Kicking Over My Traces

Leonard Witt at PJNet shines a light on bad Internet regulation in the state of Georgia:

Here is the essense of the bill SB 59 (georgia-kid-law.pdf) with Arne’s insert in brackets:

It shall be illegal for the owner or operator of a social networking website [myspace, facebook, linkedin, probably blogger] to allow a minor [under 18] using a protected computer [i.e., one in Georgia] to create or maintain a profile web page on a social networking website without the permission of the minor’s parent or guardian and without providing such parent or guardian access to such profile web page at all times.

First offense is a misdemeanor, second is a felony with imprisonment up to five years.

Arne is Paul Arne, co-chair of the technology group and the privacy and security group at the law firm Morris, Manning & Martin.

Any website operator with a community forum that requires user registration could be exposed to prosecution.

Tags: Internet, online crime, online predators, state of Georgia

This entry was posted on Monday, February 18th, 2008 at 6:19 am +0000 GMT and is filed under Internet, Regulation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.