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Protecting Children on the Internet
04/08/03The World Wide Web truly offers a world of opportunity. What used to require a trip to the library, the store, or the bank is now accomplished with the push of the button. In a sense, the world now comes to us. But along with the Internet’s convenience and benefits come hazards. However, The Truth in Domain Names Act - an amendment to the Child Abduction Prevention Act - represents a move to protect our children from inappropriate and pornographic websites.
As the father of a three-year-old girl, I know that when it comes to our children’s safety, there is absolutely no substitute for parental supervision. This bill does not assume to be the solution to parents who make the Internet a babysitter for their kids. Instead, this is designed as an element of what responsible parents use to protect their children. I know many of the educational benefits the Internet will offer my daughter as she enters school. However, I am also aware of the worst the web has to offer her. The Truth in Domain Names Act is one way that will help me fulfill my responsibility as a parent, not help me avoid it.
There is a tremendous need for Congress to act. A survey conducted in 2000 by the Crimes Against Children Research Center found that 71 percent of teens had accidentally come across inappropriate sexual material while on-line. A study by researchers at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School found 4,525 domain names, most of them innocuous sounding, which redirected the user to a single site displaying pornographic images. That is just one of the reasons the National Center for Missing & Exploiting Children supports this legislation.
This amendment’s purpose is to punish those using misleading domain names to attract children to pornographic websites. It would authorize punishments of fines up to $250,000 or imprisonment of up to four year for those who use misleading names for this purpose.
I believe it is important to remember that this amendment is not regulation of the Internet. I think that there should be certain restrictions when it comes to minors and the Internet. This legislation does not address that specific issue, however it does require website owners to be honest about the content of their sites, so children can be protected.