WASHINGTON — Some in Congress want to make sure there's no space for MySpace at public schools and libraries.
Concerned about reports of pedophiles trolling wildly popular "social networking" websites for teenage victims, Rep. Michael G. Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) has introduced a bill to prohibit anyone under 18 from accessing them on school or library computers.
"The social networking sites have become, in a sense, a happy hunting ground for child predators," said Fitzpatrick, a father of six children, including three teen girls. His legislation, called the Deleting Online Predators Act, "is essentially a bill to protect children from the Internet."
It also would ban access to chat rooms and could block a variety of online forums. In addition, the bill would require the Federal Trade Commission to create a special website for parents and teachers warning of the potential dangers of social networking sites. Those sites, among the fastest-growing on the Internet, allow people to create their own Web pages and share photos and messages.
The bill was introduced this week as part of a legislative agenda aimed at suburban voters. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) supports it, and the issue could become election-year fodder amid reports of scattered arrests across the country of sexual predators who used MySpace.com to lure children to meetings in parks or motels.
Those reports, and more frequent complaints of objectionable language and photos, have spurred many schools nationwide, including the Los Angeles Unified School District, to block access to MySpace from their computers. Some libraries also block social networking sites as part of standard filtering for objectionable material.
But the legislation raises questions about how much the federal government should regulate the Internet and about the value of social networking sites in an era in which many teens have few real places to gather.
"There's so much fear, even in suburban regions, where teenagers aren't allowed to just go and hang out," said Danah Boyd, a UC Berkeley graduate student who is studying social networking sites.
Teens -- particularly those from poor families or rural areas -- need school and library computers to gain access to social networking sites, she said.
"Of course there are bad situations. But ... I can tell you a number of kids who have been molested in school by teachers," Boyd said. "Does that mean we don't send kids to school?"
