According to USA Today, “Congress is considering a bill that would bar children who use computers in public libraries from accessing Facebook and other social networking websites without parental permission.” The law is a measure to protect children from sexual predators. Others are arguing that this interferes with “library users’ privacy and free speech”.
I have to agree with those that argue that this interferes with privacy and free speech. While children should be protected from sexual predators, banning them from having access to social networks is not the way to do it. The again, it should be up to the school to determine what technologies students have access to while on campus. For instance should students be able to bring their portable video game system with them into class?
There is no doubt that students are not involved in the most productive activities while browsing social networks whether at school or at home. Simply put, even without a plethora of game applications, social networks are about as productive as playing video games: there is really no productive value currently. This may be one of the fundamental issues preventing social networks from further monetizing their platforms.
Users of social networks are ultimately not gaining much productive value. The bill being discussed is banning students from social networks at school due to the risk of sexual predators. Ultimately, I don’t think this is the best way to approach the issue. Do you think students should be banned from social networks at school?
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Thanks for all your posts, I dig the blog.
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Chatting and hanging out should be limited to breaks - but tools like Facebook, micro-social networks or wikis could be used for project work, or school events, and even letting pupils from different classes/years come together to work on schoolwork.
While they might come into contact with more harassment via social networks, I've yet to see anyone dispute the claim that most child abuse comes from someone the child already knows in real life - and bearing in mind social networks etc are becoming more and more prevalent in daily life, it makes sense to educate children early about the best way to use them (both for safety and productivity), rather than trying to pretend they don't exist.
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