Before the elections, potential DOPA (Deleting Online Predators Act) legislation was the target of posts on many educational blogs (including Learning Aloud). Now, it appears that active consideration of DOPA legislation is back.
How could anyone object to measures intended to thwart potential online predators? It is the means and not the goal (see my previous comments) that generates objections – blocking commercial social networking sites including commercial blog sites. Blocking potentially useful activities represents a significant down side. Failure to confront the most serious problems gives the appearance of doing something while accomplishing little (unsupervised access to the Internet outside of the school results in what data appear to indicate are the most serious problems). This is an issue with a political slant – the appearance that one is “fighting” for our kids sounds good and it may not be obvious what is lost when blocking a hodge-podge of sites.
