States attempt to control social networking

Several State legislatures are contemplating laws governing access to social networking sites. Illinois seems to be the first to actually introduce legislation, on February 9, 2007, in the form of S.B. 1682, the Social Networking Website Prohibition Act. This legislation would require public libraries to prohibit access to social networking sites (like MySpace) on all publicly accessible machines, including those used by adults. Connecticut followed closely, introducing legislation on March 7. Reportedly as many as 20 other states are considering similar legislation in an effort of achieve what Federal legislators were unable to do through the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) last year.