US House: Schools must block MySpace, many other sites
by Marshall Kirkpatrick on July 27, 2006

Image from Flickr user Hey PaulUS House Resolution 5319, the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA), was passed by a 410 to 15 vote tonight. If the Resolution becomes law social networking sites and chat rooms must be blocked by schools and libraries or those institutions will lose their federal internet subsidies. According to the resolution’s top line summary it will “amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require recipients of universal service support for schools and libraries to protect minors from commercial social networking websites and chat rooms.”

Adults will be able to ask for the library’s permission to use such sites. The Resolution will now go to the US Senate for a vote before being offered to the President for signature into law.

The rhetoric from advocates was all about MySpace. For example, Texas Republican Ted Poe says, “social networking sites such as MySpace and chat rooms have allowed sexual predators to sneak into homes and solicit kids.”

An incredibly vague law, DOPA will require schools and libraries to block access to a potentially huge range of sites on the internet. The goal is to protect children from adult predators. Sites that must be blocked include those that allow people to post profiles, include personal information and allow “communication among users.”

410-15 was a shocking vote. I write about it here because it has the potential to impact a huge portion of our readership and the companies we profile on this site. Though the viability of enforcing such a law is open to question, web services offering collaboration in education are looking seriously endangered. Secondary collaborative consequences of commercial web sites used in schools aren’t looking good either. Or perhaps it’s just symbolic of the divide in the US between on one hand those of us who are excited about the incredible potential of web services to enable personal creativity and on-demand global communication and on the other hand those who believe that the internet is just a series of tubes.

I’m not the best person to analyze this though. Here’s who I recommend:

  • Declan McCullagh at ZDNet has posted a very thorough background article on DOPA.
  • Andy Carvin writes Learning Now, a blog about education and technology for PBS, and has set up a page called DOPAWatch to aggregate blog posts on the topic.
  • danah boyd is probably the web’s leading expert in analyzing the politics of MySpace and youth social networking.
  • Will Richardson’s Weblogg-Ed is a great source for all things Learning 2.0
  • Vicki A. Davis is a Christian school teacher in Georgia who uses blogs, wikis, podcasting and more in her classrooms. Vicki has written a number of powerful posts on DOPA and I would expect she’ll have something to say in the morning.

If youth are the most likely adopters of new social software then I think it would be in the interests of all who are interested in social software to watch the US government’s attempts to keep children from it.

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Get to know myspace, be familar with the whole internet. If you had one, and worked on it for a little bit, you’d be just like all the teens wanting to get on theirs at school. And just because you block it at school doesnt mean kids arent going to get on at home anyway. Myspace has privacy settings, and blocking tools to help hide teens from
“sexual predators” and its not like Every single kid is stupid enough to talk to people they don’t know. Get a myspace, try it out, its not a bad place. And NEWSFLASH people—kids can get on myspace from schools and libraries any way. Kids are accually smart, and should be trusted with myspace.

 

Kids should be trusted. And People trying to bring myspace down in schools should check out myspae for themselves.

If kids are stupid enough to give out their info, then its their fault sexual predators got them. But kids are intelligent, and they do set their profiles to private.

This whole thing is stupid, at least at school teens are supervised on myspace, at home is where the real problem is with parental supervision.

 

Its usless blocking myspace. Get over yourselves.

 

KIDS SHOULD BE TRUSTED WITH MYSPACE!!!

 

I don’t think they should take myspae away from schools and libraries. Why would teens at schools do bad things online while theyre being monitored by teachers in the room?? seriously, its more of a problem at home unsupervised. Kids in my opinion are smarter than adults judging by this article. FYI myspace is a very safe place, with privacy settings and such, and maybe even more safe than malls, public places, and maybe even schools. Think about it for a minute. Check out myspace for yourselves.

 

You can access myspace from school via online web proxy server, hide your IP address and bypass firewall restrictions:

http://www.hidemyway.com (you can LOGIN to MySpace and access your profile easy from school, working on 13.11.2006!!!!!)

http://www.msproxy.net and http://www.surfinter.net

If this is not working please contact webmaster and we will setup other proxies before school ban it.

ENJOY

 

HEY GUYS WOW ITS WORKING TRY THIS CGI BASED PROXY

http://WWW.MYSCHOOLPROXY.COM

 
Anonymous junior in high school... - November 15th, 2006 at 9:51 am PST

I’d like to say that 1) I absolutely agree with the fact that all workplaces and schools blocking myspace is, lightly said, unfair, meaningless, and downrite ignorant. I’d like to argue that doing so is, in a sense, an invasion upon first amendment rights. Freedom of speech? Myspace is an indirect form of speech-communicating with friends and familars. Yes, some students and teens may use myspace and related sites for talking with complete strangers, but that is NO excuse to punish all for these people….what they choose to do is on themselves…it should not fall on the locations where they use myspace. Secondly, 2) whoever said that video games, televison, and the internet is “poisening” today’s youth is full of shit. These aspects do not influence teens as negatively as adults would like to believe. Adults are just DYING to find reasons to blame their own neglect of their children on other sources. Remember, it’s not these things that taint children today, it’s a lack of parenting. In short, the blockage of mypace is pointless and well, retarded. If I could only urge all high school students nation wide to sign a petition…..hmmm….*ponders*

Thanks, but no thanks for the dumbass decision,
Anonymous

 

omg none of these work my school is MAJORLY smart with all these proxys! anyone got one that is sure to work?

 

I THINK FETCH.NU WILL WORK FOR TOUR SCHOOL IF NOT GET BAK AT ME

 

find a web site so i can get on myspace from my school like everything is block

 

myspace is just to keep up with friend i honestly the people for blocking myspace in school are ignorant

 
 
 
 

this is all stupid. being on websites dont make peolpe bad……some kids just wanna jave fun and have some free time…….they hafe to wrok all day and i mean even in stuyhalls they should atleast be able to do what they want…………. and if you took a vote of the students at school they would tell u how preshured they are……….jut hear me out and understand

 

This is so Stupid I think they should let us have a myspace!!!!! find a way and post it…>

 

hey my school has almost all the proxies blocked and whenever i find a new one they block it and it sucks cuase we have our own laptops and they block everything on those too so if anyone knows any really good proxies pleaseee email mee ::: misa3121@yahoo.com

 

i think that myspace is not that important to have in school. I mean please do you people really have to worry about myspace that much that your going to complain about not checking it in school. I guess you really dont have a life then. Wait and go home to worry about myspace. You should worry about more important things than how its dumb to have have myspace blocked at school. WTF

 

hey my computer teacher at school has cut all of the proxysites i know and we like to go on bebo………..so if youz have any sites can you hook it up thanks……….bpaku@hatopaora.school.nz

 

I think it’s really silly that MySpace is blocked at school. I am 15 and would really wish to have MySpace back on the school sites. To be honest, i’m spending more of my time looking for unblocker sites than I would spend on MySpace if it wasn’t blocked. I think children our age have a right to their own freedom to do what they wanna do, when they wanna do it. To be perfectly honest, teenagers and young adults are less vunerable viewing websites like MySpace and Bebo at school than they are at home where some parents have no control over which sites are viewed and for how long.

I’m not some silly little girl who gives her email address and phone number to some random person. Or tell them where I live. And most children wouldn’t. Only some idiots would and at the end of the day, if something bad happens to them, it’s their own fault, although I wouldn’t wish anything bad on anyone :)

Thanks for reading and in all honesty, I hope some dumbass teachers come looking on this and read my post cause they need a reality check.

Start living in the real world people!

Xxxx

 

I really think I should be able to get on myspace. I use it to communicate with my mentor for my internship. THAT IS EDUCATIONAL. fjaskdfjasdf

 

Try http://www.schoolsproxy.com

SHould be able to get you into myspace.

 

this is very stupid because they’ll end of finding a way to unblock it or jus a way around it which means spending more money on the website they are using to get to the website that it is blocking why spend money on something unnecessary and spend it on something that is going to help us an at that you cant stop anyone from getting to any website regardless its sooo stupid

 

Why is everyone calling each other names and bitching at each other? opitions are everyones. The problem is they can’t trust us if they give it back to us. Insted of doing our work thats what we will do and we all know it and so do they. Stand up for your rights and complain to the government not the school. They dont control it and never will, the first law/ admemdent states freedom of speech and assembly. Myspace is an online assembly which entertains as well as informs us all about everythign we want and need to know about our world. From music to government and news. We all want it and need it ask your teachers if they have a myspace and see what they say.

-Julie

 

hey my fukin gay ass skool blocked sum websites and dey wont let me go on dem…………..if anyone knos how to get to dem e-mail me at juanci1992@hotmail.com……i really appreciate it

tHX

 

Your gay up the but mannnnnn….. myspace is the best your probably just saying that because you say screw the world every day and you have a problem with your life and someone made fun of you on myspace because your gayer than gay you frekin pus. f—- you

i hope you took this nicely because its coming from my heart!!!! no hard feelings-0——————Thanks anyway fu—ing gaywad

just joking

 

Block them in schools, kids are not their to socialize. At home monitor them most kids don’t have the maturity to use it correctly.
Visit http://www.theparentsedge.com to help

 

I LOVE MYSPACE ITS THE ONLY WAY I KEEP IN CONTACT WITH MY FRIENDS BUT YEAH AND MY PROFILES PRIVATE TO EVRE1 EXCEPT THE PPL I ACCEPT SO IM SAFE BUT THIS IS A VIOLATION OF OUR RIGHTS SAYS THE CONSTITUION!!!!! I OBJECT TO THIS BILL!!!!!!!!!!

 

umm i think its retarded that the scool block myspace beucsae ome people say that kids go on myspace for porn well at school if u tpe in google porn and look throught google for some porn the pages are not blocked so the only reason y they block my space i because they dont wwant the kids to be talking to each other well they havent block aim yet so we still talk to each other

 

Why are all of you people getting so uptight about the schools blocking Myspace.com. You act like it’s your life and you have to be on there 24/7. Here’s an idea, get a life. You all look pathetic coming on these message boards complaining that Myspace has been blocked. You’re at school to learn, not dwell on myspace the whole time. If you’re going to do that do it at home and not whine about not being able to get on for a certain period of time of your life.

 

fuck thaT SHIT HOW CAN U DO THAT JUST SOME DOES IT DOES THAT MEAN EVER ONE IS LIKE THAT

 
 

That just is not right doing that to us kids. why is it a good iddea to do that to myspace. If you do it to myspace you can at least let uis play runescape in school……??????????????

 

u r all dumb fuck heads ur talking on a government website nd giving them more proxys to block u stupid fuckers and as far as im conserned the government can go suck sum hairy balls

 

how da fuck r u guys fanna blck myspace it’s da only website that iz fun people go to myspace for a reason and that reason iz for to calm people down when their stressed and to have fun and other reason by da mothafuckin school thingy blockin websites it makes us mad cause every lil thing we click on sum stupid ass shit pops up and says that this site blck and that ain’t fair if ya bastards think it iz right to dat then go ahead but wat goes around comes around

 

Ok now, I would have to say that I am half and half on the subject. Schools should not block myspace. But kids should be responsible enough to not go on the site if they are in school because you are not there to sit online. You can do that at home. You get one chance in High School and College. You need to make the right choices for your future.

 

this is the dumbest shit ever fuck the gorvernment I hope you all wake up read this and then commit suicide including the police you smelly fuckin pieces of pork I dont give a fuck what the laws say we will find a way to get on myspace even if it is blocked the stupid fuckin government cares more about blocking myspace and making weed illegal than they do about stuff that really matters FUCK YOU GORNMENT

 

Any way yaw sum dum asses tryna prevent kids 4m usin myspace shit yaw blockin erythang else yaw fuckin lame doin dat 2 all dezz damn kids yaw need to stop sayn its the fuckin rapist yaw da fuckin rapist dats y yaw dont wont us on der because we found out

 

dude this shyt is fukin reatrded, teachers shouldt even care wut we do er talk about on myspace. so fukin fine a way to un-block all the sites that teens wanna go on, fuckers!

 

i need to get into myspace!!

im at scchool does anyone know how to get in from school?

 

this is so gay i need a way of getting in!

 

None of these proxies actually work for my school. Whenever I try one it says it’s blocked because of “anonymizers” or something to that effect. I am not doing it just to get on myspace and all that. What is really sucky is that even when I’m doing a research project or something, our filter cuts it all out because of “porn” and “forums”. I’m surprised this site actually slipped through. Does anyone have one that can skip through it? The filter is called SMARTFILTER. Which it’s a piece of crap because most students have to do research at home because “porn” pops up when you try to look at pictures…

 

hey i have a way of getting around school blocks go to http://www.fetch.nu and type in the website you want to go to and it takes you there works on all websits including myspace

 

unblock myspace or a bunch of kids are going to say fuck school and just wanna go home and fail school.

 

My school doesn’t block http://www.hostingproxy.com just about the only one left that works from a huge list I’ve been trying

 

sniff my hole lol

 

i am sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo WIERD!!!!

 
 

The most retarded law of all, this one!

 

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