State debates bill on MySpace age check

Connecticut's attorney general proposes bill to protect children from sexual predators lurking on largest social network.

The story "State debates bill on MySpace age check" published March 9, 2007 at 5:18 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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[soup_ignorant]

"...parents failing to know what their kids are doing..."

I particularly enjoyed that line the congressman said about why they need to somehow make it safer.

[Vince66]

Parents and kids

A co-worker was looking for some software to monitor his 13 year olds on-line chat habits. I was explaining how MySpace works. He was concerned that his daughter would allow someone she doesn't know on her "friends" list, thus allowing them access to her pictures, etc.

I pointed out that there's no software out there to prevent kids from being stupid.

[jrflorida]

No clue

I'm sorry girls get raped but this law would not change that. The next thing you know they'll start asking for ID to play online games (because there is a great deal of chat in there) There is no way to make a law that prevents people from breaking the law. Rape in allits formsis already legal. All this will do is put myspace out of business. No adult is going to give his personal information when setting up a profile for fun. I don't see how a driver's license is going to stop someone from pretending to be younger (as in not having a license) and then getting accepted on someone's friends list. Are they saying teenagers shouldn't be able to freely associate? Thats the only thing that will stop contact such as this. Require a drivers license (and who is going to ensure it is correct) and only allow adults to join. What about all the other chat sites out there? Is someone going to prevent teenagers from giving away their personal information to strangers via IM and email?

Parents need to learn how to supervise their children and to teach them 1) Meeting new people involves talking to strangers but that doesnt mean give them very personal information, 2) Question why anyone would want to know certain bits of your life like city, address, phone number, etc and 3) Don't believe everything someone tells you just because it makes you feel good. Predators feed on giving children attention.

This law, if it gets out in any form, will kill many forms of Internet communication by driving down the number of people that choose to get involved on a whim.

[unknown unknown]

Ok, when this passes and children still get abused

who will they blame next? The parents, or just more of this same old sue MySpace junk. I resent that a state in which have no representation may force me to submit my drivers license to websites I post on ,though don't necessarily trust with personal information.

[larryc92039]

Obviously parents need to educate their children...

but it would certainly help if user's identities were verified for social networking sites as well. It would definitely make some of these creeps think twice before trying to pick up children.

[wbenton]

Unnecessary Law

Those who want to circumvent the system will find a way... legislation in place or not!!!

Most internet sign-ups are non-authenticable... that said... there is NO WAY to authenticate a person without having a secure pre-registered Certifcate Authenticable method to prove a person is whom they are. Very few home users have such authentication... least of all kids.

That said... there is no way of telling who anyone is... much less what their actual age is without such authentication.

Bottom Line: Another red-tape tax dollar spending meaningless piece of "feel-good" mindless legislation!

If they really think it's going to do any good... they're only fooling themselves!!!

Walt