Parental Age Verification

[Dubh Aingeal]

North Carolina is thinking of the children by passing a law requiring parents to verify they are parents before letting their children onto social networking sites. Notwithstanding the whole concept of an Internet ID for people in general; children are now being tracked by cellular phones with GPS, spied upon with Parent Controls (MS Vista has built-in parental spyware), and also strategically placed Nanny Cams, keyboard loggers, etc. 'Few of the proposals we've seen so far seem like good ways to [protect children], but North Carolina's approach at least has the virtue of novelty--unlike most video game legislation, which relies on similar rhetoric but has been almost universally struck down by the courts, sometimes at great cost to the states.' Is the zoo-like Minority Report world in which children are growing up in today doing more harm than good? How will this affect a 14 year old, much less a 17 year old "child"?

[Scary Guy]

Yup, no rights till your 18

....and even then

[know_buddy_kares]

Yup, no rights till your 18

....and even then

I kinda agree with you then again I kinda don't. Like if the kids are really young like 14 and under, then yeah, i can see key loggers for parentel review, however this nation is really having a hard time understanding the importance of privacy. I've posted a thread a while ago about 14 characteristics of fascism, needless to say the lack of reviews, and none commenting reflects in it's own small little way that though people bitch about it, no one cares to learn anything useful. So really look at ourselves, myself included. We are all at fault for letting things get so far out of hand. You can't blame the govt, big business, or technology. You can only blame yourselves for letting them get even this far. (this touched up on more than just this topic, but I found it all relevant.)

[Onyx]

I really hate this sort of crap.

A better option is to be a real parent and pay attention to your child. Communication and LISTENING to the child from infancy will do way more good than acting like a nazi.

If your child reaches their teenage years and does not communicate with you, it's pretty much too late. Even locking the kid up in their room with no computer isn't going to save them, and a keylogger won't either.

[Hellion]

At least they did not have this tech crap when I was younger,things were better back then.

[Amerist]

I wish that I had time to actually read this bill--er, law?--but it seems to me that it becomes totally unenforceable. Who is this legislation holding accountable?

The parents? "No, no honey, just put down that you're eighteen. I don't have time to register myself on MyNewestSpace just to get you access."

The social networking sites? "Nihau, we run our servers out of Xiao Province here in China, where your State laws do not matter to us and do not change our demographic."

I understand that companies like Myspace want to put forward faces that describe them to parents that they are watching out for their children by offering tools and mechanisms for them to control their children's behavior online (giving them more tools beyond direct supervision and the off-switch.) That's nice and lovely but I don't think this can be legislated away.

I think that time and thought would be better spent in educating the public than wasting time on an unenforceable non-tool.

[Scary Guy]

I also hate how they use "for the children" as their battle cry. "for your safety" is a great one too. Or how about "for the good of the country/mankind".