 |
|
|
|
Please note: The reports in this section are not product reviews or tests; they're meant to spotlight options for you to consider, as well as milestones in children's online-safety technology development. Comments from readers on their own experiences with these products and services are most welcome - and, with your permission, we publish them. Do email us your own product reviews anytime!
Child Online Protection law: An editorial (Nov. 12, '99 issue)
COPA, the Child Online Protection Act, is back in the news this week, getting ready for a final decision on its fate. It's not to be confused with COPPA, the children's online privacy law, passed by the US Congress last year and to be implemented next spring (see our latest COPPA coverage). Both are of interest to parents and teachers of online kids. But that's where the similarity ends.
COPA was signed into law a year ago but blocked last February by a federal judge's injunction that said it probably violates the First Amendment. The US government is appealing the injunction, and arguments on both sides were heard last week by a three-judge panel in a US Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. Coverage of the arguments, including the New York Times's, say the judges asked tough questions and "seemed skeptical" that the law could pass the constitutional test.
COPA looks to be a last-gasp effort to pass a law that protects children online by restricting content (emphasis on "content"). Because the law focuses on the publishing rather than the user end of the equation - on controlling freedom of speech, in effect - it bumps right into the First Amendment. As one lawyer following the COPA proceedings told us, we're seeing a shift of focus in Net laws now being drafted and discussed in Congress: "We didn't see any content-based Internet laws [concerning children] in Congress this session. What we saw instead were mandatory-filtering laws," said Liza Kessler with the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT). "I think that people who may have very different views on the best way to protect children or on what kind of material is appropriate for them are all recognizing that, in the US, content-based restriction is very unlikely to pass constitutional muster."
There's also a First Amendment factor to laws about filtering (the user end of the equation), when it concerns restriction of access in public spaces, such as public schools and libraries. Wherever more than one "interest community," or set of values or standards, share a space in the US, freedom of speech comes into play. The subject came up in the COPA arguments last week. Liza told us Judge Garth asked tough questions about "community standards" - which community's values apply in a law about a global medium. He was referring to geographical communities, but conservative and liberal interest communities are just as relevant on the Internet. The healthy question being raised (and quite possibly not answered) by the COPA case is: What community decides for everybody what types of content on the Internet is harmful to minors?
It's a tough question for everyone in the interest community of which we are all a part - grownups responsible for online kids. (We were interested to note that more than two-thirds of you answered "yes" to the question in our Subscriber Survey about whether there should be filtering in public spaces.) Judge Garth himself symbolizes the dilemma. The Times reported, "Garth noted that he was a grandfather, and said that children should not be looking at certain kinds of material in cyberspace."
The question of restricting children's access - filtering - in public spaces certainly won't be resolved by the COPA decision, when it comes down in a month or two, or three. But COPA, with all the questions it raises about the Internet and children, is another worthwhile test of the US's pluralistic and democratic principles. It gets people thinking about the greater good, as well as personal, family, and community values. It's a great subject for school debates! And if it gets whole families together to talk about what their own standards are - and making policies that help members stick to those standards - it's something to be grateful for during these days of Thanksgiving.
We'd love it if you'd share stories about your own family Internet policymaking, and about school debates and classroom discussions on the Internet and freedom of speech. Email us any comments.
HOME
| newsletter | subscribe
| links | supporters
| about | feedback
