Connecticut Wants Myspace to do the State’s Job
Published March 8th, 2007It is the state’s job to protect the citizenry. Typically, if a criminal enters a playground at McDonald’s and abducts a child, McDonald’s isn’t held responsible. And yet, just because they’re on the internet, Connecticut wants to hold Myspace liable if a predator meets and abducts a child using their website.
Granted I realize it’s not a perfect analogy - analogies never are. But the concept is similar - if a crime occurs within the domain of a business, only in very rare situations is that business held liable for that activity. It would be absurd to pass a law holding businesses liable for the actions of criminals on their property! It is not the business’ fault that the criminal chose their site to break the law.
And that is the root logic flaw in the Connecticut Myspace bill. It’s absurd on it’s face. But furthermore, given the nature of Myspace’s business, checking the age of minors and gaining parental consent is virtually impossible. No business has that kind of resources without some sort of governmental help. And the words that come out of the politicians’ mouths…good lord.
“The technology is available. The solution is financially feasible, practically doable,” he said. “If we can put a man on the moon, we can check ages of people on these Web sites.”
Uh huh. Well, last time I checked, astrophysics and engineering had little to do with checking the ages of people on websites. Honestly. You can apply logic this flawed to pretty much any problem, if this is the standard! Observe:
“The technology is available. The solution is financially feasible, practically doable,” he said. “If we can put a man on the moon, we can invade and stabilize Iraq.”
“The technology is available. The solution is financially feasible, practically doable,” he said. “If we can put a man on the moon, we can eliminate cancer.”
“The technology is available. The solution is financially feasible, practically doable,” he said. “If we can put a man on the moon, we can achieve world peace.”
I mean, you can say anything as long as they’re not related! I can drive a car, because I have nostrils. Hooray!
Anyway, here’s the salient point of the law:
Under the proposal, any networking site that fails to verify ages and obtain parental permission of users under 18 would face civil fines up to $5,000 per violation. Sites would have to check information about parents to make sure it is legitimate. Parents would be contacted directly when necessary.
Ok - so a kid puts in his name for an account. Presumably, he has to put his parents’ names in and contact information as well. But what’s to stop him from falsifying that information? What’s to stop him from giving a bogus cell # of a friend? How much investigative work will Myspace be required to do? In any case, a kid who wants to get on can get an account. One way or another. How does this protect even a single child? Even if their parents approve, then what? He’s on Myspace, just as before. It doesn’t even address the real criminals.
Now perhaps you’re thinking this bill will keep kids on Myspace from meeting any predators that pose as children. First, the predator can just put himself down as the parent, and a ficticious kid (or god forbid, an actual son or daughter) as the account user. Myspace calls up, and the predator has a child’s account. Once again the bill fails to do anything at all.
If you want Myspace to do a basic check on a person to see if they’re a convicted sex offender, fine, pass that law. It won’t work very well either, but at least it addresses the criminals directly. Policing the children does nothing. Either ban them completely or go after the criminals. Remember, some criminals are very clever. And some can even fool experts on children. If a school and its employees can’t pick out an adult among the children, face to face and in person with all the government tools at their disposal, how can Myspace be expected to properly check its 100 million strong userbase?
Connecticut (and the “10 or 20 other states considering similar bills”) - stop wasting taxpayer money with useless, ineffective laws. If you want to go after criminals - go after the criminals. Don’t pass laws that restrict legitimate businesses and kids just trying to connect with their friends.
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