Panel Proposes Voucher System to Help Families Get on Internet

Surveying the future of cyberspace, a scientific advisory panel has suggested that Congress consider a voucher program to help needy families get connected to the Internet. The group also proposed a flat tax for states to collect revenue from Web sales. The advice runs contrary to some of the Republican-led Congress’ recent regulatory efforts. In its report, “The Internet’s Coming of Age,” the National Academy of Sciences’ National Research Council, which advises Congress, urged lawmakers not to force the Internet to change the way it operates in an effort to address concerns such as pornography and gambling. Such prevention should focus on laws and enforcement that target individual responsibility, one of the authors said. The Center for Democracy and Technology, an Internet policy group, cheered the recommendations. Weighing in for the first time in three years, the panel said the Internet was “healthy” in its “adolescent” stage but cautioned that lawmakers still faced many thorny issues tied to its growth.