A speed trap is a law enforcement tool for catching the unwary and unsuspecting, usually having little or nothing to do with any underlying public safety function but to make a quick buck.  As this New York Times article suggests, the extant application of the Lori Drew non-decision has created the digital version of the speed trap, the Terms of Service.

MySpace’s terms of service require users to submit “truthful and accurate” registration information. Ms. Drew’s creation of a phony profile amounted to “unauthorized access” to the site, prosecutors said, a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986, which until now has been used almost exclusively to prosecute hacker crimes.

While the Internet’s anonymity was used in this case as a cloak to bully Megan, other users say they have perfectly good reasons to construct false identities online, if only to help protect against the theft of personal information, for example.

“It will be interesting to see if issues of safety and security will eventually trump the hallmark ideology of free, largely anonymous or pseudonymous participation in cyberspace,” said Sameer Hinduja, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at Florida Atlantic University.

There has been no dearth of discussion about the relative merit of open versus anonymous blogging and commenting,   As many have argued persuasively, there are some really good reasons to keep one’s name off the page, allowing people to post things that they feel they could never say if they had to pay the price with their employers, constituents or clients.  The shield of anonymity (or pseudonymity as if more often the case) allows people to get some very interesting and important ideas out there.  It also allows 12 year olds to pretend to be 39 and curse a lot without Mommy knowing. 

The fear that the government will not take up arms against pseudononymous users is silly.  They aren’t gunning for short guys who fill out their profile saying they stand 6 foot 4, or women who chop a few years off their age.  The problem is that this is a speed trap, available for the government to pull out of its bag when it needs to “get” someone. 

Under the current verdict in the Drew case, the internet is replete with misdemeanants.  People provide less than 100% accurate information in filling out their profiles all the time.  All the time.  This makes many, even a majority perhaps, of Americans criminals.  It’s bad when a law is interpreted in such a way that most people are criminals.

Since it’s unlikely that the government has any intention of trolling the profiles of MySpace users in search of inaccuracy, and lacks the federal courtrooms or jail beds necessary to deal with it, most of us need not fear the Lori Drew application.  But do something that the government really doesn’t like, or do something that raises cackles elsewhere because there’s no ready law available to make you pay, and you’ll find yourself in this speed trap.

Nobody ever realizes that they’re in trouble for doing what everybody does until they see the lights flashing behind them and hear the chirp of the siren.  By then, it’s too late.