Cybertelecom Federal Internet Law & Policy An Educational Project

Filters, Notification

Congress has repeatedly attempted to place the burden on ISPs to provide notice to their customers of filtering technology and other parental controls. A provision of COPA requires interactive service providers to provide to customers notice about “parental control protections (such as computer hardware, software, or filtering services) are commercially available that may assist the customer in limiting access to material that is harmful to minors”. [47 U.S.C. § 230(d)] There are, however, no enforcement provisions to this section and it seems to have been all but forgotten.

In addition, the tax moratorium does not apply to ISPs unless they offer to their new customers, either for a fee or a no charge, "screening software that is designed to permit the customer to limit access to material on the Internet that is harmful to minors." [The Internet Tax Freedom Act, Sec. 1101(f)] See also restriction of tax moratorium for commercial websites that offer content harmful to minors.

The Internet Tax Freedom Act, Title XI of P.L. 105-277, the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 1998, as amended by Internet Tax Nondiscrimination Act passed, Nov. 15, 2001, codified as 47 U.S.C. § 151 note.