On Moral Panic and DOPA

The article "The Moral Panic over Social Networking Sites" discusses legislation aimed at protecting kids online from child predators.

Three years ago, shortly before the hotly contested 2006 midterm elections in which Democrats won back control of Congress for the first time since 1994, a law was passed in the House of Representatives that would mandate that facilities receiving federal aid block minors from accessing commercial social-networking sites and chat rooms. This law, the Deleting Online Predators Act, passed by a wide margin, 410-15 in July, yet stalled in the Senate and was never signed into law.

Critics of the bill argued that it affected places like libraries and schools, and as a result, economically disadvantaged kids would not be able to access social networking sites like MySpace. Others argued that the bill simply would not work, and that the problem of online predators is simply exaggerated.

Of course, the bill did not stall because of the opponents. The bill stalled when Flordia Republican congressman Mark Foley was revealed to have sent inappropriate emails to male House pages. Coincidentally, this congressman was the chair of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, and had pushed for anti-sex offender laws over his 12 year tenure in the House.

Combined with the accusation that members in leadership positions, such as House Speaker Dennis Hastert knew about the e-mails before the went public, the Republican Party found itself in a position in which they had to somehow change the subject from Mark Foley to something else. Ergo, the bill stalled.

Still, the bill represented what many would call a moral panic as demonstrated below.

1. Concern-Online predators and social networking is something that has been on the minds of millions of people for years. Stories of young people being lured on the internet have been told many times. The popularization of the TV show "Dateline: To Catch a Predator" in which many of the perpetrators lure their fake prey online, may have also contributed to this concern. It's an issue that is on the minds of every parent, many of whom also vote.

2. Hostility-An us vs. them mentality had broken out at that time. This is one of the reasons why the bill passed with such a wide margin. In an election year, nobody wants to look soft on child predators.

3. Consensus-Self-explanatory. The consensus is of the 405 members of the House that voted for this bill.

4. Disproportionality-In the article, Danah Boyd cites a statistic in which out of the 300,000 child abductions that occur every year, only 12 are by strangers. Critics in the article argue that there are already filters in such places as libraries and schools, and that this would simply stifle online expression and prevent economically disadvantaged kids from accessing these sites. These claims do have some merit in my opinion. At the same time, if I were a member of Congress, I would have voted for this bill, for reasons I will explain below.

5. Volatility-This bill packs volatility. The consequences for any semi-vulnerable member who voted against this piece of legislation would be disastorous. Imagine their opponents, the DCCC, the NRCC, and other special interest organizations running ads accusing the congressperson of protecting child predators. It would be enough to make the Willie Horton ad look tame.

For the record, I would have voted for this bill. When I was in high school during the time when SNS was exploding in popularity, we were not allowed to access these sites during schooltime. I firmly believe that a school should be able to regulate access to certain sites if it undermines the academic mission of the school. Going online to MySpace during school hours would, in my opinion, do just that.

I do believe that the opponents of the bill have a point. Still, there's nothing wrong with being a little overreaction when it comes to children safety.

- Here are the names of the 15 representatives that voted against this legislation in 2006. All of them were liberal incumbents in safe Democratic districts.

John Coyners (D-MI)
Raul GrIjalva (D-AZ)
Maurice Hinchey (D-NY)
Mike Honda (D-CA)
Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
Barbara Lee (D-CA)
Zoe Lofgren (D-CA)
Jim McDermott (D-WA)
Donald Payne (D-NJ)
Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)
Bobby Scott (D-VA)
Jose Serrano (D-NY)
Pete Stark (D-CA)
Diane Watson (D-CA)
Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)