June Is National Internet Safety Month
Over at Tech.Blorge.Com, David Cassel (who also writes at 10 Zen Monkeys), notes that, thanks to senators such as Joe Lieberman (Ind.-Conn.[*]) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.), June is National Internet Safety Month:
Does Joe Lieberman hate the internet? Is Barack Obama trying to scare you? Welcome to National Internet Safety Month. Its sole purpose? Reminding America how dangerous the internet is.
I'm not kidding. That's the gist of an official resolution, quietly signed by 18 U.S. Senators in both parties at the end of May (including Senators Obama and Lieberman). Senate Resolution 207 specified that the month of June provides Americans an opportunity to "learn more about the dangers of the Internet." Got anything positive to say about the net? Save it for July, pal. June is for commending organizations which "promote awareness of the dangers of the Internet."
They might as well call it internet-is-dangerous month. But let's look at some of their examples. What constitutes a danger? If someone puts a filter on your computer to censor it—it's dangerous to disable it! You can say this about America's youth—more than 3 out of 10 can de-activate censor-ware, according to the Senators' own statistics. Congratulations, kids! Whoops, I'm sorry—I mean…danger!!….
So now you know. Your tax dollars paid for a bunch of techno-phobes to pass congratulatory resolutions about mom, Apple Pie, and the need to keep teenagers off MySpace.
[*]: Corrected Vinegar Joe's non-party affiliation from Democrat to Independent, thanks to reader El Destiny.