FC: National Academy of Sciences panel hears about porn & kids

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,40653,00.html

   How X Rates With 'W'
   by Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com)
   8:00 a.m. Dec. 13, 2000 PST

   WASHINGTON -- Advisory committees inside the federal bureaucracy
   usually inhabit that featureless terrain between obscurity and
   futility: There's no pay, scant power and little prestige.

   But when a group is created by the respected National Academy of
   Sciences, and when the topic is the politically heated brew of sex,
   kids and the Internet, traditional rules no longer apply.

   With an eye to making a recommendation to Congress next year, the
   academy's committee on Internet pornography and inappropriate material
   met on Wednesday to hear social science experts describe the effects
   of smut and violence on the youth of America.

   It's a sure bet Washington will be paying close attention to the
   results. Republicans have pledged that the Justice Department will
   pounce on "obscene" websites should George W. Bush gain the
   presidency. Bush himself has railed against offensive content online,
   and he has endorsed library and school filtering.

   "One of the reasons we've had very little success (getting sex and
   violence off TV) is that television controls the message," said Joanne
   Cantor, a communications professor at the University of Wisconsin.

   "The positive thing may be that television is more willing to focus on
   the horrors of the Internet than the horrors of television," Cantor
   said.

   Cantor, like the other presenters, didn't confine her remarks to porn.
   Although figuring out how to shield kids from digital prurience is the
   group's primary task, it's also charged with considering "other
   inappropriate Internet content."

   That's arguably a pretty vague mission, but the committee members were
   too busy agreeing with the speakers to quibble.

   [...]

   Wednesday's meeting of the National Academy of Sciences panel was
   designed to explore "non-technical" strategies for protecting children
   from offensive material -- such options include providing guidelines
   for parents and educating kids about sexuality. Technical options the
   panel will weigh include filtering software, the creation of a new
   top-level domain, rating systems, and regulations or new laws directed
   at sexually explicit sites online.

   The committee's stated goal is to "provide a foundation for a more
   coherent and objective local and national debate on the subject of
   Internet pornography" while avoiding "specific" recommendations
   directed at new laws or regulations.

   This week's meeting is the third. The group will next meet in March in
   the San Francisco area to discuss technical options, and finally in
   June 2001 in Chicago.

   [...]




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