Mike AI
04-11-2003, 10:21 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2003Apr10.html (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4830-2003Apr10.html)
Congress passed legislation today that would give jail time to online pornographers who deliberately mask their sites behind innocuous domain names.
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 deigned 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.
Congress passed legislation today that would give jail time to online pornographers who deliberately mask their sites behind innocuous domain names.
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 deigned 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.