Breaking News:

Legislation introduced this week will ban social networking, even sites used for educational and professional opportunities. What’s next? HR5319 will censor the communication of our generation and tell us who we can talk to, when and how. Tell Congress that social networking is a movement that we built, a movement that we are going to fight for.

Visit http://www.mobilize.org/SOS, take action, tell your friends and get mad.

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The bill blocks the use of these sites in public libraries, which is for many, the only access that they have to a computer. Our hope is to be able to amend the bill to take these facts into consideration. We agree that there need to be safeguards put in place for “sexual predators” and any of other crimes that might occur because of the accessibility of information on these sites, but to ban them in schools (including using school computers afterschool) and public libraries, is for many – banning social networking.

I am open to suggestions on how we should better craft our message to convey these facts and express the urgency of this campaign. Today is the first business day that we’ve been able to talk to people about it, as we just found out about it on Friday.

Weblogg-ed » Headline: Congress Targets Social Network Sites: Read Will. This is important stuff….

Sites that are designed to provide the youth of America with a voice and a personality…taken away because of idiotic, misplaced fears.

“We’ve all heard the stories of child predators…” Yeah, and we’ve all heard the one about the hitchhiker with the hook too, but I’m not going to pass a law about it. Its really unbelievable how far some people are willing to bend constitutional rights to further a political agenda. And this bill isn’t going to protect the children.

Sure, it may prevent access to a lot of questionable material on school grounds, but it will also block the ability for students to access even more worthwhile, educational material online as well. Not to mention the growing amount of kids who have access to the Internet outside of school…and out of any chance for supervision or guidance.

I know I’m preaching to the choir here…but seriously, have a little trust in your educators and parents to teach our children responsible behavior in the world, both on-line and off.

Wow. Simply wow.

Will Richardson’s blog entry on this new congressional legislation is frightening to say the least. The very idea is absolutely wrong on so many levels, its difficult to begin to tear it apart…but I’m gonna try.

Schools are…

I just don’t get it.

The “bloggers” had a dramtic impact in your last national election. How do you go about orchestrating a similar effort here? If the opinion of a foreign national can be of any help just tell me who to write to.

I think that we are entering an age where it is safe to say that if a child wants to access information, he or she will find a way to do so whether it be on the school’s computers or by using a computer built into their eyeglasses on the town’s metropolitan wireless network. What matters, as has been stated in several of these comments, is what the child elects to do with the information or technology tool that is available to them. Education is the key.

http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2006/05/quick_call_your.html

there are other teacher requirements and reductions in student freedoms.

I thought the Americans had tried this sort of approach before and found that it didn’t work? So here we go…let’s REALLY get around this messy job of educating our kids by just legislating away school access to not only…