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Uploaded: Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 3:32 PM

'There Oughta Be A Law' contest extended
State Sen. Joe Simitian extends deadline for legislation contest to Nov. 15

Posted by No more laws!, a resident of the Meadow Park neighborhood, on Oct 27, 2009 at 4:45 pm

How about a law....our State can't spend more than it gets? Or...a law giving double pay to every legistlator who DOESN'T make or vote for a new law?

Posted by Outside Observer, a resident of another community, on Oct 27, 2009 at 7:08 pm

How about enforcing the ones we already have on the books.

Starting with Immigration.

Posted by Social Media is out of control., a member of the Gunn High School community, on Oct 28, 2009 at 9:07 am

We need parental controls on sites like facebook for kids under 16.

I see kids 13 & 14 year old kids passing questions around like "At what age you going to lose your virginity", or "If you were a reefer, what kind would you be?" Plus the ads, while not quite pornographic, are not age appropriate.

These social networking sites know the age of these kids, but that fail to apply age appropriate filters to their ads or question lists.

More importantly they design the sites to make it difficult for parents to know what is going on.

It is like a digital version of "Lord of the Flies" - a place without adult supervision by design. This is making parenting kids very difficult.

I'm actually considering starting a web-site and maybe even a class action lawsuit against sites like facebook to force the to have parental controls.

We need a law about parental controls on social media.

Posted by mom, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Oct 28, 2009 at 8:32 pm

Social media,

you are on to the future, it's time we clamp down on social media for infringing on healthy youth development. Our kids are victims of a stupid piece of time wasting tool.

Posted by Outside Observer, a resident of another community, on Oct 28, 2009 at 9:26 pm

Mom,

Agree and disagree.

Agree: the online social media is toxic, not only to children, but in general.

Disagree: "victims of a stupid piece of time wasting tool". They are victims of American culture that has allowed these things to flourish. The solution is in taking back the culture from commercial and political interests. When that happens most social media sites will die the death of non-use.

Posted by mom, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Oct 29, 2009 at 8:25 am

Outside Observer,

Maybe culture started it, but social media is also defining culture. I think social media "innovations" happen just because they can. Actually the idea that there is such a thing as "social media" to begin with is funny. There is nothing really social about social media. It actually discourages people from talking to each other.

Social media has also evolved into pressure. Pressure to have x "friends" , pressure be on it, or BOO you are nobody.

Social media facilitates comparisons - the popular versus the unpopular, how many ways can kids rank each each other, one ugly comment is enough to ruin a day. Relationships are becoming distorted, it's a big mess.

They are already proven to waste billions of dollars to companies, but there is no measure currently of how social media (is texting included in this term?) is hurting appropriate social/emotional development in kids because it is totally obstructive of their time.

There ought to be a law that when "innovation" hurts kids so much, you cannot profit from it.

Posted by Mom, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Oct 29, 2009 at 8:37 am

Social Media

Actually, I have a better one,

there ought to be a law requiring parental consent for anyone under 18 to open a social media account.

In the meantime, we can educate our kids about how unsocial it is.

Posted by Resident, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Oct 29, 2009 at 8:45 am

With all new innovations, there will inevitably be downsides as well as upsides. My kids, as well as myself, use facebook but since I friend them they know I can see what they are doing. Not only do they keep in touch with friends at school, they also keep in touch with friends who now go to other schools (due to peer streaming and other reasons), cousins, friends they know from activities not in school. They also manage to use facebook to help with joint homework projects, get homework if they are out sick and of course find out news. Yes, a lot of kids may use it inappropriately but last night they were using this forum inappropriately too.

At least on facebook they know who is saying what and they can choose to delete any friend they want if that friend is harrassing them. They can't do that with emails and texts.

Anyone who wants to get rid of social networking sites has only heard of the downsides and not experienced it for themselves to find the many, many upsides for people of all ages. I think it is here to stay.

Posted by Mom, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Oct 29, 2009 at 10:04 am

Resident,

Using it for homework is sad because no student should be forced to have a facebook account to complete group assignments.

The upside of getting in touch with far away cousins is not that big compared to the downside of the time warp, and the fact that it is already known an isolating activity.

Posted by Switch, a resident of the Professorville neighborhood, on Oct 29, 2009 at 11:18 am

I am so board with Nanny Joe.

When is he term limited out of office?