I do some volunteer work for the New York City and Westchester County Library systems. These kids, 12, 13, 14 years old, come in after school to use the Internet. When I see the sites they're on, it makes my skin crawl. I don't want to sound like a cranky old man, but these "networking" sites, like myspace, should have serious restrictions. I'm lobbying to block these sites from the public access computers here in the city. But it won't do any good.
I absolutely despise Myspace with a burning passion, but I, personally, wouldn't go so far as to block it. Freedom of the web, and all that stuff.
But, you know, I'm a crazy liberal and what-not.
They've blocked it in several public schools, mine included. It's never affected me directly, as I do not have a myspace, except for the one I use for my band and never go on (it's good for promotional purposes, I suppose), but I think kids should be able to do what they like in their spare time and study halls. It's just kind of ridiculous, the amount of shit they filter out of their system. Attempting to research a paper on 1960s counter-culture literature from school computers was an absolute failure.
