DOPA Rises from the Grave (Maybe)

Earlier this month we mentioned that the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) was likely dead as a doornail, but now it seems the act is seeing new life. As Congress has reconvened, a similar bill called the Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act, has been introduced.

As a reminder, the original DOPA bill was introduced to Congress as a law to prohibit schools and other institutions that receive federal funding from providing access to social and blogging Web sites in an effort to stop online predators. The bill flew through the House, but then got bogged down in the Senate, never saw a final vote and was dismissed with the end of the last Congressional session.

But now, as noted again by education pundit and blogger Andy Carvin, this new version of DOPA, already called DOPA Jr., was introduced by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK). The bill is numbered S. 49, and this time was introduced to the Senate first. The text of the Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act can be found here.

No way to tell if this bill will see more success in shutting teenagers out of social Web sites than the previous act, but one can be certain that educators and (if they know about it) teenagers will want watch this bills progress and if it will share the same fate as its predecessor.