• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, March 8, 2007

Lawmakers in Connecticut this week said they will introduce a bill aimed at restricting teens from using social networking sites without their parents' consent. The proposed legislation would require social networking sites to verify users' ages and prohibit those under 18 from setting up profiles, unless their parents approved.

While lawmakers no doubt view MySpace and other networking sites as easy targets -- thanks to well-publicized incidents involving predators who found victims on the sites -- this proposed legislation appears unenforceable as well as unconstitutional.

It's not at all clear how MySpace or any other Web company could use a foolproof system of verifying age. What's more, lawmakers appear fuzzy on which sites or companies would be bound by this requirement. The Associated Press reported that the state Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal, intends for the act to apply to "any organized online networking organization, including chat rooms."

This concept is nearly meaningless in the Web 2.0 world, where a host of Web sites have added social networking functionality.

But even beyond those problems, teens have strong arguments that this bill would violate their First Amendment rights to free speech. Though that right isn't absolute, courts have often held that teens have the right to express themselves without first obtaining permission from adult authorities.