SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – A bill is under consideration by the Illinois state senate to ban social networking Web sites, such as Myspace, from being accessible at public libraries and schools.
State Senator Matt Murphy is sponsoring the bill to deter potential online sexual predators from reaching minors in places where Internet access is not necessarily limited by parents. The bill faces opposition from those who feel restrictions currently in place at a large number of institutions are already enough to deter sexual predators. They also feel the law would be too broad to effectively implement and police as there are hundreds of alternative social networking sites devoted to a various other sub-topics, such as communications between overseas soldiers and their families and homework help.
This latest bill harkens back to legislation introduced to the U.S. Congress last year, as mentioned in a previous CS news item. While making it through the House of Representatives, the bill faltered in Senate. State officials in Georgia and North Carolina have also made attempts at regulating public social networking Web site access.
