Verizon Comes Out Against Online Safety Law
Posted by Greg Writer on May 15, 2007
The Delaware Online Predator Act of 2007 was designed to protect kids online. Verizon came out against the Act and it has now been put on hold.
The Act would have required Internet service providers to establish “comprehensive online” tools to help parents monitor their children online. The required tools would:
- record visits by kids to inappropriate websites
- monitor and scan a kid’s MySpace pages for unsuitable content
- enable parents to see on their computer screens exactly what their children were seeing on their home screens and allow parents to intervene if necessary
The Act was shelved after Verizon came out against it. According to the president of Verizon Delaware, the Act is not “the most effective way to combat predators.” But in the future, said Verizon’s president, “we will be working with the House committee to better understand the proposed bill and how it can best protect our children.”
Parents, unfortunately, do not have the luxury to wait for the future.
What parents can do now is take action themselves, such as putting a computer used by their kids in the living room or den and allowing them to use the computer only when the parents are there. Parents can also buy monitoring software that is already on the market. SnoopStick is one such product and it might help parents accomplish, right now, what the law cannot.
