URL:
http://pressesc.com/news/78225072007/us-senators-call-universal-internet-filtering
US Senators call for universal Internet filtering
Submitted by Adam Thomas on Wed, 2007-07-25 20:47.
US senators today made a bipartisan call for the universal
implementation of filtering and monitoring technologies on the Internet
in order to protect children at the end of a Senate hearing for which
civil liberties groups were not invited.
Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Senate
Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Vice Chairman Ted
Stevens (R-Alaska) both argued that Internet was a dangerous place where
parents alone will not be able to protect their children.
“While filtering and monitoring technologies help parents to screen out
offensive content and to monitor their child’s online activities, the
use of these technologies is far from universal and may not be
fool-proof in keeping kids away from adult material," Sen. Inouye said.
“In that context, we must evaluate our current efforts to combat child
pornography and consider what further measures may be needed to stop the
spread of such illegal material over high-speed broadband connections."
"Given the increasingly important role of the Internet in education and
commerce, it differs from other media like TV and cable because parents
cannot prevent their children from using the Internet altogether," Sen.
Stevens said. "The headlines continue to tell us of children who are
victimized online. While the issues are difficult, I believe Congress
has an important role to play to ensure that the protections available
in other parts of our society find their way to the Internet."
The measures they are calling for include directing the Federal
Communications Commission to identify industry practices "that can limit
the transmission of child pornography" and requiring the Federal Trade
Commission to form a working group to identify blocking and filtering
technologies in use and "identify, what, if anything could be done to
improve the process and better enable parents to proactively protect
their children online."
"In its zeal to protect kids from predators and potentially
inappropriate content, Congress must not trample the First Amendment
rights of Internet users," Center for Democracy and Technology said in a
statement submitted to the Committee today.
They highlighted the finding of a report prepared by diverse group of
people including individuals with expertise in constitutional law, law
enforcement, libraries and library science, information retrieval and
representation, developmental and social psychology, Internet and other
information technologies, ethics, and education found that “public
policy can go far beyond the creation of statutory punishment for
violating some approved canon of behavior.”
"[T]he most important finding of the committee is that developing in
children and youth an ethic of responsible choice and skills for
appropriate behavior is foundational for all efforts to protect
them—with respect to inappropriate sexually explicit material on the
Internet as well as many other dangers on the Internet and in the
physical world," the Thornburgh Committee concluded.
--
David Solomonoff, President
Internet Society of New York
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
isoc-ny.org
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