(no subject)
1/8/06 16:45So the House just passed the Deleting Online Predators Act, which would force public libraries to ban access to MySpace, Livejournal, Facebook, etc., on computers that minors can access.
Now, this is wrong, because, first of all, it will do absolutely nothing to delete online predators. And also because they drummed the Librarian Orthodoxy into me in library school, which is that it is wrong to restrict access to whatever kind of information for whatever purpose. Of course, I have no objection whatsoever to Livejournal, and I may not use MySpace but I know perfectly well that it has a lot of harmless uses (even if you consider giant flashing sparkly letters to constitute "harm").
...But can I admit it would make my job a little easier if I didn't have to deal with MySpace making the computers crash, not to mention the long lines for the computer made up primarily of kids wanting to get on MySpace?
(Not that anyone ever said my job should be easy).
Now, this is wrong, because, first of all, it will do absolutely nothing to delete online predators. And also because they drummed the Librarian Orthodoxy into me in library school, which is that it is wrong to restrict access to whatever kind of information for whatever purpose. Of course, I have no objection whatsoever to Livejournal, and I may not use MySpace but I know perfectly well that it has a lot of harmless uses (even if you consider giant flashing sparkly letters to constitute "harm").
...But can I admit it would make my job a little easier if I didn't have to deal with MySpace making the computers crash, not to mention the long lines for the computer made up primarily of kids wanting to get on MySpace?
(Not that anyone ever said my job should be easy).