ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 25, 1997 TAG: 9703250082
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
Would-be regulators would do well to keep in mind that the Internet isn't television, and cyberspace isn't real space.
THE COMMUNICATIONS Decency Act of 1996, whose constitutionality was argued last week before the U.S. Supreme Court after lower courts had found it in violation of the First Amendment, has the laudable intent of protecting children from "indecent" material on the Internet.
But the logic of its congressional authors was based on an imperfect analogy between the Internet and television. Now, the act's defenders argue for its constitutionality on the basis of a similarly flawed analogy between cyberspace and real space.
In the arcana of First Amendment law, "indecency" is an ill-defined gray area. "Indecent" material cannot be denied to adults, but can be kept from minors. It can include much more than porn - a violence-ridden opera, for example, or discussions of the abortion issue. While the Clinton administration has said it will limit enforcement to commercial pornographers, the language of the act and the indecency standard are not so limited.
The standard, long applied to over-the-air broadcasting, would under the Communications Decency Act be applied to the Internet. It would require producers of indecent material to make certain efforts to restrict access to adults. But against whom could it be enforced? Unlike over-the-air broadcasting, the Internet is interactive and is not restricted to rigid channels; Internet "broadcasters" number in the millions.
Using recently developed technology, commercial U.S. purveyors of on-line porn are increasingly restricting access to their sites. Defenders of the act say this is merely the cyberspace equivalent of real-space zoning regulations, which have been upheld by the court, that limit porn stores to the sorts of neighborhoods where children do not tread.
But cyberspace isn't real space. Where, in cyberspace, is the community to set the standard for what's "indecent" and therefore to be kept from children? And what can a federal law do about the international character of the Internet? Some 40 percent of Internet porn is from other countries, and so not subject to the Communications Decency Act or other U.S. laws.
The computer age is making regulation less practical, and parental supervision all the more important.
LENGTH: Short : 46 linesby CNB