Well, turns out, maybe not so much. According to the most recent report by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (co-authored with, among others, the US Dept of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Deliquency Prevention -- not exactly anti-values liberals or coin operated sock puppets for industry) available here, http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/pdf/CV138.pdf, incidents of sexual solicitation for minors have declined in the last five years, from 1 in 5 minors receiving such solicitations to 1 in 7. In addition, and of note for those trying to address the problem, the number of solicitations originating from or referred from off-line friends and acquaintances increased substantially, while the willingness of young internet users to form relationships with unknown parties online decreased significantly. The study did not indicate whether social network sites played any role in sexual solicitations, but it observed that only 3% of online harassments (as oppoosed to solicitations) occured as a conseqeunce of blog entries or comments (the majority occuring via IM or email and having their origins either offline or through IM or email contacts).
Those of us old enough to remember the Communications Decency Act (which, oddly enough, also passed in an election year) will sense a trend. But it would be foolish to trust that the "new and improved" Supreme Court will feel the same way about restrictions on social networking sites that it did about the CDA. Best to nip this before it passes.
So take advantage of your election year clout over your Senator and Representative. Call and tell them you oppose the "Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006" as a miserable piece of election year pandering that imposes massive burdens on a very useful medium while not even addressing a real problem. Warn tham that a vote for DOPA will cost them a vote in November, and that when I send you to Washington I expect you to actually look at some facts rather than listen to a lot of bullsh#@ from luddites and loonies who have been convinced that anything teenagers like is immoral and bad for them since Adam and Eve clucked their head sadly over Cain building a city and what's this world coming to?
For those of you who want to know how to find their Senator or Representative's phone number, look here http://www.parenthub.com/family/time/people/congress.htm.
For those nervous about trying it, take my word for it, Democracy is fun! Staff for your elected official HAVE to listen to what you say. They even need to smile and be polite while you ream out their boss for being a total moron! And you'd be amazed at how few angry calls it takes to get a Senator or Representative to go from "Certainly I support this bill!" To "Please don't make me vote for this and piss off my constituents!"
So have fun and feel good about bringing democracy back to America. Go on and exercise your First Amendment right to petition Congress for the redress of grievances. Enjoy the feeling of moral superiority that comes from doing what's right and sticking it to [group you want to stick it to]. Take it from me, once you've been a citizen rather than a couch potato, you'll never go back!