Expressing Regret, Judge Bars
Enforcement of Child Online Protection Act
Noting his “personal regret” for “delay[ing] once again the careful protection of our children, ” U.S. District Judge Lowell Reed issued a preliminary injunction February 1 to block enforcement of the Child Online Protection Act, which requires commercial Web sites to obtain proof of age before delivering material considered harmful to minors. The Justice Department has 60 days to appeal the injunction, issued the day Reed's temporary restraining order expired. The plaintiffs in both actions are the American Civil Liberties Union and 17 online content providers.
Affirming the constitutionality of sexually explicit material, Reed wrote that COPA's inability to stop minors from using an adult's credit card to enter an racy commercial site or sample porn on noncommercial or foreign URLs “demonstrates the problems this statute has with efficaciously meeting its goal.” As a less-restrictive alternative, he recommended that parents use blocking software.
In a joint February 1 statement, House cosponsors Michael Oxley (R-Ohio), Tom Bliley (R-Va.), and James Greenwood (R-Pa.) defended COPA as applying the analog world's “common-sense standards” to the Web.
Posted February 8, 1999.
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