Anti-kiddie porn law struck down
p2pnet.net news:- A 1998 law making it a crime for sites to allow children to access ‘harmful’ material interfered with freedom of speech, a US federal judge has ruled.
It was ineffective, overly broad and at odds with free speech rights, Philadelphia senior judge Lowell Reed Jr of the Federal District Court decided, says The New York Times.
“He added that there are far less restrictive methods, including software filters, that parents can use to control their children’s Internet use,” says the story.
The Child Online Protection Act, “fails to address threats that have emerged since the law was written, including online predators on social-networking sites such as News Corp.’s MySpace, because it targets only commercial Web publishers,” Lowell decided, according to Associated Press.
“Despite my personal regret at having to set aside yet another attempt to protect our children from harmful material,” Reed wrote, he was blocking the law because, “perhaps we do the minors of this country harm if First Amendment protections, which they will with age inherit fully, are chipped away in the name of their protection.”
The law never took effect because of an injunction, which was upheld by the United States Supreme Court in 2004.
“If this law had gone into effect, it would have resulted into dumbing down of the Internet,” the NYT has American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Chris Hansen, saying.
“All Internet would have had to be brought down to a level that is acceptable to a 6-year-old and that would have had a devastating effect on the kind of interactions that take place on the Internet.”
But, “We have an epidemic problem of kids accessing pornographic material online,” according to Donna Rice Hughes, president of Enough is Enough, “a nonprofit group that works to protect children from pornography and online predators”. She said porn merchants, “continue to get a free pass on the Internet from our federal courts, and efforts by Congress keep getting trumped.”
And, “The judge seems to indicate there’s really no way for Congress to pass a good law to protect kids online,” the LA Times quotes Daniel Weiss of Focus on the Family Action declaring,k saying the group will continue to press Congress for a “workable law”.
Also See:
The New York Times – Federal Judge Blocks Online Pornography Law, March 22, 2007
Associated Press – Judge strikes down online porn law, March 23, 2007
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
March 23rd, 2007 at 11:57 am
Judge Lowell Reed Jr. is absolutely and completely CORRECT. I agree with him 200%. Thank God there are a few law makers that are FINALLY starting to wake up and smell the stench of the destruction of The Constitution and Bill of Rights. We need to support these law makers in any and all ways we can.
March 23rd, 2007 at 6:17 pm
Now if only they’d get rid of the piece of shit sister law, COPPA. That one is just as bad IMO.
March 26th, 2007 at 9:31 am
IT’S ABOUT TIME that someone in a higher up position finally stopped asking:
“What should be done to protect the children?”
And instead focused on the eternally ignored:
“What should stop being done in the name of protecting children because it infringes too heavily upon the rights guaranteed to Joe Average in the Constitution?”
March 26th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
http://angryoffender.com/ may interest you.
April 14th, 2009 at 11:35 am
I’m so glad they are finally cracking down on child porn and getting rid of it its such a bad to expose small kids to these horrible crimes im only 16 but i’ve heard the tv news reports and things and im greatly satisfied that they got their stuff straight because a few of my friends were involved and had no choice and because the government cracked down and did what they should have my friends are now safe…………….
THANKS U.S. GOVERNMENT!!!!!!!!