Cybertelecom Federal Internet Law & Policy An Educational Project

Children, Protection of

A great deal of content regulation is done with the governmental interest of protecting children. These laws seek both to protect children from harmful content, and, in the case of child pornography laws, protect children from being the subject of offensive content. Also included here are laws that protect children's privacy, and support Internet access for children at schools and libraries.

These content laws demonstrate a tension between the recognition of the value of Internet content and activity - and the existense of offensive or problematic content, and a tension between a strong government interest of protecting children and the First Amendment.

Reports have identified the way in which content over the Internet causes risks for children:

• Harder for parents to supervise use
• Easier access to offensive content
• Access to content that is more extreme than content available in other forms
• Offensive content can be accessed accidentally (and can be pushed at the individual through pop-ups, spam, mouse-trapping)
• Interaction with strangers

[NAS Report]

Methods of protecting children includes

• Whitelists: providing access to appropriate content
  • See dot KIDS dot US [COPA II.E.]
• Blacklists: filtering or blocking access to inappropriate content [NAS 10] [COPA II.B.3]
  • See dot XXX [COPA II.E.]
• Labels and Tags [COPA II.C] (can be used with both white and black lists)
• Monitoring access [NAS 11] [COPA II.F.15.]
• Education [NAS 9] [COPA II.A.2]
• Restricting the supply of inappropriate content including creating incentives for the mature content industry to restrict access to adults [NAS 11]
• Best practices
  • Parental, including best practice guidelines for parents and technology
  • Industry and industry initiatives
    • Age Verification [COPA II.D.]

Chart from Executive Summary of COPA Commission Report (2000)

"Technologies and methods identified in the lower right quadrant are most effective and accessible while imposing fewer costs and adverse impacts. Those identified in the upper left quadrant are relatively ineffective and create the most adverse effects. After consideration of the information gathered through hearings and comments filed by a wide range of parties, the Commission concludes that no single technology or method will effectively protect children from harmful material online. Rather, the Commission determined that a combination of public education, consumer empowerment technologies and methods, increased enforcement of existing laws, and industry action are needed to address this concern. "

The laws that have been enacted that specifically address children, sorted by issue, are

• Child Pornography
  • Digital Images:
    • PROTECT Act of 2003: Sought to correct the unconstitutional flaws of the CPPA.
    • Child Pornography Prevention Act (CPPA): Sought to make electronic images of child pornography illegal regardless of whether they actually involve a child. Since the articulated government interest is to protect children, if there is no child involved, then the government interest is not met and the censorship is overbroad; this was ruled unconstitutional.
  • Duty to Report
    • PROTECT Our Children Act of 2008: Duplicated the reporting requirements of the Child Protection and Sexual Predator Punishment Act of 1998.
    • Child Protection and Sexual Predator Punishment Act of 1998: Requires ISPs to report known instances of child pornography.
• Material Harmful to Minors
  • Use of Deceptive domain names, embedded words, or digital images to trick people into viewing obscenity or children into viewing content harmful to minors
    • PROTECT Act of 2003: Truth in Domain Names Act of 2003 - which makes it criminal to use domain names to trick people into seeing obscenity or children into seeing content harmful to minors.
    • HR 4472 Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 use of embedded words or digital images in order to deceive people into viewing obscenity or children into viewing material harmful to minors
  • S.2537 Dot Kids Implementation and Efficiency Act of 2002 creating a separate domain space fo kid friendly webpages .kids.us (devoid of material harmful to minors)
  • Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA): CIPA requires that schools and libraries which receive subsidies from the FCC ERate program have in place an Internet Safety Program.
  • Children's Online Protection Act (COPA): A congressional response to the Communications Decency Act being ruled unconstitutional, COPA attempted to restrict the transmission of material “harmful to minors” over commercial world wide web sites. Litigation is ongoing but at every stage COPA has been ruled unconstitutional
• Sex Offenders
  • S 431 KIDS Act of 2008 A bill to require convicted sex offenders to register online identifiers, and for other purposes.
  • HR 4472 Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006
    • Sec. 118 PUBLIC ACCESS TO SEX OFFENDER INFORMATION THROUGH THE INTERNET
    • Sec. 119: National Sex Offender Registry
    • Sec. 120: Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website
    • Sec. 201: Internet Sale Date Rape Drug illegal 21 USC § 841(g)
• Educational and Awareness Campaigns
  • Broadband Data Improvement Act Title II: Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act Sec. 212 calls on the FTC to engage in a public awareness campaign “to promote the safe use of the Internet by children.” The FTC already has such a campaign known as OnGuard Online
  • Broadband Data Improvement Act Title II: Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act Sec. 215 imposes a new requirement on school and libraries that receive subsidies from the FCC's erate program; they must teach Internet safety as a part of their Internet Safety Program. The State of Virginia and many other schools systems already had implemented such educational programs.
  • HR 4472 Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 Sec. 629: Children's Safety Online Awareness Campaigns; Sec. 630: Grants for Online Child Safety Program
• Police, Prosecutor and Forensic Resources
  • Broadband Data Improvement Act Title II: Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act Sec. 221 amended FCC enforcement authority in order to give the FCC authority to prosecute the transportation, distribution or possession of child pornography.
  • PROTECT Our Children Act of 2008: Allocated additional funds for law enforcement
  • HR 4472 Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 Sec. 704: Additional Prosecutors for Offenses Relating to the Sexual Explotation of Children; Sec. 705: Additional Computer-Related Resources (forensics); Sec. 706: Additional ICAC Task Forces
• Privacy
  Children's Online Privacy Protection Act
• Internet Access
  • FCC ERate Program which provides subsidies to schools and libraries for Internet Access. See CIPA (Internet Safety Policy requirement)
• Advertising
  • FCC Limits to placing web addresses in advertising aimed at kids during television broadcasts
• Reports to Congress
  • Child Safe Viewing Act :: FCC Report to Congress on Parent Control Technology, Due 270 days after December 2, 2008.
  • Broadband Data Improvement Act . Title II of Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act, Sec. 213 :: FTC Report on Sec. 103 Activities :: Annual (Editor's note: the reference is confusing and may be to the FTC's Sec. 212 obligation to engage in an Internet Safety public awareness campaign)
  • Online Safety and Technology Working Group Broadband Data Improvement Act . Title II of Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act, Sec. 214 :: Report to Congress on online industry's efforts to promote online safety :: Pending.
  • PROTECT ACT of 2008
    • National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction, PROTECT Act of 2008 Title I :: Report on strategy :: Annual
    • National Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) Program, PROTECT Act of 2008 Title I :: Report on the progress of the ICAC :: Pending
    • PROTECT Act of 2008 Title II Report :: DOJ report on its forensic capabilities :: Annual
    • PROTECT Act of 2008 Title IV Report :: "whether a subject of an online child exploitation investigation poses a high risk of harm to children." :: Pending
  • CIPA Report :: CIPA called on the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the Department of Commerce to conduct a study "to evaluate whether currently available Internet blocking or filtering technology measures adequately address the needs of educational institutions and to evaluate the effectiveness of children's Internet safety policies." :: Completed 2002
  • COPA Commission Report :: for the purpose of conducting a study "regarding methods to help reduce access by minors to material that is harmful to minors on the Internet." :: Completed 2000
  • National Academies Report :: as a part of the Protection of Children From Sexual Predators Act, Congress requested that the National Academies of Sciences produce a report "to conduct a study of computer-based technologies and other approaches to the problem of the availability of pornographic material to children on the Internet." :: Completed 2002

Child Protection Laws chronologically:

• S 431 KIDS Act of 2008 A bill to require convicted sex offenders to register online identifiers, and for other purposes (legislative background info on sex offenders webpage)
• Broadband Data Improvement Act Title II: Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act
  • S.1492 Broadband Data Improvement Act
    Title: A bill to improve the quality of federal and state data regarding the availability and quality of broadband services and to promote the deployment of affordable broadband services to all parts of the Nation.
    Sponsor: Sen Inouye, Daniel K. [HI] (introduced 5/24/2007)       Cosponsors (22)
    Latest Major Action: Became Public Law No: 110-385 [GPO: Text , PDF ]
    Senate Reports: 110-204
  • Introduced by Sen. Inouye and amended to include Sen. Steven 's Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act ( S. 49 ) - although perhaps in title only as the amendment varied greatly from the original language introduced by Sen. Stevens.
  • Sec. 212 calls on the FTC to engage in a public awareness campaign “to promote the safe use of the Internet by children.” The FTC already has such a campaign known as OnGuard Online
  • Sec. 213 calls on the FTC to file a Report with Congress with regard to its activities pursuant to Sec. 103 (perhaps a typo).
  • Sec. 214 calls on the Department of Commerce to establish the Online Safety and Technology Working Group, which will look at industry efforts to promote online safety, and submit a report to congress within one year.
    • Interestingly, the working group will look at internet services obligation to report online child exploitation pursuant to the 10 year old law, 42 USC 13032 – but not Sen. McCain's new parallel obligation to report online child exploitation pursuant to the new PROTECT Our Children Act – I have previously groused over the intelligence of enacting two similar-but-not-the-same laws, leaving it to industry to pay attorneys lots of money to figure out the ambiguities of complying with both.
    • The new task force also will look at one of the Attorney General's long desire items, record retention by internet services – but wait! The new McCain Act in fact has a record retention provision in it
    • Not only was the McCain SAFE Act not harmonized with preexisting law, but it would appear that the McCain SAFE Act was not harmonized with the Steven's Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act.
  • Sec. 215 imposes a new requirement on school and libraries that receive subsidies from the FCC's erate program; they must teach Internet safety as a part of their Internet Safety Program. The State of Virginia and many other schools systems already had implemented such educational programs.
  • Sec. 216 gives us yet another statutory definition of the Internet. It happens to be verbatim the same definition as codified with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.
  • Sec. 221 amended FCC enforcement authority in order to give the FCC authority to prosecute the transportation, distribution or possession of child pornography.
• PROTECT Our Children Act of 2008: Allocated additional funds for law enforcement, and duplicated the reporting requirements of the Child Protection and Sexual Predator Punishment Act of 1998 (legislative background info on the PROTECT Act 2008 webpage)
• HR 4472 Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 (legislative background info on sex offenders webpage)
• PROTECT Act of 2003: Sought to correct the unconstitutional flaws of the CPPA.
  • included the Truth in Domain Names Act of 2003 - which makes it criminal to use domain names to trick people into seeing obscenity or children into seeing content harmful to minors.
• S.2537 Dot Kids Implementation and Efficiency Act of 2002 creating a separate domain space fo kid friendly webpages .kids.us
• Children's Online Protection Act (COPA): A congressional response to the Communications Decency Act being ruled unconstitutional, COPA attempted to restrict the transmission of material “harmful to minors” over commercial world wide web sites. Litigation is ongoing but at every stage COPA has been ruled unconstitutional
• Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA): CIPA requires that schools and libraries which receive subsidies from the FCC ERate program have in place an Internet Safety Program.
• Child Pornography Prevention Act (CPPA): Sought to make electronic images of child pornography illegal regardless of whether they actually involve a child. Since the articulated government interest is to protect children, if there is no child involved, then the government interest is not met and the censorship is overbroad; this was ruled unconstitutional.
• Child Protection and Sexual Predator Punishment Act of 1998: Requires ISPs to report known instances of child pornography.

Private Sector Activity

• NetSmartz : "The NetSmartz Workshop is an interactive, educational safety resource from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children ® (NCMEC) and Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) for children aged 5 to 17, parents, guardians, educators, and law enforcement that uses age-appropriate, 3-D activities to teach children how to stay safer on the Internet."

• Safe Surfing USA Foundation : " works to educate the public about Internet crimes against children and how communities can protect their children from becoming victims. "
• Family Online Safety Institute About ICRA (voluntary web rating)
• GetNetWise : "is a public service brought to you by a wide range of Internet industry corporations and public interest organizations . The GetNetWise coalition wants Internet users to be only "one click away" from the resources they need to make informed decisions about their family's use of the Internet."
• WiredSafety : " WiredSafety provides help, information and education to Internet and mobile device users of all ages. We help victims of cyberabuse ranging from online fraud, cyberstalking and child safety, to hacking and malicious code attacks. We also help parents with issues, such as MySpace and cyberbullying."
• WebWiseKids : "is about empowering today's youth to make wise choices online. Through state-of–the-art Internet Safety computer games (based on real-life scenarios) as well as Internet Safety tips for kids, teens and parents, Web Wise Kids creates a safer, friendlier internet experience. These, coupled with involvement of community, youth leaders and parents, provides an environment where your child's Internet Safety becomes their first line of defense while navigating through cyberspace."
• iSAFE : " i-SAFE Inc. is the worldwide leader in Internet safety education. Founded in 1998 and endorsed by the U.S. Congress, i-SAFE is a non-profit foundation dedicated to protecting the online experiences of youth everywhere. i-SAFE incorporates classroom curriculum with dynamic community outreach to empower students, teachers, parents, law enforcement, and concerned adults to make the Internet a safer place. Please join us today in the fight to safeguard our children's online experience."
• Google: Tips for Online Safety : In cooperation with Common Sense Media.
• Common Sense Media : "Common Sense Media is dedicated to improving the media and entertainment lives of kids and families. We exist because media and entertainment profoundly impact the social, emotional, and physical development of our nation's children. As a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization, we provide trustworthy information and tools, as well as an independent forum, so that families can have a choice and a voice about the media they consume."