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Appeals Court Rejects Child Online Protection Act, Again
mabesty writes "From The Washington Post: A panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that COPA restricts free speech by barring Web page operators from posting information inappropriate for minors unless they limit the site to adults. The ruling upholds an injunction blocking the government from enforcing the law." We last covered COPA when the Supreme Court handled it last year.
It's not the rest of societies problem. Parents are doing far too much insisting on protection 'for the children' which ends up restricting what adults can do.
I agree with your second sentence, but I have reservations about feeling so absolutely correct about the first.
Yes, it is quite correct that the majority of parents are underqualified and have unrealistic expectations that society will assume some responsibility for raising their children. Talk to any public school teacher and you can find out pretty quick just how bady most parents are neglecting their jobs.
And so I believe that heavy-handed Internet porn filters at libraries are bad policy. That parents should be monitoring their children's activity and not complain so much. Automating the monitoring to save money doesn't wash as valid excuse to me, no more than using a VCR and TV as a convenient babysitter does.
But, unless you can afford to home school your own children, there is a necessity for you to go a job and to send your kids to some public school somewhere where you are physically unable to monitor what your children are doing.
In that case, I think parents have a reasonable expectation that society will fulfull some responsibility for monitoring their children and preventing them from exposure to things that they would rather their kids not see at a young age.
Zoning restrictions that prohibit the establishment of adult movie theatres near schools are another example of where society has collectively decided it is their problem and made some policy decision.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
You're not allowed to drink because you constantly whine like a little baby. There's your explanation for you.
Most of the people on slashdot think that it is ok fr my child who is in school in the library, or even down to the local library doing homework, to be able to access pornography or to have it shoved inot his face. You can teach a child it is wrong to go hunting for it, and many will abide, but many times pornography can be to easily stumbled onto on the internet. Once it is viewed that can never be taken away. A childs live may be spoiled or turned to thinking of things they should never have to think about. Many of you feel that it is a childs right to view porn if they want to? There are laws to prevent it from going into the hands of those under 18 for a reason. To make one for the filters in libraries is a good thing for children. the rigths of adults don't matter in this circumstance. The biggest customers at a library is underage. If an adult needs to view porn then in the public eye is not the place for it. I can't be everywhere my child is. that is impossible. I can try to make it so that they don't have to view things that they shouldn't be seeing. The only people fighting for porn to be in childs hands are child pornographers, and I don't understand why there isn't a mandatory death penalty for tehm as it is.