Word: censorships
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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...
There are, however, minor forms, including asking the Websites to rate their content "voluntarily." Chris Hansen, senior staff counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, is particularly disturbed by the growing political support for self-censorship. "Rating systems may work, however badly, in TV or movies, where there are relatively few programs and armies of lawyers," he says. "But with E-mail, chat rooms and newsgroups, the sheer volume is overwhelming...
Nonetheless, self-censorship is starting to look like the wave--or at least one very big wave--of the future. Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser already includes a ratings program called RSACi. It has emerged as the leading Net-rating system that allows Web proprietors to rate their own sites instead of letting NetNanny and SurfWatch employees pass judgment for them. And rival Netscape, bowing to pressure from the White House at last month's censorware summit (Bill Clinton, predictably, loves ostensibly family-friendly software filters), has agreed to use rating systems in the next version of its browser...
...precisely that. The court, while disagreeing about some issues in the case, unanimously concluded that reducing online communication to a safe-for-kids standard is unconstitutional. "The interest in encouraging freedom of expression in a democratic society," wrote Justice John Paul Stevens, "outweighs any theoretical but unproven benefit of censorship...
...case, however, that Congress's power is largely symbolic. Even if the government figures out a constitutional way to impose limited censorship online, these rules can apply only within the U.S.--and the Internet is international. If parents want to control what their children see, they'll probably have to resort to an old-fashioned, low-tech solution: they'll have to supervise their kids' time online...