Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Contested Spaces: Protecting or Inhibiting Girls Online?

  • Chapter
Growing Up Online

Abstract

On 26 July 2006, the U.S. House of Representatives passed The Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) of 2006 by a vote of 410 to 15. However with the end of the Congressional session, DOPA died in the U.S. Senate and was never enacted. DOPA would have required that all public libraries and schools that received federal funding block access to social networking sites, chat sites and potentially (according to one interpretation of the Act) all blogs.1 Proponents of the Act contended that it was designed to protect minors from online sexual predators and sexual exploitation, which the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) estimated, had increased significantly: one in five youth received a sexual solicitation over the internet in 2005, with teen girls, the primary target, receiving two-thirds of the solicitations.2

While these sites were designed to allow their users to share virtual profiles of themselves to friends and like-minded users, the sites at most have become a haven for online sexual predators who have made these corners of the Web their own virtual hunting ground.

—Republican Representative Michael Fitzpatrick, Pennsylvania, on U.S. House of Representatives debate on DOPA, July 26, 2006.

URL: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/record.xpd?id=109-h20060726-41#sMonoElementm5m0m0m)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Adam, A. (2002). Cyberstalking and internet pornography: Gender and the gaze. Ethics and Information Technology, 4, 133–142.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adults Question its Safety. (January 31, 2006). USA Today, 2d.

    Google Scholar 

  • American Library Association. (2006). DOPA Information. Retrieved August 20, 2006, from http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/techinttele/dopa/DOPA. htm

  • Barth, L. (May 2006). Too much information. ElleGirl, 110.

    Google Scholar 

  • boyd, d. (February 19, 2005). Identity production in a networked culture: Why youth heart MySpace. Paper given at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Retrieved August 20, 2006, from http://www.danah.org/papers/AAAS2006.html.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blumer, H. (1933). Movies and conduct. New York: Macmillan and Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buckingham, D. & Willett, R. (Eds.) (2006). Digital generations: Children, young people and the new media. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Center for Democracy and Technology. (August 11, 2006). CDT Analysis: Deleting Online Predators Act. Retrieved August 23, 2006, from http://www.cdt.org/headlines/925.

  • DeSimone, A. (Septermber 31, 2006). Are you addicted to MySpace? Teen People, 172.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duffy, M. & Lissa, A. (March 27, 2006). A dad’s encounter with the vortex of Facebook. Time, 167(13), 52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dyrli, O.E. (March 2006). Online social networking., 99.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, L. (2005). Victims, villains, and vixens: Teen girls and internet crime. In S. Mazzarella (ed.), Girlwideweb: Girls, the internet, and the negotiation of identity, pp. 13–30. New York: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eichenwald, K. (December 19, 2005). Through his webcam, a boy joins a sordid online world. The New York Times. Retrieved August 20, 2006, at http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/19/national/19kids.ready.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5090&en=aea51b3919b2361a&ex =1292648400.

  • —. (August 20, 2006). With child sex sites on the run, nearly nude pictures test laws. The New York Times, A1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fass, A. (May 8, 2006). TheirSpace.com. Forbes, 177(10), 122–124.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finder, A. (June 11, 2006). For some, online persona undermines a résumé. The New York Times, A1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finkelhor, D.K., Mitchell, J., & Wolak, J. (June 2000). Online victimization: A report on the nations youth. Washington D.C.: Crimes Against Children Research Centre, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

    Google Scholar 

  • ForBiddeN fruit. (July 29, 2006). Economist, 380(8488), 60.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hadju, D. (March 6, 2006). Instant gratification. The New Republic, 25–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hempel, J. & Lehman, P. (December 12, 2005). The MySpace generation. Business Week, Issue 3963.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hewitt, B. (June 5, 2006). MySpace nation: The controversy. People, 65(22), 113–121.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hick, S. & Halpin, E. (March 2001). Children’s rights and the internet. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 574, 56–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • How to monitor the kids? Parents worry about the perils of social networking sites. (2006). USA Today.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, D. (Winter 2002). The use of new communications and information technologies for sexual exploitation of women and children. Hastings Women’s Law Journal, 13(1), 129–148.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins, H. (August 2006). Four ways to kill MySpace [blog]. Retrieved August 25, 2006, from http://www.henryjenkins.org/2006/08/four_ways_to_kill_myspace.html.

  • —. (2006). Convergence culture. NewYork: NYU Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lashinsky, A. (October 31, 2005). Look who’s online now. Fortune, 152(9).

    Google Scholar 

  • Lenhart, A. (March 17, 2005). Protecting teens online. Chicago: The Pew Internet and American Life Project. Retrieved November 3, 2006, from http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/152/report_display.asp

    Google Scholar 

  • Livingstone, S. (2005). UK children go online: End of award report. Retrieved August 27, 2006, from http://www.children-go-online.net.

    Google Scholar 

  • —. (2006). Drawing conclusions from new media research: Reflections and puzzles regarding children’s experience of the internet. The Information Society, 22, 219–230.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Livingstone, S., Bober, M., & Helsper, E.J. (September 2005). Active participation or just more information? Young people’s take-up of opportunities to act and interact on the internet. Information, Communication & Society, 8(3), 287–314.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marvin, C. (1990). When old technologies were new: Thinking about electric communication in the late nineteenth century. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morrissey, B. (February 2, 2006). Maybelline site MySpaces out. Brandweek, 47(6).

    Google Scholar 

  • MySpace: Design anarchy that works. (January 3, 2006). Business Week Online.

    Google Scholar 

  • Online terror threat hits high school. (2005). WOAI.com. Retrieved November 7, from, http://www.woai.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=569F4519–73E9–4810-B895–5C2336D6171C.

  • Osama bin Laden fan clubs. (March 9, 2006). Jihad recruiters build online communities: Internet brings together people of shared interests—including terrorism. USA Today, 4a.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oser, C. (February 21, 2006). MySpace: Big audience, big risks. Advertising Age. Retrieved April 13, 2006, from http://adage.com/article?article_id=48592.

  • Police charge alleged sexual predator disguised on MySpace as gay. (July 12, 2006). Canadian Press Newswire.

    Google Scholar 

  • Potter, R.H. & Potter. L.A. (2001). The internet, cyberporn, and sexual exploitation of children: Media moral panics and urban myths for middle-class parents? Sexuality & Culture, 5(3), 31–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Proudfoot, S. (May 11, 2006). Taking back MySpace. The Ottawa Citizen, E1–3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawe, J. (July 3, 2006). How safe is MySpace? Time, 168(1), 34–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reiss, S. (July 2006). His Space. Wired, 164, 142–147.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reno vs. ACLU, No.96–511. (26, June 1997). Majority opinion. Retrieved August 27, 2006, from http://www2.epic.org/cda/cda_decision.html#majority.

  • Rosen, L.D. (June 2006). Adolescents in MySpace: Identity formation, friendship, and sexual predators. Retrieved August 15, 2006, from http://www.csudh.edu/psych/lrosen.htm.

  • Rosen, L.S. (June 2006). Sexual predators on MySpace: A deeper look at teens being stalked or approached for sexual liaisons. Short report 2006–01. Retrieved August 15, 2006, from http://www.csudh.edu/psych/lrosen.htm.

  • Seiter, E. (2005). The internet playground: Children’s access, entertainment, and mis-education. New York: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shade, L.R. (2002). Protecting the kids? Debates over internet content. In S.D. Ferguson & L.R. Shade (eds.), Civic discourse and cultural politics in Canada: A cacophony of voices, pp. 76–87. Greenport, CT: Ablex.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shade, L.R., Porter, N., & Sanchez, W. (2005). “You can see anything on the internet, you can do anything on the internet!”: Young Canadians talk about the Internet. Canadian Journal of Communication, 30(4), 503–526.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stone, B. (December 26, 2005). The MySpace.com guys. Newsweek, 146/147(26/1).

    Google Scholar 

  • —. (August 28, 2006). Web of risks. Newsweek, 148(8–9), 76–77.

    Google Scholar 

  • Subrahamanym, K.P., Greenfield, M., & Tynes, B. (2004). Constructing sexuality and identity in an online teen chat room. Applied Developmental Psychology, 25, 651–666.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Teens hang out at MySpace (January 9, 2006). USA Today, 1d.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valentine, G. & Holloway, S. (2001). On-line dangers? Geographies of parents’ fears for children’s safety in cyberspace. Professional Geographer, 53(1), 71–83.

    Google Scholar 

  • Verini, J. (March 2006). Will success spoil MySpace? Vanity Fair, 238–249.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wartella, E. & Jennings, N. (2000). Children and computers: New technology—old concerns. The Future of Children: Children and Computer Technology, 10(2), 31–43. Retrieved June 1, 2006, from http://www.futureofchildren.org.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wertheimer, S. (2005). Pretty in panties: Moving beyond the innocent child paradigm in reading preteen modeling websites. In Y. Jiwani, C. Steenbergen, & C. Mitchell (eds.), Girlhood: Redefining the limits, pp. 208–226. Montreal: Black Rose Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • What you say online could haunt you: Schools, employers scrutinize social websites such as MySpace and Facebook. (March 9, 2006). USA Today, 1a.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, A. (August 28, 2005). Do you MySpace? The New York Times, style section, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • —. (February 19, 2006). Here I am taking my own picture. The New York Times, Style Section, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yang, J.L. (July 10, 2006). Can this man make MySpace safe for kids? Fortune, 154(1), 32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zeller, T. (November 3, 2005). For U.S. teenagers, life is an open web log. International Herald Tribune.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Leslie Regan Shade
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

    Sandra Weber (Professor of Education) (Professor of Education)

  2. Humanities Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture Program, Concordia University, Canada

    Shanly Dixon (doctoral candidate in Concordia University) (doctoral candidate in Concordia University)

Copyright information

© 2007 Sandra Weber and Shanly Dixon

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Shade, L.R. (2007). Contested Spaces: Protecting or Inhibiting Girls Online?. In: Weber, S., Dixon, S. (eds) Growing Up Online. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230607019_15

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation