Doom-and-gloom experts are forecasting the demise of the Internet when, in fact, the Communications Decency Act (CDA), like California's Proposition 187, is an unenforceable law as it now stands. Overreaction to it will only play into the hands of those who wish to fool the general populace into believing that Internet users are nothing but oversexed, disaffected fringe members of society who spend all day in front of their computers.
In truth, Internet usage cuts across society and reflects almost every facet of the different cultures, ethnicities and mind-sets that is America.
Grand, vague statements masquerading as laws may please members of Congress and their conservative constituents, but the courts are sure to alter the CDA, perhaps even strike it down entirely. The wording of the law, which includes the term 'indecent,' will be its undoing.
I know of no two people who can agree on what might be considered indecent. Furthermore, I find it unlikely that the entire country will come to a consensus on indecency overnight while the rest of us aren't watching.
Without a clear definition of indecency, the law is doomed. Cases are sure to be brought to trial, but in reality, Congress has delivered a case that even the finest prosecutors cannot win. You cannot convict someone of a crime unless the courts agree that a crime was committed.
It is my hope that the CDA will be repealed or amended. This would place the responsibility for preventing indecent material from falling into the hands of children squarely where it belongs - with the parents.
We have seen an explosion of software designed to block access to Internet material that parents don't wish their children to see. The market has already provided an answer to parental control, but Congress, in its technological ignorance and election-year posturing, would rather wave the flag than provide a true solution. In an effort to do something, anything, that will help define itself, Congress has, in fact, done nothing.
There is another fallacy involved here. Congress has taken up a number of issues in the last year, all under the banner of protecting our children. I believe this is less a case of protecting our children than of using a convenient issue to shove conservative and controlling legislation down the public's throat.
It is hard to imagine how a Congress that proclaims its wish to get government off the people's backs can pass a law that is so obviously an attempt to control what every American reads, sees and hears. Protecting our children is an admirable goal, but it has been prostituted in the name of the Republicans' Contract with America and a desire to impose their values on the entire nation.
With all this said, though, let's not fall for the doom-and-gloom victim mentality. Protest, surely. Lobby Congress, as we should have done before with more zeal. Take the case to court but have faith that even in today's America, illogical, vague and poorly written laws will not stand.
Yes, we need to focus our efforts more closely now, but let's not whine about it. This plays into the hands of members of Congress who want to paint the Internet as a den of depravity so they have some enemy on which to focus for the coming election.
Take the time to find out what the CDA means to you and the on-line community as a whole. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has provided a World-Wide Web site as a clearinghouse for information about the CDA and the various challenges to it. Check it out at:
http://www.eff.org blueribbon.html.
The Internet will change; change is inevitable. But we will change with it and come to a far better place long after the CDA is nothing more than a bad memory.