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That's right! You read that right! If you misuse your Meta tags you could get up to 20 years in prison for it according to the 'Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act'. With this law it is an offense for any website to use Meta tags in a way that misleads children by tricking them into 'viewing material constituting obscenity.' The penalty doubles to 20 years if you intentionally use the Meta tags to deceive children.

If Fitzpatrick's bill entitled, 'Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA)', gets passed it will forbid publicly funded organizations from allowing children access to websites that will lead them to getting unlawful sexual advances. This will put a danger out there to web sites that have social interaction such as chat rooms and forums. Websites that have these social interactions for children should have the proper monitoring precautions in place to protect the children and protect you from inadvertently breaking the law. More details on this bill can be viewed at news.com. (http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6071040.html)

The Children's Internet Protection Act that was signed in December of 2000 by President Clinton gave the schools and libraries federal funding to block out websites that contain off-color materials and if Fitzpatrick's bill gets passed it will force many websites to get blocked at schools and libraries.

What does this mean for your web site?

If you have a social networking site like MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, Google's Orkut.com, or LiveJournal.com you could face the penalties of the Child Protection Legislation and get your website blocked in the United States to most schools and libraries. Also you can risk up to twenty years in prison if you misuse your Meta tags by deliberately deceiving children into questionable sites.

What can you do to protect yourself?

Make sure that your webmaster knows of this news and does not use misleading Meta tags such as the Meta description tag in this example for a web site with adult content.

If you have a forum or chat room on your web site, be prepared for the possibility of getting it banned in schools and libraries.

Until the next article, have a great day!

Michael Rock
The Internet Presence
(Web Site Design Service)
http://www.theinternetpresence.com

Web Ranking Consultants
(Search Engine Optimization Firm)
http://www.webrankingconsultants.com

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References and Sources:

Click here for Michael Fitzpatrick's bill.
(http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politechbot.com%2Fdocs%2Ffitzpatrick.social.networking.051006.pdf&siteId=3&oId=2100-1028-6071040&ontId=1023&lop=nl.ex)

Click here for more details of this at CNET news.com.
(http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6071040.html)

Click here to view the Children's Internet Protection Act
(http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fcc.gov%2Fcgb%2Fconsumerfacts%2Fcipa.html&siteId=3&oId=2100-1028-6071040-2&ontId=1023&lop=nl.ex)