McCain's New Anti-Internet Bill?

Under the guise of protecting our children, John McCain has introduced new legislation to stop online exploitation of children.
I'm not totally sure how this could be done on the Internet without doing serious harm to all types of online exchanges.

Here's his announcement:
mccain.senate.gov...

Here's an alternative take on his bid to "protect" us:
www.prisonplanet.com...

In a May 2006 speech at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, McCain attacked the blogosphere as a refuge of those only infatuated with self-expression. He was trying to minimize the importance of the last true outpost of freedom of speech, the Internet, and portray it as nothing more than a swap shop for egos and hyperbole.

So, which is it, an attempt to keep predators away from our children?
(Although that should be the parents' and caregivers' jobs)
Or an attempt to silence a populaar place for self-expression?

[edit to correct spelling]

[edit on 26-12-2006 by ADVISOR]

I scanned the announcement, and find my mother-self is warring with the mouthy-artist-me.

I want complete freedom of expression, and information, with absolute protection of children from slimy predators surfing the net.

IMO - McCain's bill gives new meaning to Time Magazine's choice for "Person of the Year."

YOU are TIME's Person of the Year

Interesting, no? ...Seems Time took a stand after all.

Isn't their some crazy theorie out there that say's the Internet is the N.W.O's secret coded messagenger or something...i dont really know... I dont know what it has to do with this topic either, just throwin it out there.

JESUS, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?

Is this guy a public figure? Does he hold Public Office? Has he anything to do with your local government?

If the answer is YES! then vote him the hell out of office.

Campaign against him. Every time he opens his mouth to speak, get somebody to speak against him.

Get together and put somew money in the pot and take him to court under your Freedom of Speech Laws or the Constitution.

If he is a private citizen do all the above but people, DO IT NICELY.

Without calling him names or allowing your campaign to get dirty.

But for God's sake, make a stand against all this political correctness, for once in your sorry lives!

Please, do this for humanity. Otherwise we'll soon have idiots like him spouting his bloody BS over here in the UK.

What happens to you people in the States, usually ends up over here.

Get with the programme people and get with it NOW!

John McCain just commited political suicide with this dumbass move, to try and garner support from Right wing Christians.

Even the most arch Conservative on ATS would probably not vote for Mc for trying to take control of the www. which this is a backdoor move to do.

Originally posted by fritz
JESUS, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?

Is this guy a public figure? Does he hold Public Office? Has he anything to do with your local government?

If the answer is YES! then vote him the hell out of office.

Why, because he is against sexual predators and sexual crimes against children?? If you read the press release for his bill all it is going to do is clearly define in Federal statues who, including online providers, is required to report child pornography to the authorities.

I think it is sad to require such reporting ... it should be one's clear ethical and moral obligation to report such activity.

The other portion of his bill requires sex offenders to register their email addresses and chat handles. This is a great addition to the current registration requirements ... because if it is discovered that they didn't disclose a certain email address of chat handle name then they can be violated.

I have no sympathy for the effect this will have on sexual offenders ... they need to release they will be monitored in almost every facet of their daily lives.

This has nothing to do with a police state/big brother or evil government ... save maybe from the perspective of the sexual offender ... there is no data being collected or random searches. It is a simple change to reporting requirements for online providers and for sexual registrants to provide further information on themselves and their activities.

Maybe my tinfoil hat is on too tight, but I see this as a thinly veiled attempt to open the door to policing what we do on the Internet.

And, who's to say what will actually constitute this pornography? Your provider? Oh, will it be okay to track everyone in the hopes of catching one or two predators?
And, will turning these people in be before they are actually convicted? Because then it seems they are conditioning us to turn each other in, yet again. Sounds like another Patroit-type bill to me. Only this time "saving" us from sexual predators.

What ever happened to paying attention to what your children are doing in their free time?
Should be the parents and NOT the government or the ISP

Originally posted by DontTreadOnMe
What ever happened to paying attention to what your children are doing in their free time?
Should be the parents and NOT the government or the ISP

I agree whole heartedly that parents should be monitoring their childrens use of the internet ... put the computer somewhere public in the house and maintain internet logs.

However, child pornography is not kids looking at porn ... it's adults passing around pictures of little kids in sexual situations. Kids who are nowhere near the internet are the ones being victimized and there are groups who are moving these items around in anonymity.

This isn't a bill that requires "suspicious" users or other vague things to be reported. It doesn't provide for wire tapping without warrants or any other such things. It requires people who see child pornorgraphy to report it ... something that unfortunately shouldn't have to be made into a law, the ISP providers should be reporting these already.

Originally posted by SmallMindsBigIdeas

This has nothing to do with a police state/big brother or evil government ...

I think it does.

save maybe from the perspective of the sexual offender ...

I'm not - just an ordinary person, who happens to be a concerned parent as well.

there is no data being collected or random searches. It is a simple change to reporting requirements for online providers and for sexual registrants to provide further information on themselves and their activities.

Erm. ...???

If the predators don't report their email addresses, and there are no random searches - then what use is the law? How will they be identified and caught?

...Pedophilia is already against the law.

The problem is that the prime market is in Washington - and the laws are not enforced where they need to be.

Yet another unnecessary law that invades everybody's privacy won't change that.

Originally posted by DontTreadOnMe
Under the guise of protecting our children, John McCain has introduced new legislation to stop online exploitation of children.
I'm not totally sure how this could be done on the Internet without doing serious harm to all types of online exchanges.


So, which is it, an attempt to keep predators away from our children?
(Although that should be the parents' and caregivers' jobs)
Or an attempt to silence a populaar place for self-expression?

It is the same scenerio in so many areas of our lives. The common denominator seems to be one in which the message is once again hammered home. *WE* are not capable *THEY* are. Step aside little morons, Big Brother is here once again to solve your problems for you. We mess things up and more government and laws are waiting in the wings to exploit the problems and grant us the solution. Once again and eventually once and for all.

The writing is on the wall here. We have known it was coming and we knew what angle they would use.