Monday, February 12, 2007

S.A.F.E.T.Y. Is Dangerous

Don't let the doublespeak confuse you, there is a bill named S.A.F.E.T.Y. that was introduced by Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX). That bill, elongated into Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today’s Youth Act will infringe on the privacy of everyone and anyone that surfs the net.

From The Seminal:

Under the guise of reducing child pornography, the SAFETY (Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today’s Youth) Act is currently the gravest threat to digital privacy rights on the Internet. Given the increasing tendency of people, especially young people, to use the Internet as a primary means of communication, this measure would affect nearly all Americans in ways we are only beginning to understand. Also, given the fact that the Act requires all Internet Service Providers to record the web surfing activity of all Internet users, this amounts to the warrantless wiretapping of the entire Internet.....

Background:
The original SAFETY Act, introduced in June of 2006 by Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ), was shot down due to free speech concerns over aspects of the bill other than the ones I’ve focused on here. At the time, the Center for Democracy and Technology wrote that the bill “would undermine First Amendment free speech protections and do nothing to protect children on the Internet.”


This was a well written article and I suggest you head over there and follow the links to help out. Or you could start by calling your own Representative and the press to have this stealthy bill eliminated before it has a chance to come close to a vote.