Another "Communications Decency Act"?
Published: 2003Updated:
Yet another "Communications Decency Act"! Suit has been filed
in Federal court to stop the tampering with communication on the Internet.
This legislation contains most of the unconstitutional flaws of the original
CDA:
- Though the sponsors of CDA II claim it is intended to address only commercial pornographers intentionally targeting minors, the actual language of the bill is vague and overbroad, and will sweep in much more than explicit for-profit visual materials. The bill will censor a wide variety of legitimate, protected expression, for adults as well as children.
- Congress's own posting of the Starr report would likely violate this Act of Congress.
- What is appropriate for some 5-year-olds is not the same thing as what is appropriate for some 16-year-olds, and this bill fails to take account of this basic fact.
- Intentionally providing a minor with "harmful matter", online or offline, is already illegal under general obscenity and harmful-to-minor statutes. Congress cannot expand this to a ban on all online publication (which the bill amounts to; the Supreme Court has already found that the kind of age verification this bill, like the CDA, calls for is impractical).
A broad coalition has formed to defend Internet freedoms. To find out the current status of this campaign and learn what you can do to defend the Internet, click here:
Copyright
© NAMBLA, 2003. All rights reserved.
