Federal Judge Strikes Down COPA

In a blow to the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), a federal judge yesterday struck down the 1998 law, saying that it violates constitutional free speech. COPA is designed to keep Internet porn away from kids by making it a crime for commercial Web sites to let children access “harmful” material.

Senior U.S. District Judge Lowell Reed Jr. says parents can better protect their children through software filters. He also stressed that COPA fails to address threats—such as online predators on social networking sites—that have emerged since the law was written. COPA only targets Web site operators, not their users.

“Perhaps we do the minors of this country harm if First Amendment protections, which they will with age inherit fully, are chipped away in the name of their protection,” Reed said in his ruling.

COPA, which has never been enforced, criminalizes Web sites—including educational health sites—that allow children to access materials that are deemed “harmful to minors” by “contemporary community standards” and imposes penalties of $50,000 per day and up to six months in prison.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which has backed a broad coalition of writers, artists, and health educators with a diverse Web presence, hailed the ruling as a victory. And the American Library Association (ALA) was also pleased with the decision. “ALA believes that libraries and the public need to be able to use new technologies, and filtering doesn’t protect children” says Emily Sheketoff, executive director of ALA’s Washington office. “The only the only things that is really going to protect children is education.”

Sheketoff referred to COPA, as well as the Children’s Internet Protection Act, the Deleting Online Predator’s Act, and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act as “stupid pieces of legislation, which make life difficult for the 40 million people in this country who depend on the public library to access the Internet.”–Debra Lau Whelan