Who said the slope wasn't slippery? Looks like the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) was just the beginning:

MySpace and other social-networking sites like LiveJournal.com and Facebook are facing a new threat: a proposed federal law that would effectively require most schools and libraries to render those Web sites inaccessible to minors, an age group that includes some of the category's most ardent users.

"When children leave the home and go to school or the public library and have access to social-networking sites, we have reason to be concerned," Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican, told CNET News.com in an interview.

While seated in a movie theater this past weekend, I noticed that (as usual) many of the people seated around me were periodically using their cell phones, either to check the time, send and receive text messages, or find out who was calling them during the movie. My first instinct was to get angry, but then I realized that none of these people were making a sound. Their ringers were turned off, and they weren't actually answering calls. Sure, the backlights on the phones were giving off a dim glow whenever they turned them on, but it was certainly nothing to get upset about. The fact is, people have cell phones. Those devices are an integral part of most people's lives now. I could either be annoyed by my fellow moviegoers refusal to turn back the clock, or I could accept that the world had simply changed.

Well, when it comes to social networking sites, the Del Mar Colleges and Mike Fitzpatricks of the world also need to accept that the world has changed. They can block and ban whatever they want, but the world will never change back. Ever. There is a golden opportunity here for schools, libraries, and even the government to embrace these tools and incorporate them into everyday life. While doing so, they can certainly educate young people about the dangers of putting too much personal information onto these sites. But the increasing number of institutions that are opting to bury their collective heads in the sand will accomplish little more than the promotion of ignorance.

If this law passes, it will certainly be a sad day for all the libraries already making creative use of MySpace for outreach to teenage patrons. If Fitzpatrick gets his way, a popular portion of those libraries' web presences will be blocked within their own walls. (For an thorough analysis of the library/MySpace debate and some examples of libraries using social networking sites to their advantage, check out Meredith Farkas's recent post at Information Wants to Be Free.)

[News.com] Congress targets social network sites (via LJ Tech Blog)