FC: Slashdot's Jamie McCarthy reports from "chat room evils" hearing

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Thu May 16 2002 - 19:53:57 PDT

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    Date: Tue, 14 May 2002 10:57:01 -0400
    From: Jamie McCarthy <jamieat_private>
    Subject: Re: FC: Replies to Feds getting way serious about "Chat Room Dangers"
    To: declanat_private
    In-Reply-To: <5.1.0.14.0.20020508001622.024a87d0at_private>
    
     > Previous Politech message:
     >
     > "Feds take matters firmly in hand: Hearing on 'Chat Room Dangers'"
     > http://www.politechbot.com/p-03494.html
    
     > Date: Tue, 7 May 2002 12:55:33 -0700
     > To: declanat_private
     > From: Jim Warren <jwarrenat_private>
     >
     > >This hearing is entitled "Chatting On-Line: A Dangerous
     > >Proposition for Children."
     >
     > Geee ... with a hearing-title like that ... do ya think maybe
     > it'll be a biased, prejudicial, "loaded" hearing?  Huh?  Huh?
     > Do ya?! <sigh>
     >
     > --jim
    
    Good news:  the hearing was not prejudicial.  The topic was how to
    protect children who chat (and email and IM) online, so that was the
    thrust of the discussion.  But the witnesses mentioned several times
    how the internet was a great opportunity, and chat was valuable --
    and the messages everyone agreed on were just that parents need to
    be aware of what their children are doing online, and children need
    to be given the tools they need to protect themselves.
    
    As for how the government can help, the only concrete proposals were
    that law enforcement agencies, especially state and local, need more
    training and a larger budget to handle child predators online.
    No new legislation was proposed.  In fact, as the witnesses got
    talking about the importance of parental involvement, Rep. Barr had
    to remind everyone not once, but twice, that he and Rep. Upton were
    _lawmakers_ and did anyone want a law passed or anything?
    
    My report on the hearing is here:
    
    http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/05/14/0630258&tid=103
    
    
    
    
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