Heroes at the DOPA hearing

Yesterday I was able to listen to a live stream of a hearing on DOPA, the Deleting Online Predators Act. If passed, the Act would prohibit schools and libraries that receive federal e-rate funding from allowing users to access commercial social networking sites. A number of wonderful expert witnesses presented testimony on why this Act is not the magic bullet that will protect children online and, in fact, may end up making them more vulnerable. Amanda Lenhart from the Pew Internet in American Life Project was awesome, as were Chris Kelly from Facebook, Parry Aftab from Wired Safety, and Beth Yoke from the Young Adult Library Services Association of ALA. I played a teeny-tiny part in the drama by serving on an ad hoc committee that developed an FAQ document on the use of social networking software in libraries. Beth submitted it as part of her testimony.

It was disheartening and frustrating to listen to the testimony from the "other side" and to the questions posed by some of the of Congressional committee members. The incredible fixation on MySpace as the spawn of all evil revealed a larger ignorance about the Internet, about social networking software, and about the role of schools and libraries.

I strongly recommend listening to the archived stream of the hearing. If you click on the name of each witness, you can download the testimony as a pdf file. No one from our district is on the Committee, but you can still make your voice heard.