US votes to ban social networking sites

By Simon Aughton

Posted on 3 Aug 2006 at 10:27

The US House of Representative has voted almost unanimously to ban social networking sites from schools and public libraries.

The Deleting Online Predators bill was passed by 410 votes to 15 and forces taxpayer-funded bodies to block children's access to sites such as MySpace.

Opponents of the bill claim that its definition of social networking sites is so vague that the law could be used willy-nilly by the administering body, the Federal Communications Commission, to restrict access to sites that were never meant to come under its remit.

The American Library Association said that people who use library and school computers as their main points of access to the Internet will be unfairly blocked from accessing some of the Web's most powerful emerging technologies.

'This unnecessary and overly broad legislation will hinder students' ability to engage in distance learning and block library computer users from accessing a wide array of essential Internet applications including instant messaging, email, wikis and blogs, ' said ALA president Leslie Burge.

Out-law.com reports that the bill suggests that the FCC deems any site that allows users to edit a profile, chat to users or post personal data as a social networking site

'Under that loose definition a very large number of sites would qualify, including Amazon.com, which allows users to post lists of preferences and create profiles of authors, Ebay, in which each user has a profile which changes as they shop, or any number of major news sites [such as this one], where users can discuss stories online,' Out-law notes.