16 • Inside ALEC | July 2009

SPECIAL REPORT

Inevitably, fueled by media sensa-tionalism and various activist groups,these social and cultural debates quick-ly become political debates. Indeed,each of the media technologies or out-lets mentioned above was either regu-lated or threatened with regulation atsome point in its history. And the cyclecontinues today. During recent sessionsof Congress, countless hearings wereheld and bills introduced on a widevariety of media and content-related is-sues. These proposals dealt with broad-cast television and radio programming,cable and satellite television content,video games, the Internet, social net-working sites and much more. Statepolicymakers, especially state attorneysgeneral (AGs), also have joined in suchcrusades on occasion. The recent pushby AGs for mandatory age verificationfor all social networking sites is merelythe latest example. What is perhaps most ironic aboutthese techno-panics is how quicklyyesterday’s boogeyman becomestomorrow’s accepted medium, even as

Adam Thierer is a Senior Fellow with The Progress & Freedom Foundation in Washington, D.C. and an advisor to the Telecom & IT Task Force. He is also theauthor of

Parental Controls & Online Child Protection: Survey of Tools & Methods

, and the co-author of

Manifesto for Media Freedom

(Encounter: 2008).

Parents, Kids & Policymakersin the Digital Age

Safeguarding Against "Techno-Panics"

BY ADAM THIERER

cursory review of the history of media and communications technologies reveals a reoccur-ring cycle of “techno-panics” – public and political crusades against the use of new mediaor technologies by the young. From the waltz to rock-and-roll to rap music, from movies tocomic books to video games, from radio and television to the Internet and social networking Web sites, every new media format or technology has spawned a fresh debate about the potential negativeeffects they might have on kids.