The 'clinton conference' on industry-self-regulation will be a real riot in
an atmosphere charged with acts like this.
Rohit
-------------------------------------------------
[originally cited in CYBERIA-L]
http://www.ciec.org/SC_appeal/970626_Murray.html
MURRAY OUTLINES PLAN TO PROTECT CHILDREN FROM MATERIAL ON INTERNET
Legislation to Fill Void Left by the Supreme Court's Ruling on Internet
Content
(Washington, D.C.) -- In response to the Supreme Court's ruling striking
down the
Communications Decency Act, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) today
announced she
will soon introduce the Childsafe Internet Act of 1997, a seven-point
plan to help keep
children away from harmful material on the Internet.
<snip>
To meet this challenge, I will soon introduce the Childsafe Internet Act
of 1997 -- a
seven-point plan to protect children from harmful material on the
Internet. My bill seeks to bring together the interests and concerns of
parents, Internet service providers and industry. It recognizes the
changing nature of the Internet, while preserving the freedom of those
who use it constructively, and providing the strongest protection
possible for children. Specifically, my legislation will:
1) Ensure every parent with a computer has access to filtering software.
These
programs, such as Cyber Patrol, Net Nanny, Surf Watch, and Microsoft's
Internet
Explorer, are useful tools for parents. However, they are only used in
less than 40
percent of the homes accessing the Internet;
2) Create a parental warning alongside copyright protections on each
homepage;
3) Create incentives for webpage creators to rate their own pages for
content. These
ratings can be accessed through PICS, the Platform for Internet Content
Selection, and
can be uniformly judged by ratings systems such as RSACi;
4) Make it a criminal offense to misrate websites;
5) Make it a criminal offense to steal sites previously rated as
childsafe;
6) Make it a felony for anyone to solicit or exploit childsafe chat
rooms; and
7) Create a 1-800 number to provide concerned parents with a mechanism
to report
harmful material on the Internet. A toll-free line in Great Britain has
proven successful in uncovering illegal material and providing parents
with a resource for action.
End Forwarded Text ----