Word: cda
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...that Internet censors? What one group claims as guardianship of public morality strikes another as unconscionable, not to mention unconstitutional, interference. In June the Supreme Court slapped down the Communications Decency Act (CDA), which prohibited the posting of "indecent" material over the Net. This decision in turn has created a hot market for products that derisive Net-heads call "censorware"--such software filters as CyberPatrol, NetNanny and SurfWatch ($29.95 to $39.95) that offer to help nervous parents keep inappropriate material from prying but underage eyes...
Such First Amendment echoes make even conservative Congressmen nervous. "I endorse the notion of filtering devices at home," says Bob Goodlatte, a pro-CDA Republican Representative from Virginia, "but there's certainly a legitimate debate as to how to do it in libraries without introducing a major form of censorship...
...ostensibly family-friendly software filters), has agreed to use rating systems in the next version of its browser. Even news organizations, whose free-speech obsession borders on the fanatic, are rating themselves (see THE NETLY NEWS). The Webmasters' private initiative, though, may not cool legislative ardor for rewriting the CDA. Neither filtering software nor self-rating is sufficient to clean up the Net, in the view of Senator Dan Coats of Indiana. Filters are "a good first step," he says, but "it's a tax on the family--the innocent family." Of course, the same could be said for clear...
...evidently, will the President. The White House began backing away from its support of the clearly doomed CDA months ago. But Administration officials have recently come at the problem from a new angle. They propose to fight technology with technology. This week President Clinton will convene a meeting of Internet providers, family groups and others during which he'll propose to protect kids from indecency with a software...
Good luck. Software filters and online ratings systems have been around since before the CDA was born, and they've always been beset with problems. Recently, for instance, when Microsoft began backing a ratings standard known as RSACI and started including the filter as part of its browser, Internet Explorer, the company quickly found that the "solution" could keep large numbers of viewers away from its news site, MSNBC. Microsoft quietly removed the rating. The problem should have been foreseen. News, after all, frequently covers violent, adult-oriented subjects, which puts many news stories into the same verboten range...