House OKs Plan to Set Up Internet Domain for Children
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday approved an effort to create a kid-friendly Internet zone free of violence, pornography and other adult material.
The House approved a bill by a voice vote that would set up an area within the United States’ ”.us” Internet domain allowing only Web sites deemed appropriate for children 12 and younger. In the Senate, similar legislation is expected from Sens. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) and John Ensign (R-Nev.).
Web sites bearing a “.kids.us” address would have to certify that they do not contain sexually explicit material, hate speech, violence or other material not suitable for minors.
Unlike previous attempts to screen out online smut, the bill would regulate content only on a corner of the Internet that falls directly under U.S. government control. Better-known domains such as “.com” and “.net,” as well as the rest of the .us domain, would not be subject to restrictions.
“If you’re in Tennessee, Taiwan or Timbuktu, you can publish or speak any content you want on the Internet,” said Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who sponsored the bill with Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.).
The bill represents the latest attempt to keep children away from the sexually explicit material easily available to anyone with a computer and an Internet connection.
An early attempt, the 1996 Communications Decency Act, was thrown out by the Supreme Court as an infringement on free speech.
A second, the 1998 Child Online Protection Act, remains sidelined by a court injunction.
More recently, lawmakers had hoped the international body that controls domain-name policy would set up a .kids domain alongside .com and other domains.
After the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers passed on the idea in November 2000, Markey and Shimkus introduced a bill to force ICANN to set up a .kids domain.
But they backed off from that plan last fall after witnesses told them it would be difficult to dictate policy to ICANN, which is not under direct U.S. government control.
The revised bill would place a .kids subdomain under the control of NeuStar Inc., the Washington-based firm that won the contract to manage the .us country-code domain last fall.
NeuStar would be expected to police the subdomain to ensure that it remained free of inappropriate content, and it would answer to the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
Web sites in the domain would be prohibited from linking to other sites outside the domain and could not set up chat rooms, instant messaging or other interactive services unless they could certify that they did not expose children to pedophiles or pose other risks.
If privately held NeuStar were to lose money on the venture, it could return control to the Commerce Department, which would seek another operator for the service.
