Law Protecting Children from 'Harmful' Content Deemed Unconstitutional
The challenge was handled by the ACLU on behalf of a coalition of writers, artists, educators, and the Salon Media Group. The federal appeals court that handed down the ruling agreed with the decision of a lower court that struck down the law on the grounds that it violated the First Amendment and was overly broad and vague.
The law would have essentially forced all U.S.-based Web sites to provide only "family friendly" content since there is no effective barrier for keeping minors locked out of a Web site. Additionally, this law wouldn't affect overseas-based sites, which are not subject to U.S. law. John Morris, from the Center for Democracy & Technology, argued that filters and parental controls are not only less restrictive, but are also more effective at protecting children from objectionable content since they can be applied to Web pages hosted internationally as well.
The Justice Department may take the case to the Supreme Court, where, in 2004, justices agreed that COPA was unconstitutional, but sent the case back to the lower courts to determine if advances in filtering technology would affect the law's constitutionality. [Source: CBS and USA Today]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Make more Bond films @ Jul 27th 2008 12:50AM
OK so if we are going to allow them to promote this to minors because overseas websites can get away with it then we must allow American gambling sites and fake products to cheat people because they to can get away with it when they are from overseas.
Simzeee @ Jul 27th 2008 9:17AM
I guess parents DO NOT watch the kids that they NEED protection from the Government.
Simzeee @ Jul 27th 2008 9:19AM
Does this work? Or does it censor like aol?
John Hodge @ Jul 27th 2008 9:23AM
Content that targets primarily mature readers should not be made accessable to children under the age of at least 18. If an appeal to this tragic decision isn't successful, then the next step just might be that drugs, medications, and alcohol will legally become available to any underage child. It is extremely unfortunate that misguided judges allow themselves to interpret the constitution without foresight and common sense.
DarkLight @ Jul 27th 2008 9:19PM
You all: RTFA.
As there is no effective way to tell adults from underages in the internet (and as a nerd I can confirm that), that law would force ALL Americans (not just underages, but ALL the Americans) to watch stupid-and-unfunny (for an adult, anyway) family friendly (or, in this case, foreign) sites all life long...
The solution, like the article says, is to use local filters on your computer..
They're simply a better option.
Altough the goverment could do something about it (like enforcing web filters with user-friendly presets in a web browser for it to be legal to use in the U.S.), I think parents are responsible for protecting their kids while on the internet... Just like they are for protecting their kids in a park.
Not knowing how to set up a filter is not an excuse, you should not give your kids a piece of technology you don't understand...
Absurd laws should not be used to compensate for lazy parents