Child Protection Commission to Suggest
Filtering Evaluations, Children’s Zone
The chair of the Commission on Child Online Protection says the body will recommend that Congress create an independent research bureau to evaluate Internet filtering software. The commission may also call for the establishment of a special child-friendly Internet zone.
Donald Telage, a former president of Network Solutions, said other approaches may include age-verification techniques, content labeling, and education initiatives. The Associated Press reported September 20 that the commission had rated all of its possible recommendations on the basis of such criteria as cost, effectiveness, privacy, and First Amendment considerations. One hotly debated suggestion was increased funding for law-enforcement agencies for more pornography-related prosecutions.
The commission, which was established with the passage of the Child Online Protection Act in 1998, is charged with identifying “technological or other methods that will help reduce access by minors to material that is harmful to minors on the Internet.” The commission’s report is due to Congress on October 21.
Posted September 25, 2000.
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