People once thought that the internet has become a haven where people from all over the world and of all ages and gender can come together virtually and share ideas, information, and communicate with one another. This was a feat never before conceived in the minds of the people, something that was looked upon as a freedom for speech as well as the opportunity to actually build friendships, relationships, and vast networks, especially with regards to creating and setting up businesses over the World Wide Web. But with this much freedom come the abuse of the internet, particularly using it as a medium for perverts and pedophiles who can’t obtain satisfaction in the real world. I’m talking about sexually explicit materials, pornography, and sexual abuse on the internet.
The truth is that World Wide Web isn’t a safe place anymore for adults or for children due to the increasing cases of sexual abuse and the existence of more than a thousand websites with sexually explicit content. The sad thing is that even on the part of the receiver or viewer of such websites do we see a problem as children or adolescents are learning new and cleverer ways to gain access to above-18 websites for their own curiosity and the thrill of “trekking new grounds”. It is therefore important that internet laws be created and enacted to be able to prevent these websites as well as the people who take much participation in these kinds of activities online from corrupting the people, particularly children and young adults.
So in order to address this issue, Congress has passed several internet laws regarding the limitation and prevention of access to pornographic websites by children or internet users specifically below 18 years of age. This article is going to give you three of the most popular internet laws with regards to sexual abuse on the World Wide Web since the earlier times.
Communications Decency Act of 1996
This act, passed in 1996, represents the Congress’s first attempt to regulate children and adolescents’ discreet access to sexually explicit content on the World Wide Web. To put it simply, the Communications Decency Act made it illegal to post or display indecent or vulgar content in websites where children could easily find it. However, members of the Supreme Court declared that the CDA unconstitutional a year after it was passed for reasons such as broad suppression of speech addressed to adults and that the term “indecent” was just too unclear.
Child Online Protection Act of 1998
This is basically a narrower version of the previous CDA, which required commercial websites that were particularly inclined to the pornographic industry to verify the age of the incoming internet user in order to limit access to sexually explicit content, which are obviously considered to be obscene and vulgar for minors. But still it was challenged by organizations such as the ACLU and was brought back to the Supreme Court for reexamination. A year after (March 7, 1999) the Supreme Court kept the lower-court’s ruling against the enforcement of the COPA.
Children’s Internet Protection Act of 2001
Though the COPA was declared unconstitutional, the Supreme Court ordered the lower court to consider filtering technologies that could protect children more effectively instead of opting for criminal sanctions as specified in the previous act. After much thought, Congress enacted the Children’s Internet Protection Act in 2001, which required all schools and libraries receiving technology funds from the government to install software that could block pornography and sexually explicit content.
