- Title: USA: Supreme Court To Rule On Internet Porn
- Date: 26th June 1997
- Summary: The United States Supreme Court took up the question of whether access to pornography should be restricted to minors on the Internet. The case is the first major US test of how free speech protections apply to the rapidly expanding, worldwide computer network. On March 19 The nation's high court consider the Clinton administration's appeal defending a 1996 law that bans the dissemination of sexually explicit material to anyone younger than 18.Child protection advocates, such as the group Enough is Enough, say that without the law, it is too easy for children to stumble upon sexual material while "surfing the web." The law, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1966 as part of a telecommunications overhaul, bars the distribution to minors of indecent or "patently offensive" materials on the Internet. Opponents of the law say Internet providers can't distinguish between adults and minor subscribers. David Sobel, legal counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center, argues it is up to parents to monitor their childrens' use of the Internet, both directly and through widely available filtering software products such as CyberPatrol and NetNanny.In a judgement handed down on June 26 1997 the court ruled, by a 7 to 2 majority, that key parts of the Communication Decency Act violated free-speech rights amounting to illegal government censorship.
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- Location: USA WASHINGTON DC SUPREME COURT FAIRFAX VIRGINIA,
- Reuters ID: LDL00126T7FOB
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