July 16, 1997
Policymakers in the United States and around the world are faced
with the critical question: How best to help assure that children
who use the Internet are protected from material that their parents
or guardians consider inappropriate for them? This question is
especially urgent because nearly ten million children use the
Internet regularly today in the United States alone. Parents,
educators, librarians, and industry leaders agree: The Internet
is an incredible new vehicle for children -- one that is genuinely
innovative, engages children, and enhances education. Today, children
and teens go on line to do homework, to display artwork and creative
writing, to access educational materials, collaborate with others
in the neightborhood or across the nation, and to make new friends
around the globe.
Child safety on the Internet begins with responsible parenting.
But to help parents, those seeking to supervise their children's
Internet access must have easy access to effective blocking and
filtering technology that can shield children from unwanted material
(including sexually-explicit images, violence, gambling, alcohol
advertising, ideological extremism, etc.) no matter which of the
over 150 Internet-connected countries is the home of the site
publishing the content. In addition, an increasiing number of
child-safe Internet sites offer positive guidance toward online
resources that are especially useful for children. No United States
censorship law could give parents this range of control, nor could
it reach content from around the world so effectively. Moreover,
by placing control over content in the hands of individual parents,
as opposed to bureaucrats and prosecutors, policy makers can assure
full respect for our constitutional protection of freedom of expression
and enable the Internet to grow free from unnecessary and ineffective
regulatory interference.
Unlike the television V-chip, Internet parental empowerment tools
are here today and in the hands of millions of Internet-connected
families. And unlike the V-chip, a great variety of blocking and
filtering software exists which can serve the diversity of family
values of American communities, providing choice to families online
without infringing the constitutional First Amendment rights of
Internet users. This White Paper provides an overview of the parental
empowerment technologies available today, as well as highlights
of planned partnerships among industry, community groups, and
government which will enhance the safety and utility of the Web
for all children and families.
The advantages of the parental empowerment approach are plain:
100% Available Today: Every family that brings Internet
access into the home for children has the option, often at no
cost, to filter out information judged inappropriate for children
and invite that which is appropriate according to that family's
own values. In the United States, filtering software is easily
available to Internet families:
Easy-to-use and Effective: Advanced blocking and filtering
technology is doing a far more effective job of shielding children
from inappropriate material than could any law. Filtering software
is able to keep up with a proliferation of content from millions
of Internet sites around the world and across jurisdictional boundaries.
Moreover, filtering is easy-to-use, available at a parent's fingertips,
and secure against the tampering of the average child.
Accommodate a Diversity of Family Values and Educational Needs:
As filtering software and services develop, they enable parents
to share their children's Internet experiences as appropriate
to the particular child's upbringing and maturity level.
Positive Guidance for Children on the Internet: Today,
there are many Internet resources which help point children toward
useful web sites that are specially selected as appropriate for
children.
Protective of Constitutional Freedom of Expression and Children:
Adults have a constitutional right to speak and publish in some
ways that are nevertheless considered inappropriate for children.
Since parental empowerment tools limit that which is available
to children at the receiving end, as opposed to that which can
be published at the sending end, freedom of expression is preserved
for adults while parents are able to protect their children from
whatever categories of speech they consider inappropriate given
the child's age and maturity and the family's own moral values.
The approach to child safety online will prove critical, not only
for the children who use the Internet in years to come, but also
to the development of the Internet and its ability to continue
to function as an engine of economic growth and a global platform
for the free flow of information and democratic values.
Policy makers face two options in addressing this critical issue.
The traditional approach, and the one adopted in the Communications
Decency Act, is to enact a top-down, bureaucratic command and
control regulatory regime that attempts to protect children through
censorship laws which punish content providers for making certain
kinds of constitutionally-protected material (i.e., indecency)
publicly available on the Internet. The more effective alternative,
which also avoids censorship, is to give parents and others responsible
for children the ability to control what kinds of material come
into the home. Today, parents are already empowered to block and
filter Internet content that they believe to be inappropriate
for their own children. Policy makers ought to lend their full
support to the parental empowerment approach because it is the
only option which will effectively protect children on the global
Internet.
Growing Partnership Between the Internet Industry, Parent and
Community Groups, and Government: In the coming months, families
on the Internet will have even easier access to filtering technology
through web browsers. They will find the Internet an easier-to-navigate,
safer place due to stepped-up public education campaigns and services
which will direct parents and their children to Internet resources
specifically selected for children. Highlights of these efforts
include:
The Internet Family Empowerment White Paper was prepared by the Center for
Democracy and Technology in consultation with members of the Citizen's Internet
Empowerment Coalition attending the July 16 White House meeting on Internet
Parental Empowerment Tools:
America Online
American Library Association
AT&T
Commercial Internet eXchange
Interactive Services Association
IBM
Media Access Project
Microsoft
Microsystems/Cyber Patrol
NETCOM On-Line Communication Services
People for the American Way
Recreational Software Advisory Council
Software Publishers Association
Spyglass/Surfwatch
World Wide Web Consortium
For more information, see the web site:
http://www.netparents.org/
or contact:
Daniel J. Weitzner, Deputy Director <djw@cdt.org>
Center for Democracy and Technology
202-637-9800
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Posted on July 16, 1997.