Write your Senators about DOPA! (the Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006)
Written on August 3, 2006 – 12:34 pm | by Ed Warkentin
There has been an enormous amount of buzz in the ed-tech blogosphere lately about DOPA, Delete Online Predators Act.
Here is the wikipedia article about it. Be sure to glance at the Arguments in Opposition.
This is also a good summary from David Warlick.
In short, this is a bill that would go a long way towards outlawing blogging in schools, a short-sighted attempt to protect our kids. Kind of like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
A relevant quote that I can’t seem to find the source of (nor get quite right) goes something like this, “Block an internet site, protect students for a day. Educate them about how to handle the internet appropriately, and navigate through the problematic and dangerous parts of it, protect them for a lifetime.”
I plan to begin my school year talking about online safety. I will use some of these resources and activites.
So, please urge our legislators to vote no on the current version of this bill, and consider a rewrite. Here’s an incredibly easy way to do it. Go to this blog article by Mark Ahlness. He describes how to put a button on your blog to assist your blog readers in writing this letter. You, of course, don’t have to do the button thing. Just use his button and send those emails off!
California residents, you might need to do one more step w/ Barbara Boxer, but it was very easy to do.
Remember, “we’re preparing our students for their future, not our past!”
One Response to “Write your Senators about DOPA! (the Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006)”
Ed, I just hope with you that our little buzz will be heard outside our echo chamber. You are so right to remind people to listen to what supporters of DOPA are saying. As irrational and uneducated those points of view might be, we have to understand the nature of the beast if we hope to move it. Enjoy the rest of the summer! – Mark