More Internet restrictions attempted in new Amber Alert bill just passed

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

washingtonpost.com 

Congress OKs Internet Porn Restrictions

By David McGuire
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Thursday, April 10, 2003; 7:40 PM


Congress passed legislation today that would give jail time to online
pornographers who deliberately mask their sites behind innocuous domain
names. 

The House and Senate overwhelmingly approved the Child Abduction Prevention
Act, which strengthens penalties for pedophiles, provides funding for a
national child-abduction alert system and bolsters prohibitions against
child pornography. The proposal is frequently referred to as the "Amber
Alert" bill.

"America's children will be safer when this bill becomes law," House
Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) said today.

The bill also bans the distribution of "virtual" child pornography -- legal
pornographic images of adults that have been digitally altered to look like
children having sex.

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), who first introduced the misleading domain name
bill in 2002, said he was surprised and pleased that Congress included it as
an amendment in the bill that passed today.

"You can't have a fraudulent storefront on the Internet and have kids walk
in and find themselves in the adult section -- triple X -- when they came in
looking for Hardy Boys," Pence said. "We're not telling you to tear down
your store. What we're saying is that you can't have a storefront saying
that you're for kids and be for adults."

The bill says that online pornographers who include terms like "sex" and
"porn" in their domain names would not be prosecuted.

Civil libertarians nevertheless have expressed concerns about the bill.

"There was no debate on it in the Senate, there was essentially no debate in
the House," said Center for Democracy and Technology Policy Analyst Robert
Courtney.

Depending on how prosecutors interpret the legislation, Web site operators
who feature sexually oriented art or graphic safe-sex demonstrations could
face criminal prosecution if their Internet addresses are deemed misleading,
noted Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).

Pence said he attempted to sidestep these concerns by restricting false
advertising, rather than banning types of speech. "This is not [Internet]
regulation. This is a fraud bill," he said.

The attempt to ban virtual -- or "morphed" child pornography -- also has
encountered opposition from free speech advocates.

Last April, the Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision struck down portions of the
Children's Internet Protection Act, which outlawed the possession and
distribution of pornography containing computer-generated images showing
children apparently engaged in sex acts.

The White House said that President Bush would sign the legislation.


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