Compromise To Regulate Sex In Cyberspace Offered
A consensus is forming among lawmakers, businesses and civil liberties advocates over how to craft legislation that would crack down on people who transmit sexually explicit material on the Internet. Backers of the proposed compromise are hoping to block efforts by religious conservatives to impose even broader restrictions on what gets carried over computer networks in the United States.
Rep. Rick White, R-Wash., who represents a district that includes Microsoft Corp., is attempting to find middle ground as House and Senate negotiators iron out agreements on a larger telecommunications reform bill.
His proposal is attracting the guarded support of groups that previously opposed any limits on expression over the Internet, including on-line providers and civil liberties groups.
“This is a major breakthrough,” said Sen. James Exon, D-Neb., sponsor of the original Senate amendment that would impose criminal fines of up to $100,000 and prison sentences on those who knowingly transmit pornography or material deemed obscene, lewd or indecent.
Exon said he is studying White’s proposal, which would retain criminal penalties called for in the Exon amendment. But White wants to abandon Exon’s proposed legal standard, based on broadcasting law’s indecency statutes, in place of language that would prohibit material that is deemed “harmful to minors.”
“I think it’s premature to say we actually have a deal,” White said. “But we’ve come up with an approach that accommodates what Exon and (Rep. Henry) Hyde, R-Ill., want to do, but does it in a way that the Internet people are comfortable with.”
His immediate challenge is to negotiate with, or defeat, Hyde, who plans a Christian Coalition-backed amendment that would, among other things, punish on-line providers that “knowingly” transmit obscene material.
Civil liberties and electronic privacy groups oppose the Exon and Hyde amendments on grounds that they are too broad, are unenforceable and could violate free-speech rights.