Fighting Terrorism by Banning Facebook

Yahoo reports today that Congress is considering banning social networking sites from public schools and libraries. Popular websites such as MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, and dozens of other social networking sites are the targets of Congress that want to eliminate student access while at school or libraries. The Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) which was passed by the House of Representatives will allow the Federal Communications Commission to ban any sites that include personal information, online profiles, journals, and the like within public schools and libraries. The American Library Association is protesting the passage for such legislation on the basis that it infringes on civil liberties. Many schools have their own personal firewalls and filters that block access to such sites deemed inappropriate by each institution. This seems a much more common sense approach to dealing with Internet security. Ramble On believes that the government should stick to more important issues with a broader scope, rather than worrying about whether school students are checking their MySpace profile.