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COPA:
Breaking News: The decision, what it
means for kids, what it means for pornographers, what it means for porn
consumers.
Don't panic! Parry was in Alaska on child protection matters when the
decision was announced and everyone from Bill O'Riley, Peter Jennings and Tom
Brokaw wanted her to comment on the decision. While she was only able to
satellite in for O'Riley Factor, COPA and the June 29, 2004 decision was on all
top news shows and monopolized the news.
Parry has done a quick FAQ about COPA and what the decision really means. And
she is now back home, if you have an on air or media deadline. (You can reach
her directly at the contact numbers and e-mail addresses on
our media page.)
COPA (the Child Online Protection Act was signed into law in Fall 1998, at
the same time COPPA (same day actually) was
signed into law.) COPA deals with pornography online, COPPA deals with online
privacy for children. COPPA is alive and well and has been since its effective
date in 2000. COPA (the law ruled upon by the Supreme Court on June 29, 2004)
has never been effective. As soon as it was signed into law, the free speech and
privacy advocates fought it and were able to receive a restraining order
preventing it from being enforced.
So, the decision has put a law on hold that has been on hold since October
1998. The decision also doesn't kill the law, it just sends it back to the lower
court for certain trial findings. It is possible (although in Parry's opinion)
unlikely, that COPA will be upheld after the trial.
COPA would not have provided much protection, in any event, anyway. About 1
million pornography sites exist online, with about 40% of them outside of the
United States. Policing them would have been impossible. Instead, perhaps we
should be approaching the only two creditcard companies that still permit their
use at pornography websites, Visa and Mastercard. and see if they can require
the adoption of best practices as far as requiring proof of age before graphic
sexual images can be shown online on the website. To read about the .xxx
application and other ways to approach the unlawful and abusive marketing of
pornography to children, visit
Wiredsafety.org.
While in a perfect world we could adopt a law that would protect children
from pornography online and offline, the nature of the Internet and the U.S.
Constitution make that unlikely. The only way to do this is to prosecute
pornography sites for violating the
typosquatting laws (pretending to be a child's site to lure children into
visiting them) and other consumer fraud and advertising fraud matters, educate
them and their parents and use technology to help filter out the bad stuff. To
learn more about this, visit the non-profit Parry runs,
wiredsafety.org and their children's
site, wiredkids.org.
Another serious problem with the law was that by requiring some type of adult
identifier (credit card, adult verification services, etc.), the privacy of
adults when they were purchasing legal pornography was infringed. If an adult
visits a local newsstand to buy a Playboy Magazine, they might have to show
their ID to prove that they were older than 18, or 21 years. But no one takes
down their name, address, or other information. Unless a creditcard is used and
identifies the item purchased, the transaction is privacy and, absent criminal
conduct of some type, should remain that way. When the purchaser runs for PTA
president or Senator, their reading preferences (assuming that they are legal)
remain their personal business. Until a digital adult verification system is
developed to avoid tracking the real identity of the consumer, this is very
different online. This, as much as the difficulties of determining what is legal
and illegal pornography online (where no community value tests work), is the
reasoning behind the decision. If the privacy issues can be resolved, COPA may
stand a chance of surviving. Child advocates should be spending time trying to
resolve that issue with technology experts.
COPA is not COPPA, which is alive and well! Read Parry's
article "You Say COPA and I Say COPPA" Legal Times, 2000, to learn the
difference.
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Parry
Aftab, Esq., 
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all character names and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of
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