kids at home, and just excludes kids who're unable to access a computer at home from such social networking sites.. what an unfair bit of bureaucracy.

I don't really care if this protects people from predators or not, the fact is that libraries provide services that are abused by people all the time. If, as some have suggested, people are unable to pay their cable/internet fees because of the recession, I would much rather they use their time at the library constructively instead of pissing it away on horrible old photoshops, chain letters, and inane comments made by "friends".

The internet can be a great learning tool, a great resource for jobseekers, a powerful method of sharing important news, and a means to contact distant relatives. But let's be serious: How are teenagers on Facebook accomplishing any of that?

Why doesn't Congress just go all out and ban children from going to libraries since there is a chance that they could meet a real live predator there too?

They'll try to get anything in there under the "kids" guise. I don't even want to think about the hidden stuff in that bill.

Hm, what does this solve? Nothing. Kids will still find a way to get on Myspace or Facebook. What a waste of time...

I thought people had their own computers by now.. and this law is so stupid .. I cant begin to tell you how stupid it is. Stopping kids from myspace is like stopping a fat person from eating cake. Its impossible!

Kids aren't exactly lining up at the doors of libraries these days and between mobile devices and computers, they're constantly connected to both Myspace and Facebook anyways. Good luck getting the generation that grew up with the Internet to enter a social networking dead zone. What does Congress have against libraries, anyways?

As much as I despise MySpace and Facebook, this is completely wrong. This is just another way for the government to put a toe in on what we can and can't do or see. This is going to hurt libraries as well, who really don't need any more reasons for people not to go to them.

They already censor a lot of stuff on library computers.

This is just a case of CYA since they don't want to be sued by some family that was a victim of an online predator.

It does nothing to protect children at all, it only gets them off the hook for any liability.