Commission Report: No Quick Fix To Protect Kids

A long-awaited report on how to protect children from Internet pornography has concluded that neither filters nor any other quick fix is the answer. "Though some might wish otherwise, no single approach—technical, legal, economic, or educational—will be sufficient,'' wrote the authors of Youth, Pornography and the Internet, which was released May 2 by the National Research Council (www.nap.edu/books/0309082749/html/) and commissioned by Congress. "Rather, an effective framework for protecting our children from inappropriate materials and experiences on the Internet will require a balanced composite of all of these elements, and real progress will require forward movement on all of these fronts."

The conclusions echo that of the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) Commission, which in 2000 recommended a more balanced approach than mandatory filtering (see News, LJ 11/1/00, p. 14ff.). Nonetheless, Congress passed the Children's Internet Protection Act, which is currently under legal challenge by the American Library Association (ALA) and other library plaintiffs.

The conclusions "will disappoint those who expect a technological 'quick fix' to the challenge of pornography on the Internet," wrote commission project Chair Richard Thornburgh, the former Pennsylvania governor and U.S. attorney general, a Republican. Filters aimed at sex sites, the report said, "can be highly effective in reducing the exposure of minors to inappropriate content if the inability to access large amounts of appropriate material is acceptable."

The panel heard testimony from a wide range of those interested in the issue, including Judith Krug, director of ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom, who said that the report confirmed ALA's concerns about the complexity of protecting children online. The report compared the issue of protecting children online with protecting them from swimming pools: "Swimming pools can be dangerous for children. To protect them, one can install locks, put up fences, and deploy pool alarms. All of these measures are helpful, but by far the most important thing that one can do for one's children is to teach them to swim."

Among the solutions mentioned in the report:

• allow access only to preselected web site;
• use filtering software;
• warn children about explicit material;
• monitor minors' web activity and penalize them for visiting inappropriate sites;
• educate children about reasons not to view explicit material;
• make it harder for minors to find explicit materials;
• help children cope with exposure to inappropriate material.