WASHINGTON, DC — At a press conference held yesterday, Senators Max Baucus (D-MT) and Mark Pryor (D-AR.) announced that they have reintroduced the “Cyber Safety For Kids Act,” legislation that would, among other things, require adult websites to “flag” themselves in order to make it easier for software filters to identify and block such sites.“Bottom line, we want to keep our kids safe when they’re on the Internet,” Baucus said in a prepared statement yesterday. “Parents and teachers shouldn’t worry about their kids when they’re on the computer at home or in the classroom. This bill will help keep kids safe and give parents peace of mind.”
The text of the bill, S.1086, has not yet been delivered to the Library of Congress (LOC) from the Government Printing Office, according to the LOC website. The Act is described on the LOC website as a “bill to provide stronger protections to parents regarding their children’s access to sexually explicit material over the Internet.”
According to a press release issued by Baucus yesterday, if passed, the Act would require the U.S. Department of Commerce to:
• “Develop an electronic tag for Web sites with sexually explicit adult material and would require those Web sites to use electronic tags when registering or renewing registration. Parents, teachers, librarians, etc. would then be able to set their Internet browsers on their computers to block Web sites with adult material electronic tags.”
• “Make it mandatory for Web sites with adult material to have a clean homepage.”
• “Require Web sites with adult material to have visitors verify that they’re 18 years of age or older.”
According to the press release, under the Act the Commerce Dept would “issue civil penalties to Web sites with adult material if they fail to follow the guidelines” outlined in the Act.
At yesterday’s press conference, Baucus said his legislation has the support of parents, teachers, and others, but conceded that the law was not a panacea, as the U.S. cannot force websites based in other countries to comply with the Act. Baucus also conceded that the age verification scheme envisioned for each site’s “clean homepage” could not actually ascertain the age of the visitor entering their date of birth.
“They didn’t build Rome in a day,” Baucus said. “But this is a step in the right direction.”
Citing various recent “studies,” Pryor asserted that the online adult industry has expanded from 14 million sites in 1998 to over 400 million in 2005, and is now a $12 billion industry. Citing a Kaiser Family Foundation study, Pryor also claimed that 90-percent of children ages eight to 16 have viewed online pornography.
“The statistics are staggering already, but if we sit back and do nothing to protect kids on the Internet, the problem will only escalate,” Pryor said in his prepared statement. “I stand with Arkansas’ teachers and parents who want their children to expand their horizons through the Internet without running into indecent material.”
According to the LOC website, the bill has been referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation where it will be discussed prior to being discussed and/or voted on by the full Senate. There is no equivalent bill currently under consideration in the House of Representatives.
