The first question from a rising high school senior at Boys State sent Attorney General Robert McDonnell scrambling for an answer.
“What is your position on net neutrality?” the student asked.
McDonnell asked the student to explain the question, saying “I’m just vaguely familiar with the concept.” Moments later he added that it’s an issue “largely dealt with, I think, by the federal government.”
The student explained he was referring to the possibility of Internet users having to pay for the bandwidth they use. Google users would be charged a certain price under the student’s example, but those who use YouTube or watch movies via the Internet would be charged more.
“I just have not really adopted a position on that, and I will have to learn a little more about it,” McDonnell said.
The concept described by the student resembles cable TV packages with basic and advanced services. Charges for those services include state taxes. So, too, does the high-speed Internet connection offered by most cable companies.
McDonnell is the likely Republican candidate for governor in 2009, and has the already-announced backing of most of the party’s statewide leaders.
McDonnell was much more familiar with the Internet’s safety issues when another student asked what the state can do to control the use of abusive statements, which have been blamed in some teen
suicides.
“Cyber bullying,” McDonnell said immediately.
He proceeded to explain that Virginia adopted a law this year to control threats made in Internet postings. McDonnell added the often-heard warnings that teenagers should not post personal information that could be exploited by sex offenders because “you never know who you’re talking to on the Internet.”
He also explained how the law applies to criminal and civil offenses on the Web for the 800 boys attending the weeklong Boys State exercise in government and politics at Liberty University.
When another student asked for McDonnell’s advice about how to be successful as a lawyer and in politics, the attorney general immediately asked the entire crowd, “Any of you interested in politics?”
Only a few raised their hands.
“That’s the wrong answer,” McDonnell said. “As some famous Englishman said, you get the kind of government you deserve. It’s not a spectator sport. All of you should be interested, at least a little bit.
“Make sure you’re educated about the issues, because you’re going to have people elected. It might as well be people who agree with you.”
He recommended that people go into politics for the right motives. “It’s not about you,” he said, but about a desire to make a difference for the right reasons.
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