Online Child Safety Dealt a Setback

March 23, 2007

Online Child Safety Dealt a Setback

Congresswoman Deborah Pryce (R-Columbus) submitted the following editorial:

This past week, any parent concerned with the easy accessibility of online pornographic material to their children was dealt a blow by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. In a decision reached on Thursday, the Court struck down the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), legislation passed by Congress in 1998, claiming the Act infringed upon the free speech guarantees of the First Amendment.

The facts surrounding the case are straightforward. In 1998, in an effort to restrict children’s access to pornographic and adult websites, Congress passed COPA, which required adult web site operators to verify that visitors to the site were eighteen years of age or older. Operators found in violation of COPA could be penalized as much as $50,000, and spend up to six months in prison. The verification process was equally simple – the site operators would be required to install a credit card verification system that could determine the visitors’ ages -- as a commercial site, the operators would presumably have such a capability anyway, assuming they wanted payment for their product.

In its decision, the Court agreed with the arguments of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) that COPA suppressed our right to free speech, was constitutionally vague, and could cause a chilling effect on speech. This is nonsense. Under COPA, Congress made no attempt to limit or ban web content; five minutes of web surfing verifies the fact that adult material remains in bloom on the Internet. Rather, COPA’s restrictions are the online equivalent of requiring minors to provide identification for entry to R-rated movies. Last time I checked, Hollywood’s creativity has not buckled under the weight of an age restriction chilling effect by shelving all of its movies with gratuitous violence or adult content.

The Court further concurred with the ACLU that the onus should not be placed upon adult website operators to monitor its visitors, but rather on millions of parents who should install filtering software on their home computers. This is an unlikely scenario, given a recent survey that found 56% of home computers owners have either no anti-virus software installed, or outdated software. I tend to agree with Assistant Attorney General Peter D. Keisler who argued before the Court, "It is not reasonable for the government to expect all parents to shoulder the burden, to cut off every possible source of adult content for their children, rather than the government's addressing the problem at its source."

The COPA was not a puritan, paternalistic attempt at censorship. To the contrary, the Act was carefully written to exclude sites providing material with serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors, and it applied only to commercial websites – thus health care organizations, governmental entities, and advocacy groups that use the web for educational purposes on matters pertaining to sex would not be encumbered by the requirements of the Act.

I am continuously astounded by how the web has simplified our lives, transformed modern communication, opened infinite information to the masses, and revolutionized commerce. However, there must be a caveat to the absolutism of Internet freedom when it poses a legitimate threat to our children, and Congress has taken reasonable, common-sense steps to that end.

While commonly viewed as a body that moves at a glacial pace, Congress has done admirably well at keeping pace with the myriad dangers posed to children online. In addition to COPA, Congress also approved a law requiring commercial website operators to protect the privacy and safety of children online, and restricting internet marketing to those under 13. Further, last year Congress approved the Delete Online Predators Act, which prohibits anyone under 18 from accessing chat rooms and social networking sites on school or library computers – anyone who has seen a single installment of Dateline’s “To Catch a Predator” series knows all too well that the internet has become the preferred hunting grounds for child predators. In fact, a study by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children suggests that as many as one in five children has been approached by a sexual predator online.

Parents intent upon keeping their children safe are continually struggling to keep pace with the advancing technological world around them. It is most unfortunate when our legal system undermines our efforts.

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