Coping Without COPA

Jacob Sullum | January 22, 2009

Yesterday the Supreme Court put the final nail in the coffin of the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), refusing to hear the Bush administration's appeal of the lower court rulings that prevented the law from taking effect. Passed in 1998, COPA was the successor to the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which the Supreme Court unanimously overturned in 1997. Both laws were attempts to shield children from inappropriate online material, and both were rejected by the courts because of the burdens they imposed on constitutionally protected speech. The upshot is that we've had a decade and a half without a federal law aimed at keeping kids away from Internet porn, and somehow the republic has managed to survive.

Previous reason coverage of COPA, including pieces by Kerry Howley, Julian Sanchez, and me, here.

Comments

ktc2|1.22.09 @ 11:03AM|#

Oh no! You mean PARENTS will have to be RESPONSIBLE for what their children do online?

|1.22.09 @ 11:11AM|#

Stupid law.

Elemenope|1.22.09 @ 11:25AM|#

Stupid law.

No donut.

ed|1.22.09 @ 11:25AM|#

the republic has managed to survive

Not to mention Dateline NBC: To Catch A Predator.

Thanks, Supreme Court!

|1.22.09 @ 11:35AM|#

Also, in the "protecting the children" arena, here's a good reason for school choice.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/education/22texas.html

Johnny Nowhere|1.22.09 @ 11:47AM|#

Does this mean that music and passion will no longer be the fashion?

|1.22.09 @ 11:59AM|#

Three cheers!

Strange. I'm starting to feel, dare I say it? Hopeful...

cuernimus|1.22.09 @ 12:26PM|#

Did these laws first pass because Congress felt that cyberz with jail-bait was a job perk that should not be available to the plebs?

Glenn Q|1.22.09 @ 12:55PM|#

The upshot is that we've had a decade and a half without a federal law aimed at keeping kids away from Internet porn, and somehow the republic has managed to survive.

And the moneyshot is all those kids raised on internet porn are now around 23. Diggity!

torpid|1.22.09 @ 2:16PM|#

Now that we have a Democratic president, we won't have to worry about bible thumpers getting these anti-porn bills passed.

damn it all|1.22.09 @ 2:48PM|#

Wow, one more for the people. Check!

hehe, I'm still not "hopefull". I was in the Navy too long to know better.

I'll believe it when I see it. ;)

Lola|1.22.09 @ 3:27PM|#

I still miss my Tony... (clink clink)

ellipsis|1.22.09 @ 5:34PM|#

Now that we have a Democratic president, we won't have to worry about bible thumpers getting these anti-porn bills passed.

Riiiiiight... Because God knows the COPA of '98 was passed by a Republican administration; as was the CDA of '96.

There were a lot of industries that were threatened by the advent of free pr0n. (That included print and VHS producers in the very same genre.) They had a vested interest in stopping it. However, once the genie was out of the bottle, there was no going back.

Over a decade later now, everyone knows and assumes naked people can be found online. Good parents know their children shouldn't be online unsupervised.

cunnivore|1.22.09 @ 10:55PM|#

ellipsis,

Unfortunately for those vested interests, there aren't many lawmakers interested in getting publicly known campaign contributions from porn producers.