In my country, it works. Fear is potent politics. As you describe, a revision of DOPA (Delete Online Predators Act — an unsuccessful bill introduced around our last election, designed to make people afraid of MySpace) would do nothing to protect children. They (politicians) wouldn’t dare suggest walls around town to protect children. But walls around our schools, well that makes us feel, not safe, but like we’re actually doing something — and it’s easy to do things to public schools.

I’ve spent time in Second Life, and although I do see the potential, I’m not sure that it’s Second Life that will exploit that potential. There are other Virtual World tools out there, and many in development, and I think that when we can have a virtual world service that is dedicated to learning, then we’ll start seeing some of the untapped potentials and even unimagined applications.

I guess that my hope is that the last several years, here in the U.S., have taught Americans that fear is not an appropriate motivation to take with you into the voting booth, and that politicians will learn that solutions win votes, not warnings…

Thanks for continuing the conversation.

– dave –