Lydersen's sympathies are obviously with the teenagers whose online freedoms would be restricted by the Deleting Online Predators Act. A wide variety of young people from across the country are quoted, to cogent effect, about the proposed legislation’s mismatched combination of inefficacy and punitive measures (withholding federal funds from libraries and schools whose computers don't block social networking sites from adolescent use). 80 million users access such sites; but to make an effective case for the small number of problem cases arising from such use, a few harder figures seem required. (Certainly a study conducted in 2000 is of only historical interest today, and no basis for attempting to rein in this proliferating ... More »

An excellent article about a wonderful youth revolution going on these days. Here we have this generation of already mind sophisticated and tech-savvy teens -- the Digital Generation, the M(edia) Generation, the Millenium Generation (as Lee Rainie, Director of Pew Internet & American Life Project, and others are calling the teens today) -- already knowing how to master the online networking capabilities in order to coordinate grassroots movements. And here we have once more an exaggerated reaction from a government that never seems to learn the history lessons that says "leave the community problems to the community and don't try to control everything." Of course, any educated person would know the benefits of online networking ... More »