The latest bit of insanity in legislation (part 654 in an ongoing series) has Rep. Michael G. Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) brining up a Bill to “ban Myspace.com from schools” in order to “protect the children”. Leaving aside the facts that parents are where the responsibility lies, and that, given the 80 million members, MySpace is safer than the school itself because more teachers have been convicted of molesting children than has ever come via MySpace or equivalent, this piece of extreme stupidity once again proves that Legislators don’t seem to have any idea of anything regarding the Internet.

Fortunately this piece of lunacy is unlikely to go beyond grandstanding by Rep. Fitzpatrick, but if it did the “Deleting Online Predators Act” would be devestating for the Internet because it’s badly drafted and way too broad. If Wikipedia were commercial it would not be available in schools or libraries. And, just btw, MySpace and equivalent social networking sites now cover half the Internet’s users.

I say every legislator in every assembly should show a working knowledge or the subject before they’re allowed to vote on, let alone draft, legislation.