what's going on in Illinois?!

I'm from a community college in Illinois. Last year the U.S. House voted in favor of a bill to deny e-rate funding to public libraries and schools that do not block social networking sites. It was never considered by the U.S. Senate. The controversy is about IL S.B. 1682 , submitted by IL Senator Matt Murphy. This bill would require public libraries and schools to prohibit access to social networking sites The text of the bill and comments can be found on Michael Stephens ' weblog tame the web. The Illinois Library Association has sent out alerts and info. on it.

The Illinois Library Association has sent out information to its members regarding the legislation and urging us to contact our state senators and representatives to talk to them about it. Unfortunately, I think this is going to happen in a lot of states over the next few years--misguided, knee-jerk legislation that attempts to solve nasty societal problems (namely, perverts preying on children and teens) that existed long before MySpace.

Apparently, the legislator who introduced the bill is having (or had) an online chat about it. An online chat? Seems kind of odd for someone who wants to BLOCK social networking sites to host an online chat to discuss his proposed legislation.