Internet Indecency

Recently, a member of my staff, attempting to secure information on White House tours through the Internet, inadvertently typed in three incorrect letters of the White House Internet address, and to her shock and disbelief, what appeared on the screen was not helpful information about White House tours, but cyber pornography.

A simple mistake of three keystrokes resulted in offensive trash appearing on the computer screen. Beyond being an affront to adults who inadvertently stumble across it, this web site and others like it present a danger to children. Young students performing research for a school project could just as easily call up this and similar sites by accident.

The Internet offers valuable information and can be a useful resource. Unfortunately, however, due to a lack of regulation of indecent material on the Internet -- the kind of regulation that exists for other media -- it can also be a free-wheeling vehicle for disseminating smut. It is, therefore, important that this new electronic medium, which is increasingly making its way into America's homes and schools, have safeguards to protect our children.

I was a strong supporter of federal legislation aimed at providing such safeguards. The Communications Decency Act, which was enacted in 1996, made it a crime to knowingly transmit indecent material to children via computer. That law would have helped to fill the gap between the rapid development of the Internet and the eruption of web sites that peddle pornography. The Supreme Court, however, struck down that law, leaving pornographers with nearly unrestricted access to our children via the Internet.

To my mind, the act of distributing pornographic materials over the Internet, especially when it is done in ways that lure unsuspecting computer users, particularly children, into these sites, is the height of irresponsibility and borders on abuse. Furthermore, some child abusers have gone so far as to use the Internet to draw vulnerable children into dangerous relationships.

Therefore, with legislative solutions currently blocked due to First Amendment concerns, I am glad to see that members of the technology industry are, at least, proposing voluntary measures to help protect our nation's children from obscenity, including plans to report instances of child pornography to appropriate law enforcement officials. This is a commendable, though overdue, step, and I hope that others will follow.
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December 3, 1997