Porn on the Net: Now You See It, Now You Don't

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Brace yourselves for another round with the Communications Decency Act. Although we haven't heard about it for a while, this piece of federal legislation is still alive, although hibernating. The CDA would make it a felony to display "indecent" or "patently offensive" words or images on the Internet where children might see them. Offenders could be punished with a $250,000 fine and a two-year prison term.

Critics of the Act argue loudly that it violates the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech. Currently, only speech that qualifies as "obscene" may legally be banned.

Last summer, the CDA was rejected as unconstitutional by a three-judge federal panel in Philadelphia, and has not been enforced since. But while free speech advocates hailed the federal panel's unanimous decision, the victory was not a final one. The government appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments on the case on March 19, 1997. The Court is expected to issue its decision by early July. That edict will likely be the most definitive judicial statement yet on how the First Amendment will apply to online networks and communication systems.

And a definitive statement is sorely needed. Even as the CDA winds its way through appeal, new constitutional conflicts continue to mushroom from the rich soil of the Internet. As it turns out, the Internet's greatest asset--its vast abundance of content--seems also to be its curse. The Act is only one of innumerable attempts to regulate content on the Internet, and not necessarily the most controversial.

Public Libraries: Checking Out Pornography

Critics charge that Internet filtering amounts to impermissible censorship, for a couple of reasons. For one, most pornography is considered to be indecent speech which--unlike obscene speech--is protected by the First Amendment. Second, the software that filters out the undesirable smut is not technically perfect, and ends up blocking a good deal of non-pornographic information, such as the poetry of Anne Sexton (due to the first three letters of her last name) and the Web site for the National Organization for Women. Librarians, parents and government officials are struggling to balance the need to protect children with adults' First Amendment rights in an increasingly wired world. Consider the following examples:

• The mayor of Boston announced in February that the blocking software CyberPatrol would be installed on all public Internet terminals accessible to minors, including those at public libraries, schools and community centers. CyberPatrol will not reveal the list of sites it blocks, though recent uses show that it denies access to the Critical Path AIDS Project, the Queer Resources Directory, and the soc.feminism newsgroup. CyberPatrol's list of forbidden sites is updated weekly. Mayor Thomas Menino denies that the installation constitutes censorship; he says that upon a showing of proof that a person is at least 18 years old, the block can be lifted. But John Roberts, head of the Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union, disagrees. According to Roberts, a government ban on certain information in libraries violates the First Amendment. He has promised to sue the city if the mayor does not change his position.

• The Orange County Library System in central Florida had been providing Internet access for just a few months last summer when it began receiving complaints of library patrons leaving pornographic images on the terminals after they had left. In response, the library board installed WebSense blocking software on its Internet terminals. Of the 27 categories to block that WebSense offers, the Orange County library chose only to block "pornography," leaving access to "adult entertainment," "abortion" and "tasteless/worthless?" among others. Orange County's move drew accusations of censorship and a threat of a lawsuit from the ACLU.

• Just last month, the Ohio legislature stood poised to include an amendment to its state budget which would have forced every library in the state to access the Web through the state-funded Ohio Public Library Information Network, which would have blocking software installed. The bill was inspired two months earlier when a reporter at a public library spied some children viewing pornography at a computer terminal. The bill initially enjoyed enthusiastic support, despite the misgivings of various library boards across the state. Just last week, however, the Ohio Senate killed the amendment, citing the expense, the uncertain effectiveness, and the loss of power each local library would suffer.

What's clearest in this debate is that the nature of information online is radically changing the way society must manage it, and that band-aids like commercially-produced blocking software will not afford a neat solution.

Where to Go for More:

• The Netly News Network has created a Censorware Search Engine where you can check if a Web site has been blocked by one of a number of blocking software programs. You can enter a URL, and the engine will find out whether CyberSitter,NetNanny, SurfWatch, The Internet Filter, or CyberPatrol block that particular site. The Censorware Search Engine can be found at: http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/spoofcentral/censored/

• The ACLU is involved in many of the battles for free speech online, which you can learn more about at its Web site. The ACLU is a key party in the lawsuit against the CDA, and maintains an extensive archive of online materials about the case. The main URL for the ACLU is http://www.aclu.org/, or you can visit their Online Censorship Page at http://www.aclu.org/issues/cyber/censor/censor.html

• The Electronic Frontier Foundation, who is also tracking the CDA suit, maintains a Web site with a broad range of information and documents about the case. EFF also covers other Net-related issues such as privacy, access to information, cryptography and more. EFF's home page is at http://www.eff.org/, or you can go to its page on censorship and free speech at http://www.eff.org/pub/Censorship/HTML/hot.html

• To read a Netly News interview with Boston Mayor Thomas Menino about his decision to install blocking software on all public Internet terminals, go to: http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/editorial/0,1012,687,00.html