Connecticut Wants to Restrict Social Networking

csefft writes "According to the Hartford Courant, Connecticut became the latest state to want to restrict the use of MySpace and other social networking sites. The proposed bill would require that all such sites verify the identity and age of users, as well as get parent's permission for those under 18. Sites that failed to comply would be subject to a $5,000 per day fine. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said of the proposition, 'If we can put a man on the moon, we can verify age on the Internet,' but quickly followed with the acknowledgment that there is no foolproof method."

Anyone miss the 20's?

Sure, no better way to stop people from wanting something is prohibiting it.

Wait a sec...

Re:Anyone miss the 20's?

If we can put a man on the moon...

• ... we can build cars that drive themselves.
• ... teletransportation doesn't seem so difficult to develop.
• ... we can make those autodriving cars fly.
• ... we can deploy safe cold fusion in your living room.
• ... cancer's cure will be announced in a matter of minutes (by a non-Iranian country)
• ... etc

That argument is the most stupid one I've heard in ages. Someone please establish a connection between NASA getting someone to the Moon and MySpace verifying users' authenticy*. I'm really curious.

* What really creeps me out is that someone WILL find one and be modded both funny and insightful.

Re:Anyone miss the 20's?

On the moon, we could construct a special government base with massive telescopes aimed at the earth. Whenever someone tries to activate an account on myspace, this special moon-base is notified, and using the giant telescopes, we look at the person, and verify their age. This could a step where you hold your drivers license up towards the sky, or out the window.

Lawmakers in Connecticut are absolutely gienus for developing this new age verification method based on space travel. I'm going to move there now.

Re:Anyone miss the 20's?

Someone saying "if we can put a man on the moon, we surely should be able to do X" is a certain sign that this someone does not have the faintest idea of what he is talking about.

Re:Anyone miss the 20's?

Someone saying "if we can put a man on the moon, we surely should be able to do X" is a certain sign that this someone does not have the faintest idea of what he is talking about.

What is even funnier is the fact that right now, we can't readily put a man on the moon. However, back when we could put a man on the moon, we could also readily verify the age of everyone on the internet.

Re:Anyone miss the 20's?

Someone please establish a connection between NASA getting someone to the Moon and MySpace verifying users' authenticy.

They both can be faked in highly convincing manners? MySpace could start verifying with credit card info, which one can obtain by going through Mom's purse. And NASA can go to a remote desert location, add a mat painting, let the motion blur of a low speed camera, "signal interference", and "audio static" make it all more authentic.

However, about as technology progresses, it may become easier to scrub the original tapes of the footage and discover the fraud, so they conveniently "lose" the original footage so they can make new "masters" with the same tech so that are harder to detect.

I don't believe the moon landing didn't happen, I'm just playing Devil's advocate.

just one problem...

If we can put a man on the moon, we can verify age on the Internet

Too bad the moon landing never happened!

Dilbert Equivalent

If we can put a man on the moon, we can verify age on the Internet

When I saw that quote, I immediately thought of a Dilbert strip. Luckily, somebody already put the transcript online [blogspot.com]:

Pointy-haired boss: "If we can put a man on the moon, we can build a computer made entirely of recycled paper."

Dilbert: "Your flawed analogy only shows that other people can do things."

Boss: "Maybe you should call other people and ask how they do it."

Dilbert: "Maybe they use good analogies."

Someone has to say it.

'If we can put a man on the moon, we can verify age on the Internet,'

And just like putting a man on the moon can be faked, so can you fake your age on the Internet.

PS: I am not implying the moon landing was faked.

It's easy!

We just have age verified via a webcam, typically by viewing the secondary sex characteristics that come with puberty. Other visitors to the site can rate the newbie as "MILF", "jailbait", or "hot coed". Obviously the jailbait applicants can't actually "register", but will instead have their images archived off as counterexamples to future applicants.

Re:It's easy!

clearly you have neglected the inevitable 'eye bleach required' entries.

Re:

I suppose the idea is that verification will be "simple" because every adult can just verify using a credit card. Oh, wait -- you don't have a credit card or you don't like to use your credit card or give out the details to every website you come across? W

Costs

'If we can put a man on the moon, we can verify age on the Internet,' but quickly followed with the acknowledgment that there is no foolproof method.

So the question is, is the government willing to pay the amount of money it would require to make that kind of age verification system, much like they were willing to pay the money required to put a man on the moon? Oh wait, no, the companies have to pay for it.

Re:Costs

I'm sure a large marketing media company run Rupert Murdock could never find any use for being "forced" by the government to collect "verification" information on all of its users. They certainly could be no benefit for that kind of company to create that kind of customer database.

Re:Costs

How are you going to age verify for any reasonable amount of money with multiple users on a home computer? In an average home environment, how is a computer supposed to tell if dad, mom, or kids are using at any given time? Even if a corporation WANTED to, it's a fool's errand.

So the question becomes

Pay the 1.825 million a year fine or just drop Connecticut?

What defines a "social networking" site

I suspect any site that allows message posting could be considered a social networking site under a poorly-crafted law and this will surely be poorly-crafted.

oh geez.....

We can put a man on the moon, so we can verify ages on the Internet? Yes, that makes a great logical leap there. We can build a car, that doesn't mean we can create skynet.

Why don't we also require some sort of age verification before anyone can call 1-900 numbers? There is no verification for that, and yet it's accessible to minors. OMG!!! Won't someone think of the children??

Oh wait, it's to stop older men from hurting younger women. I guess that means that someone is, just not the parents. Seriously, where does parental responsibility start these days?

Re:oh geez.....

"We can put a man on the moon, so we can put 10 men on the moon, leave them there, and make a reality show out of it on the Internet..."

How does this work?

Does MySpace have to geolocate IP addresses & kick people from Connecticut through a verification process?

Maybe MySpace will change their signup process so that when you select "Connecticut" as your home state, you go through some verification process.

What if you pretend to be from another state, create your account, then change it to Connecticut? Does MySpace have to go back and verify your age?

Ontop of all that, how the F**K are they supposed to get your parents permission?
How do they verify that the "parent" actually is your legal guardian?

Trying to find technical solutions to a social problem is an uphill battle.

Blumenthal said parental permission might involve downloading a form, filling it out and mailing it to the site. Or perhaps requiring a parent to call and speak to a representative of the site.

Note how he uses words like "might" and "perhaps". The politicians have no clue how it could possibly be implemented.

Re:How does this work?

Note how he uses words like "might" and "perhaps". The politicians have no clue how it could possibly be implemented.

Note that verifying ages is not going to stop 14 year old girls from talking to 18 year old guys, either. What are they supposed to do, prevent children from viewing the myspace profiles of adults and vice versa? Maybe the government should just build a Children's Earth and send all the children there, and ship them back when they turn 18. Maybe they should also build a Stupid Idiot planet and go there themselves.

Re:

I fail to see why MySpace would even be under the jurisdiction of the Connecticut legislature - their servers are located in LA. Interstate commerce and all that.

Re:

Ontop of all that, how the F**K are they supposed to get your parents permission?

Kid: Hey, wanna earn $5?
Bum: Sure. You want beer or cigarettes?
Kid: Uh, neither. Can you just verify its OK with you that I use MySpace?
Bum: MySpace!? I may be a bum b

But but but...

Without teens on myspace where will I get my anti-emo rage from?

We should encourage them to whine and mop about how life is sooooo tough in middle-class suburbia.

Tom

Re:

Liar, I have no friends.

don't tell me he's one of those

'If we can put a man on the moon, we can verify age on the Internet,' but quickly followed with the acknowledgment that there is no foolproof method."

Foolproof method of what? putting a man on the moon?

If it moves regulate it.

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. -- Ronald Regan, February 4, 1986

so true..

Rep [r]: Whats this MySpace thing Bob?
Rep [d]: I dont know but its unregulated so it must be illegal. ... Free nation ehh.. where?

And one thing has to do with the other... how?

If we can put a man on the moon, we can verify age on the Internet.

Congratulations, mr. Blumenthal. You are now a honorary member of the American Non Sequitur Society. Your membership card is on its way. Which, of course, brings the question: what's your favorite pizza topping?

Lazy parents.

There's enough of this "think of the children" crap when the majority of it could easily be solved by parents actually monitoring their children instead of relying on technology and things such as this. It's simple. All of these MySpace lawsuits and whatnot are complete bull, because every one of them could have been avoided if the parents actually paid attention to what their children were doing.

Re:Lazy parents.

Mod parent +1 (did I say that right? sorta new to this lingo =D). But to get back on topic, that is precisely where the responsibility lies. The Amish solved the problem nicely (although a bit extreme but that's just my opinion ;)). A slashdotter's signature I saw a few days ago was a quote by Heinlein about censorship. The same applies here; to paraphrase an old (East) Indian folktale - it's rather silly to install carpets in the entire kingdom; just wear a pair of shoes :P.

Conclusion: American politicians and american parents need to learn the philosphy of wearing shoes =D.

Re:

This isn't necesarily as easy as it sounds. Let me tell you some of my experiences.

I monitor my children's internet usage, but what about friends? My oldest daughter is 11 and she has a friend the same. Her friend's parents seem to be quite relaxed a

Re:Lazy parents.

Every single one of your scenarios involves adults controlling their children directly. Stop attacking the symptoms and go for the cause. Raise your child to be responsible, and trust them. If you can't do this - then that isn't my problem, nor is it myspace's. Leave our internet alone.

Whats next? Your kid has a friend with an XBOX? ZOMG! We can't let that happen - lets have laws mandating that all XBOX Live voice chat must go through age verification.

Of course, even if you put constraints on all media/communication ever (may that day never come to pass), your kid will still just be able to wander down the street to the local mall and pick up the hot older guys. The internet isn't nearly this bad, since it requires your kid to be really stupid and post personal information in order to be harmed.

When I was a kid, my parents told me not to do stupid things, and then (for the most part) left me alone. They didn't scream in my ear to stay away from drugs. Far from it. My dad said they felt great ... then he went through all the withdrawl symptoms. He told me which ones were probably best left alone, and which probably wouldn't do anything to you at all - despite what the DARE officer may say. He, of course, said he would prefer me not to do drugs, and they should never be in the house, but my life was mine to screw up as I please. To this day, I have not done any drugs. I have immense respect for the trust my parents placed in me, and that alone kept me more in line than any punishment I can remember.

If we can put a man on the moon...

WTF don't we just send all the politicians there?

Re:

Brilliant. And then we'll see if they can legislate their way back to Earth.

One fundamental problem...

Accurate age verification essentially requires accurate identity verification. And if this is mandatory, then anonymity is completely impossible.

Anonymity has long been a valuable component of free speech, and eliminating this is disastrous.

Re:

We are talking about social networking sites in the US, not some political organization in China. Anonymity in this case is not about free speech, but about the "right" to not take responsibility for what we say. Personally, I find anonymity more of a prob

Re:

Anonymity in this case is not about free speech, but about the "right" to not take responsibility for what we say.

How about the right to not be held to consequences for our political speech? If 50% of the employer's in the country would fire you for your

Do states even have the authority?

It seems this would be Federal(FCC) turf like all other telecom.

At last I understand!

Finally I understand why JFK was so keen on getting us to the Moon! It wasn't for science, it wasn't to win the space race or intimidate the Soviets, it was so that, in the future, once the Internet was usable by the masses, mankind would have the knowledge to be able to find out how old people are! Just think, if we hadn't gone to the Moon, we might not be able to do that, not over the Internet at any rate...

Man on the moon?

"If we can put a man on the moon, we can verify age on the Internet" ...

But we can't proove either worked

Great idea!

We know how well the physical age verification works at bars, tobacco/liquor shops, etc. </sarcasm>

One big difference...

There's one big difference, Mr. Blumenthal, between putting a man on the Moon and verifying someone's age over the Internet: when you're trying to put a man on the Moon, the laws of physics aren't lying to you at every turn.

Enforcable?

Is this even enforcible if it gets passed?

What if MySpace simply decides to not do business in Connecticut (as in, have no office nor servers there). Can they enforce the $5000 fine? What if MySpace simply doesn't pay up? Connecticut isn't simply going to filter MySpace, is it?

I think it's just going to be like those Russian servers hosting warez. The stuff on there may not be allowed in many countries, but while it's in Russia, the only thing the US and European countries can seem to do is take action against the actual users.

False Comparison

You know what the biggest problem is with the old "If they can put man on the moon, why can't they [X]" cliche? People who use it don't limit it to reasonable and/or humorous accomplishments, like "make a blister pack that doesn't cut you to ribbons opening it". No, instead we get an incessant parade of morons who can't tell the difference between a collaborative effort towards a single narrow goal, and a huge, distributed task with multiple causes. We get idiots wondering why we can't "fix the slums", "stop drunk driving", or (in this case) "positively verify age over the internet". I say we work together to stamp this out. The next time someone utters the "man on the moon" comparison in a non-humorous context, we all agree to rush them and punch them in the stomach until they shut up.

If they can put a man on the moon, then why can't we stop them from comparing stuff to putting a man on the moon?

In other news...

...in other news Montanna has outlawed those under 18 from speaking to anyone else under 18 citing cases of extreme violence caused by children teasing each other. President Bush has applauded this move saying it's about time a state take steps to stop needless violence in America.

Information for tracking the bill

I contacted Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal's office and was advised that the initiative is being handled by the General Law Committee [ct.gov]. I contacted their office on 09 March 2007 and was informed that the proposed legislation would likely be attatched to House Bill #6981 [ct.gov]
-PHiZ

Goodbye Anonymous Coward

"Social Networking Site" is a buzzword, not a legal categorization. What would make MySpace a target for this law, and Slashdot exempt? The fact that you can have a page of your own (Slashdot has journals), add friends (Friends, Freaks and Foes) or send private messages (on Slashdot your email can be publicly visible?)

Unless the law specifically named the sites to be restricted (which of course would not be possible) or they figure out a way to specify exactly what separates MySpace or Facebook from, say, a forum for a Warcraft guild (which would be possible, I suppose, but probably not by anyone fool enough to come up with such a law) then no site will be safe from the repurcussions.

Re:

Mod parent +1 That's EXACTLY what I was thinking. We should be spending more time educating stupid parents about what their children are doing, not essentially banning people from the internet. AIM is considered social networking, MSN is considered social

Never Worked

If the state could stop me from buying alcohol under age 21, it would have, but it didn't. Didn't stop it from trying, though.

Instead, my parents raised me right, and I learned to drink without driving or anything else stupid.

Making sure kids are exposed to only healthy environments is the parents' job, not the state's. Because the state will only get it awfully wrong, while parents can get it right for the specific kid.

The state might have to punish parents when their kids actually damage someone (or themselves) by taking more risks than they can handle. But starting from the point that no parents can allow their kids to do things they are ready for, even though they're not at the arbitary state age, just damages another generation of kids who should be learning from those actually responsible for them, not some official puritans and their nerveless, clumsy bureaucratic hands. Even if the scaredy-nannies want to vote for the latest buzzkill-in-chief.

Greater Implications

Whether or not the logistical nightmare of internet age verification is something that Myspace could deal with is one question, but this whole situation raises others. Most importantly, what will be the definition of a social networking site, besides Myspace? Facebook, certainly. Personals sites, like Yahoo Personals, or eHarmony? What about anything IM-related, which would include Google/Gmail? Craigslist, or even Angieslist? Slashdot? Any site with any sort of a forum or bulletin board can act as a social networking venue, no? Does this mean that if I want to have a guestbook on my band's website I'll have to verify ages and get parental consent for minors who want to say "hi"? This doesn't look doable, and I doubt any such legislation would survive multiple courts once it was tested.