That is the question raised by this recent article on Ed-Tech Insider.

Amid recent congressional scandals that I won’t get into, new attention is being paid to whether the government should be able to control Instant messaging on the internet. As you know, companies who provide instant messaging (AOL, MSN, Yahoo) contest that they do not save conversations, nor do they spy on conversations. I’m not sure how true that is, but that’s what they say.

The government is saying that there should be some laws governing instant messaging. Why? Plenty of bad things are said in personal conversation, are we going to be able to carry small recorders with us at all times now? That’s just flat out ridiculous. Sure there are bad people online doing bad things, especially to underage kids. But that means that parents need to educate their kids on what to look out for, just as we were told to look both ways and not talk to strangers “back in the day”.

The internet is the future. The internet is now. Right now, kids are living in everyones future, and it’s time to accept and embrace it. I don’t think our privacy rights should be taken away while talking online. As we know words can be taken the wrong way in person, imagine how it will be online. Can you picture sitting in court explaining how your personal sarcasm works in an instant message? Oy.

Educate your kids, educate yourself. Don’t fire away at the technology, look inward first.

Posted by Drew Olanoff on Monday, October 16th, 2006 at 10:11 am.