Connecticut's Plan to Regulate Myspace

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is on a mission to regulate myspace. He charges that MySpace has not done enough to safeguard the young teenagers that use the site. He is coordinating legislation with the Connecticut General Assembly that targets MySpace for regulation. The law as it is written would require everybody to provide their personal details to MySpace, and underage users' parents would have to verify their information in order for their children to use the website.

Blumenthal's legislation purports to target all "social networking sites." There are several problems with this bill. The definition of "social networking sites" describes just about the entire Web 2.0 Internet. Plus, this is the first step in abolishing ALL anonymity on the Internet. This video outlines several of the serious problems inherent in this legislation.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3123399059003589100

Please contact your legislators, and let them know that regulating the Internet requires much more thought and understanding than this measure contains.

In Connecticut at Cga.Ct.Gov
Other States via Congress.org

Sources used in the video:

HB 6981 at Connecticut General Assembly: http://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/cgabillstatus/cgabillstatus.asp?selBillType=Bill&bill_num=6981

09 March 2007 Hartford Courant Article: http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-myspace0309.artmar09,0,1936412.story

19 January 2007 Newsweek: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16711546/site/newsweek/

27 February 2007 Wired News: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,70254-0.html

06 March 2007 Businesweek Online: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2006/tc20060306_315174.htm