Today the jury returned a guilty verdict in the corruption trial of long-standing Republican Senator Ted Stevens. While Stevens vows to fight the conviction, one would think the reaction of Republican Gov. Palin would make it difficult to successfully seek a future government position.
The following statement now appears on the Stevens web page:
Statement of Senator Ted Stevens I am obviously disappointed in the verdict but not surprised given the repeated instances of prosecutorial misconduct in this case.
Sen. Stevens holds key committee appointments that influence technology applications. Yes, this is the Senator associated with statements regarding clogged pipes when addressing the topic of net neutrality. I am more focused here on “filtering”. Senator Stevens has been associated with DOPA (Deleting Online Predators Act) and introduced a new version of DOPA entitled “Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act” in 2007 and continued this focus through the beginning of this month.
“Specifically, the bill requires schools that receive E-Rate funds to offer age appropriate education regarding online behavior, including social networking, chat rooms, and cyberbullying awareness and response. The schools would have to include this education as part of their Internet safety policy.
In the past, I have argued that making e-rate funding contingent on filtering was misguided because the dangers to K-12 students are far more likely to be encountered from a home (student’s home or the home of a friend) computer than from a school-based computer and blocking commercial social sites eliminated potentially useful educational tools without addressing the potential dangers of using such tools outside of school. It appears the new direction for DOPA endorses a similar switch in priority.
The modified approach:
First, these measures help shift the focus of federal efforts in this area toward education and away from regulation. No matter how much regulation lawmakers propose or enact, access to objectionable materials and concerns about online safety will remain problems that must be confronted.
Without getting into the politics and legal issues of the present, it seems reasonable to suggest that future developments in this area will go through the office of another legislator.
