Verification of Ages of Minors

[heidi]

Sorry, I know I just posted my new SPN vid, but I just saw this and wanted to post it, too.

Wired is reporting that the 3rd U.S. Circurt Court of Appeals upheld a lower-court decision from 2007 that the Child Online Protection Act violated the First Amendment.

Both courts also found that the standards for material that had to be hidden from open browsing were so loosely defined that any content not suitable for a four-year-old would have been hidden behind a age-verification firewall.

"Unlike COPA, filters permit adults to determine if and when they want to use them and do not subject speakers to criminal or civil penalties," the court wrote.

The Justice Department has been defending COPA since its passage in 1998, when the ACLU and others filed suit against the censorship law and won an immediate injunction. Since then, the court battle has made its way twice to the Supreme Court, though the government has never won any clear battles in the dispute.

COPA makes it a crime to knowingly post material that is "harmful to minors" on the web for "commercial purposes" without having some method -- such as a credit card -- to verify a visitor's age.

Critics assailed the law for infantilizing the internet and requiring website operators -- including news sites -- to live in fear of prosecution if even a small part of their website contained adult material.

Comments

[enelya-oronar.livejournal.com]

H U R R A Y !!!! Lets hope it stays gone this time!

[simons-flower.livejournal.com]

Dare I hope it will continue to be upheld as a First Amendment violation? *crosses fingers*

[huntress69.livejournal.com]

See, I don't like putting ages on things, because, as I have said a few times, everyone is different. Some things my son would have comprehended at 8 (he's now almost 20), my daughter can still not comprehend at almost 14. And your point about news sites is very valid. Also, what I have found as a parent, is that kids are normally "self-censoring". I don't think too many adults give them enough credit. The moment you put a label on something, kids want to see it. This is just another way for parents to avoid responsibility. And you can filter all you want, if a minor wants to see something, they will.