What the DOPA-esque section of S. 49 does is make it so that schools and libraries that receive E-Rate funding (federal monies from the Universal Service Fund to provide telecom and Internet connectivity) have to take steps to prevent children from using their computers to access "commercial social networking sites" and "chat rooms." Other provisions in the bill require that the FTC put up a public website detailing the dangers of social networking and that websites containing pornographic content carry warning labels.

Who determines what's a social networking site? There was a big debate in Congress a couple of years back where everyone was trying to figure out how you define P2P technologies like Kazaa or Grokster without roping in whole Internet. But this is pretty different. P2P apps tended to use the same ports that could be blocked administratively. Social networking sites don't have that kind of technical calling card and have to be identified on a case-by-case basis. The way that S. 49 works, that job's left to the FCC. But S. 49 gives guidance, telling the commission to take into consideration the extent to which a site:

(i) is offered by a commercial entity;
(ii) permits registered users to create an on-line profile that includes detailed personal information;
(iii) permits registered users to create an on-line journal and share such a journal with other users;
(iv) elicits highly-personalized information from users; and
(v) enables communication among users.

Once the FCC has figured out what to call a social networking site, it's up to teachers and librarians to make sure that kids using the Internet don't get to them. Of course, kids lucky enough to own their own computers can just wait and social network all they want when they get home. But that's a subject for a different post.

At a time when almost every presidential candidate (see MyBarackObama.com and McCainSpace) and both national parties are eager to capture that social networking magic, there are still a whole lot of politicians willing to sell out technology rather than cast an unpopular vote. Heck, one way of looking at it, it'd almost be worth it for this bill to get another vote just to see who's willing to stand up for the future of technology, even if it means being tarred as an accomplice to the exploitation of kids.

(Stealing an idea from Marianne Richmond, if you want to keep an eye on S. 49, just head over to the fantastic GovTrack.us and set up a monitor for it.)