Child Online Protection Act Overturned
24 Jul 2008Following a ten-year court battle, on 22 July the Third US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2007 lower court decision that the Child Online Protection Act is unconstitutional. The legislation would have forced websites featuring adult material to verify site users’ ages, but was ruled to be ‘substantially overbroad’ in its definition and in violation of the First Amendment. It was also ruled that the Act was not the most effective way to keep children from visiting adult websites; filtering or other methods adopted by parents were said to be more effective.
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Amiker
Thank goodness this law was struck down again! I had my worries there for a bit, given the gradual erosion of our rights in recent years. I’m all for placing responsibility on the parents, not the websites, for what children view. How many more times can the government try to push this law into the realm of validation??