The name alone – DOPA – almost sounds like a Saturday Night Live parody.  We already have CIPA/COPPA legislation in place to protect students from accessing inappropriate sites during the school day.  At this point, probably every school district in the nation blocks access to MySpace.  No matter how many blocks are in place, tech-savvy kids will find a way to access MySpace.  And the non-tech-savvy will simply continue to give out personal information when they logon from home – away from the eyes and ears of a supervising adult.

Now, more than ever, we need to offer our students – and their teachers – a solid program on safe, effective use of the Web 2.0. For this timely education piece to happen, we also need to convince our senators to oppose HR 5319 – Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006.  Many thanks to Wesley Fryer for posting the links and even a tweakable form letter that will take all of three minutes to read, edit, and send to our senators – http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2006/07/27/dopa-passes-us-house-of-reps/.  We have a month to convince our senators to block, or at least reword, this “unnecessary and redundant” legislation.