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I think most would agree that social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook should take additional steps to protect minors that sign up for their services. But do we really need government to get involved? Georgia State Senator Cecil Staton has proposed a bill that would “make it illegal for the owner or operator of a social networking Web site to allow minors to create or maintain a Web page without parental permission.”

In the wild world of Web 2.0, how do you define a social networking web site? What inherent features flags a site as a “social networking web site” and who makes that decision?  And what happens if a social networking website just happens to be based outside of the USA? This kind of legislation raises all sorts of sticky issues that are better left resolved in the private sector.

From the article:

If owners or operators of a company failed to comply with the proposed law, they would be guilty of a misdemeanor on the first offense. A second offense would be a felony and could lead to imprisonment for between one and five years and a fine up to $50,000 or both.

And the real kicker:

Staton said the bill does not tell the companies exactly how to ensure that minors don’t log on without parental permission. The companies can figure that out on their own, he said.

“They can find a way to do this,” Staton said. “That’s my challenge to them.”

Read the rest here.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 26th, 2007 at 5:46 pm and is filed under Government, Social Networking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.