Teen, Mom Sue MySpace.com for $30 Million

American-Statesman ^ | June 20, 2006 | Claire Osborn

[plan2succeed.org]

You are correct. And Safe Libraries has a page on this very topic: LMIRL.

[Dinsdale]

Breast cancer is the obvious example.

Use prostate or cervical cancer if you prefer. Use elephantitus if you want something that could both be the subject of serious research as well as unmeasurable entertainment for teens. Lets not even start about the latin word for 'with'.

Again the link a) is non responsive regarding the nature of the filtering technology and is data put up by those with an axe to grind. I don't believe them (I believe they're deluded). They can put up their software for the world to test. Untill they do I'm unconvinced.

[plan2succeed.org]

a) Certainly a library director's words carry more weight than mine, despite your saying, "I won't just take someones word a filter works."

b) Asked and answered by the US Supreme Court. Next?

c) I agree library filters will never be perfect. Does that mean CIPA and US v. ALA can never apply? But again, asked and answered by the US Supreme Court. Next?

d) The bad guys doing the crimes are not using the filtered children's computers. They are using the unfiltered adult ones. CIPA says all computers must be filtered. And one town that filtered only the children's computers had an incident then regretted not installing them on all computers in the first place.

Did you notice it often takes a rape or molestation before legal filters are applied? Do you want your kid to be the test case?

[plan2succeed.org]

Dinsdale, are you a librarian?

[steve-b]

In May, after a series of e-mails and phone calls, he picked her up at school, took her out to eat and to a movie, then drove her to an apartment complex parking lot in South Austin, where he sexually assaulted her, police said. He was arrested May 19.

And at no point during these several hours did a single "this is a bad idea" neuron fire inside her numb skull?

And this is somehow the Internet's fault?

Please contact us if you have information we should consider as we bring this to the attention of the public

OK. Here's some information we should consider as we bring this to the attention of the public:

[ DEEP BREATH ]

START TAKING SOME RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS AND YOUR MINOR CHILREN'S EDUCATION IN HOW TO DO SO, YOU FREAKING MORONS!!

[ DEEP BREATH ]

[steve-b]

if a 13-year-old or 14-year-old goes out in person and meets someone she doesn't know, that is always an unsafe endeavor

[steve-b]

People who push personal responsibility off onto others make me sick. I am surprised to see such a liberal position as yours being tolerated here on a Conservative web site. Try the DU. You will get more sympathy.

Yep. The notion that people should sue some deep-pocketed corporation every time they suffer the consequences of their own stupidity is definitely a DUbious concept.

[steve-b]

Jeff, okay, sue them for something different, something having nothing to do with personal responsibility.

That's precisely the problem -- you want to have nothing to do with personal responsibiility, and recoil from the concept like Dracula in front of a garlic patch.

[steve-b]

this "it's the parent's fault" argument is getting old

Well, duh. It has existed (and has been correct) ever since human beings were capable of understanding the concept that present actions affect future events, and will continue to exist (and continue to be correct) for as long as humans exist as rational creatures.

[steve-b]

why have filters at all if the parents are solely responsible?

Really, the number of people here on FR who are unaware that the government has been routinely usurping parental prerogatives for decades can be counted on the fingers of one hand by Klutzo the (retired) Chainsaw Juggler.

[plan2succeed.org]

You are correct. I agree you need to be taking responsibility, and that seems to especially apply on the MySpace issue that you highlighted above.

The public library issue, not part of the original story but under discussion in this thread, is a different story. There, a perfectly innocent kid being supervised by a perfect innocent parent can be raped or molested even while sitting in his chair at the public library by someone viewing or having just viewed unfiltered porn made available by the library for, let's face it, reasons of political correctness. Here's a news story including video of a guy next to the children's section masturbating to porn in the public library: "Sexual Activity at Library Caught on Tape," WKYC-TV, 23 May 2006.

And parental responsibility has nothing to do with why an ALA librarian used an ALA list to give my public school kindergartner sexually inappropriate material (in the opinion of not only myself but also the teacher and the school superintendent).

And are parents to blame when the ALA intentionally misleads them about the contents of books so the child read about oral sex in books given the ALA's top award as the best book for kids as young as twelve for 2006? About this, see Porn Pushers - The ALA and Looking For Alaska - One Example of How the ALA Pushes Porn On Children. For more, I recommend PABBIS - Parents Against Bad Books In Schools.

These are just some examples.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

BUMP

[plan2succeed.org]

You said, "Really, the number of people here on FR who are unaware that the government has been routinely usurping parental prerogatives for decades can be counted on the fingers of one hand by Klutzo the (retired) Chainsaw Juggler."

You are mistakenly mischaracterizing the issue. (I doubt you are intentionally doing so.) This is not a case of the government running the nanny state. In my opinion, what we have here is a radical, extremist organization that for decades has been ensuring children maintain unfettered access to sexually inappropriate material. It has been doing so from a position of authority so high in reality that they influence almost all American public libraries and so high in their own minds that they publish a so-called "Library Bill of Rights." Local citizens have very little control in public libraries over issues over which the ALA asserts its authority, such as it is. The ALA uses its authority, its very "Bill of Rights," to assert it is age discrimination for a librarian to keep a child from any material whatsoever.

As a result, people reached out to their government for help. They wanted control of their libraries to be in their hands, not the ALA hands. The government created CIPA in response. The US Supreme Court then found CIPA perfectly legal.

Now the ALA refuses to comply with the spirit of the law, and they are adept at skirting the letter of the law.

CIPA is not a usurpation of parental perogatives. On the contrary, it helps parents to exercise their parental perogatives instead of allowing the ALA to control what gets into their children's heads.

Now you complain about the government creating a nanny state, and they may in other areas. But what do you call it when the ALA creates a nanny state by taking away from parents the right to keep their children from sexually inappropriate material? When it comes to the ALA v. the US government, in light of the facts as they exists, I choose our government any day.

[plan2succeed.org]

Don't the graphics make things interesting? Here's some:

[plan2succeed.org]

Is there a way to "fix" the "Religion" error and place it into the correct category?

[plan2succeed.org]

Thanks. It appears to be fixed now.

[phoenix0468]

"Sorry, you are incorrect. Being with your children is not enough where the libraries allow unfiltered access to the Internet. For example, here's a lady in a library with her grandchildren where one went to the bathroom and her life was changed forever: 8 Year Old Girl Attacked in a Public Library. I can't blame her for this, can you?"

No I can't blame the grandmother for the actions of another person. But your initial comment about libraries allowing unfiltered access to the Internet and the 8 year old getting attacked are two unassociated issues. Also, I am sure the Grandmother feels a great deal of guilt for not going into the bathroom with her granddaughter. If it were my own child (being that she is 9 years old) I would not leave her alone in a public place at all, ever. Please remember that I do not fault the grandmother in any way, but the circumstances warrented, IMO, her accompanying her granddaughter to the bathroom. But that's just my opinion.

[phoenix0468]

Also, you obviously missed the part that I mentioned about keeping your child safe in a public place. NEVER LEAVE THEIR SIDE!!! NOT FOR ONE MOMENT!!! IT WILL PUT YOUR CHILD AT RISK!!! YOUR CHILD IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY!!! WATCH THEM ALWAYS!!! EVEN WHEN YOUR NOT THERE, HAVE SOMEONE YOU CAN TRUST TO DO THE SAME!!!

It is the fault of a perpetrator when a child is molested or harmed, that is indisputable. But the parent MUST take some responsibility for allowing that child to be put in a situation for them to have been harmed. That is my opinion. It is what I and many here would call COMMON SENSE!!! Which is highly lacking, mostly among deadbeat liberals and libertarians who want the government to take care of us and our children.

That is about the craziest thing I could think of. The last entity I would ever want having any responsibility over myself or my child is the government. They can't even take responsibility for their own actions most of the time, much less that of a childs.

[phoenix0468]

It's pretty easy plan, my child will not be out of my sight, or the sight of an adult I trust with my life until she is 18 years old. Yep, you may think that's pretty strict, but I bet she never gets attacked by some sicko!! And if she does, I'll be close enough to ensure the he's the one with the broken neck, not my daughter.

[phoenix0468]

plan, we are all aware of the "agendas" of organizations like the ALA and the NEA. It's quite obvious to many in FR that they don't have a care in the world for our childrens' well being either physically or emotionally. That's why the majority of us here who are parents very likely do things like a) teach their morals to their children, b) keep their children under responsible care at all times, and c) confront their educators and adults in authority when they feel those adults have failed in their responsibilities. I would actually bet on it. For those parents who don't do those things, I feel very sorry for their children.