Screaming Penguin

Four Congresspeople (guess which political affiliation for yourself) are introducting legislation that would require Schools and Libraries to buy filtering software in order to receive federal dollars for net access. No money is provided to buy the software? "We have received tremendous support from the public on this. It just seems like it's a no-brainer to the average Joe" quoted on of the staffers from the legislators group. Believe it or not many groups are opposing this and the "Christian Coalition" is among them (theres an oxymoron if I ever hear one, Christian Coalition, uh, yeah.) Teacher and library associations oppose the effort and so does the Computer & Communications Industry. The opposition motives of these groups is more obvious. The issue that I have with it is not neccesarily based on an opposition to an infringement on liberties. Bottom line, I think pornography should NOT be readily avialable in schools and libraries. However, I think the bigger issue here is the profound ignorance the Congress yields in dealing with the issue. Yes, its a complicated technical issue, but making each library buy a copy of "Net Nanny" wont do any good. None of the current "filtering" software works very well and it is cumbersome and expensive. This is not a real solution. We do need to teach our children to be "responsible net citizens" but we also need to realize that 8 year olds unsupervised dont always make responsible choices. I think this is a viable issue, but not being approached very realistically. If one fell swoop of some filtering software worked, fine, but it doesnt. I think a more viable solution is supervision in where children under age have access to the internet. In fact I think that is a good edict regardless of pornography. Parents, teachers and librarians need to ensure that children who are not old enough to act responsibly online are supervised. This is certainly easier said than done, but again, you cant filter out the world, you have to teach and guide within it. It takes a lot of work and effort, true, but it is the responsibilty of every parent, teacher, librarian and person taking care of children. The last thing we need is the government to begin legislating the Internet or any other medium. These are the responsibiities of society and no automatic software, rating system or imposed "values" can replace guidance. It may be a "no brainer", but the saying is apt in more ways than one in this case.   Congress mulls Internet filtering : news.com