Architect of Online Gambling Legal Challenge Defends Social Networking Sites

Joe Brennan Jr, founder of iMEGA.org, is not only concerned about freedoms over the Internet as it pertains to the online gambling community.  This week, he has contributed a well-written piece for News.com, questioning the US Government's attempts to quash online social networking websites the likes of MySpace.com.

Brennan, Jr. in the article writes:

"It is a sad fact of life that when rushing to do great good, we often create the potential for even greater harm. This may explain the potential fallout of the recent antagonistic stance that government in the United States has taken toward social networking."

Brennan points to legislation proposed earlier this year in North Carolina, which would require a "double verification" system for any social network admitting users under 18 years of age.

Not only would the social network need to get parental permission for minors to register, but the sites would need to take the added step of verifying the identity of the parent giving his or her assent. Social-network operators could be criminally prosecuted if they did not institute the new registration requirements.

That legislation was proposed to stop child predators from using said sites as "open hunting grounds".  So why is such a proposal a bad idea?

Again, it's all about "intrusion" and the formation of a sort of "police state" over the Internet.

A shepherd doesn't make the flock any safer by reducing the number of sheep: he must get rid of the wolves that threaten it. But, by targeting innocent under-18 users and social-network operators instead of sexual predators, the North Carolina law would offer only a false sense of security.

Brennan, Jr. also suggests that, by placing Web companies in its crosshairs to force "supply-side" remedies to various social problems, government creates a disincentive for digital entrepreneurs.

Governments in the United States should avoid long-term damage from ill-conceived, politically-motivated short-term "fixes" to online social problems by instead turning and embracing and innovation. America's ability time and again to grow innovative solutions is a more likely path to remedies than is overpromising, overreaching, and (ultimately) ineffective government action that sometimes, ironically, serves to make things worse.

Brennan's organization, iMEGA.org, is in the midst of a high profile legal challenge against another US imposed law, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which looks to stop online gambling activity by means of holding banking institutions responsible for policing said activity.  Yet the banks have stated they do not have the enforcement tools necessary to engage in this type of monitoring (hence, an "unfunded mandate").  iMEGA.org and other groups have argued that the Government's decision harps back to the days of Prohibition.

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Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher CCostigan@CostiganMedia.com

Originally published December 4, 2007 10:13 pm EST