The Communications Decency Act

Most people know that porn is pretty easy to get on the internet. Right now, it seems as though it is almost just accepted for what it is, and not a lot is done to control it. There are some "filters" available that require users to verify that they are over 18, but that is usually done with a simple click. I am still not quite sure how all of this is happening without more regulation - but this does not mean that congress hasn't tried to regulate pornographic content on the internet. The first major attempt to do this was the Communications Decency Act (CDA).

The CDA was part of (title V) of the larger Telecommunications Act of 1996. It was an amendment made in an effort to make the internet "superhighway a safe place for our children and our families to travel on." According to an article that I read, the purpose of the CDA was to shield children from indecent material on the internet. The indecency portions of the Act made it a criminal violation to use the computer to transmit "any obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent communications, with the intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass another person." President Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act into law, and on the same day, various groups that advocated for First Amendment rights moved for a temporary restraining order to enjoin enforcement of the indecency portion of the CDA. The case made its way up to the Supreme Court, who invalidated the indecency provisions of the CDA in Reno v. ACLU, 117 S.Ct. 2329 (1997).

The Court found that it lacked the precision required under the First Amendment to regulate speech content. The government tried to argue that the CDA was consitutional because it was designed to protect minors from speech that was no obscene by adult standards (See Gingsberg). The Court distinguished this case though, particularly because of the "non-invasive" nature of the internet and because the provisions of the CDA were too broad and vague.

Stay tuned for a summary of Congresses's second attempt, COPA.