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Massachusetts Bids To Restrict Internet Indecency
Remember the Communications Decency Act? Enacted 1996, found unconstitutional 1997. Or its successor attempt to reduce discourse on the Internet to what is suitable for 8-year-olds, the Child Online Protection Act? Invalidated 2003. Seven state laws attempting to restrict Internet content on grounds of decency have been struck down. Despite all this, Massachusetts has now added a couple of paragraphs to its (traditionally bricks-and-mortar) indecency law that applies a "harmful to minors" test to Internet content. The ACLU of Massachusetts and others have brought suit to block the law, which went into effect on July 11. Coincidentally, today a US appeals court tossed out the FCC's indecency policy.
The irony here is regardless of some law, young kids see crazy hardcore sh*t on the internet every day. So I guess I'm revising my first sentence to say that I would rather raise the maturity of adults to cope with the fact that kids can handle adult content.
The FCC's rules only got struck down for being too vague. If they formulate a list of what words they're not allowed to say (Carlin's list, for example), it would be allowed.
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
Your state government is about to restrict access to the rest of the world through a firewall. And by firewall, I mean a giant moat filled with burning gasoline. 'cause it's the only way you'll keep out the rest of the world!
My agenda rarely aligns with the ACLU, but liberal legislators are always trying strip freedoms under the auspices of protection. Just leave people alone legislators, just leave them alone.
Not all adults have credit cards (and honestly, a lot of adults that have credit cards shouldnt :-p)
"goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series
How do you prove beyond a reasonable doubt that something is "harmful to minors"?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Religion is harmful to minors. Discuss.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
... And any kid can go in to a walmart and buy a pre-paid master card to just buy it on the internet with anyway.
Clearly the Constitution needs to be amended that, if any representative violates his oath to observe the constitution, then he/she will be charged with treason. With greater responsibility comes greater rewards AND punishment.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Its not just people claiming to be liberals that try to strip away freedom for your own protection. Those claiming to be conservatives do it just as much, and most likely more.
The words liberal and conservative used to have very different meanings. Now they are just different flavors of fascism.
I've always suspected that "government shall make no law" thingy was too confusingly vague.
Yes, you're perfectly correct that they're neither liberal nor conservative. They aren't even left- or right- wing. They're all a bunch of fascists.
A conservative government would have a small footprint, providing minimal services and not spending more than it takes in.
A liberal government would have few, if any, rules.
I think I saw the quote here on /. first, but it's by Twain. "Censorship is saying a man can't have a steak because a baby can't chew it."
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ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
There isn't much argument for regulating it outside of the internet either.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Can your kid close a contract with an ISP? No, YOU do that and hence YOU are responsible for supervision of your kid's internet usage. If you put your kids in front of the tubes while you do something more fun, then YOU are responsible for anything bad that happens to the kid's mind.
You want to censor the whole world, just so you can neglect your kids without remorse? F*CK YOU!
The MAFIAA is a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes
The difference is that conservatives are being hypocrites when they support this stuff while liberals are being consistent with a general liberal philosophy that 'government knows best.' Obviously there are a lot of liberal ideologies out there and a lot of conservative ones as well, but the generalized conservative viewpoint of 'government should stay out of our lives' doesn't translate well to stuff like this, and when conservatives try to do it, they typically get in trouble when shoe-horning something like that into an otherwise conservative platform. You see conservatives try and justify this stuff all the time, but it's typically the same populist arguments that liberals use, e.g. 'declining moral values of society,' and that kind of thing. It's no less hypocritical when conservatives try to block more emotionally-charged issues like abortion. The late George Carlin quotes Reagan's 'government should be off our back' and then makes a crack about 'but they can be in a woman's uterus' in pointing out this inconsistency.
I wouldn't say that conservatives do it 'most likely more' as far as free speech goes, as the big nanny states are the ones that get away with this the most today -- look no further than Australia. The US is probably more 'to the right' on free speech issues than a lot of the 'civilized world' in that you see stuff like this struck down again and again.
Although it is the social custom in the US to keep kids in the dark over sexual content or cursing has anyone, anywhere, actually offered real proof that such things directly harm children? I suspect that kids walking by dear old dad watching hard core porn in the living room are probably not much interested and rarely suffer any harm from such things. If anyone is harmed by cursing and porn it is more probably adults who can't handle it.
the kid who is old enough to get to the store and buy a prepaid mastercard is at the age I'm not to concerned with.
The problem that most people refuse to recognize is that there are a whole lot of people that try to trick people into going to sites they never intended to go to.
So someone who manages to spoof my little pony site may lead kids to sites their parents don't want them going to.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
When it comes to terms like 'indecency' and 'obscenity,' it's usually the right involved in the stripping of liberties.
The stories and info posted here are artistic works of fiction and falsehood.
Only fools would take it as fact.