Blaming technology for our problems is a dead end. However, it is true that the more powerful the technology, the greater the potential for greatness or tragedy. They amplify our abilities. A kid who's going to commit a violent act will do it whether or not there are guns in the world, but the gun can turn a small tragedy into a big one. And I think that the people like me who wax euphoric over the power of the Internet to spread ideas around the world have to admit that evil can be spread farther and more quickly by modem than by pamphlet.
Some technologies have such power that they test our souls.
The difference between guns and ideas, I believe, is that the world is not necessarily made better my the presence of more guns, but it is made better by the presence of more ideas. I don't believe that disasters like Littleton can be reduced to simple causes, or solved with simple solutions. Instead, the courts have always looked to the least restrictive means of achieving the same ends, which in the case of regulating information on the Internet has been to look to parents to exercise control in their own households. But parents and teachers are the best hope for preventing problems and spotting kids in trouble. I think we can get a better idea of what our kids do online than what they do when, say, we drop them off at the mall.