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(Washington, D.C.) -- June 12, 1996 -- Representative Rick White (R-First District) today applauded the court ruling that found the Communications Decency Act (CDA) unconstitutional.
"Today's ruling makes the same point that we tried to make to Congress last year -- if you're going to protect kids on the Internet, you have to do it in a way that protects everyone else's freedom of speech. We can do that but not the way we tried to do it in this bill," White said. "One of the only smart things we did in this bill was to include an expedited judicial review so that the Supreme Court would hear this case within the year. The fate of the Internet now goes before the Supreme Court and once they make their ruling we will have a chance to go back to the drawing board to find a solution that protects our kids and our freedom of speech."
Last year White developed an alternative to the CDA which would have replaced the "indecency standard" with the more constitutional "harmful to minors" standard. In addition, White's compromise developed a strong, effective law that targets wrongdoers; focused on the use of parental empowerment software; and gave incentives for industry to develop new technologies to screen out content that is inappropriate for children. Most of his compromise was included in the final bill, however at the last minute a narrow majority replaced White's the "harmful to minors" standard with the "indecency standard."
"We're kidding ourselves if we think the federal government can totally solve this problem," White continued. "I have four kids who surf the net and my wife and I spend a great deal of time determining what our kids can access -- that is a decision that I want to make with my wife, not a federal bureaucrat in Washington, D.C."
In March of this year White founded the Internet Caucus in order to educate members about the Internet. The caucus, now 48 members strong, has worked to educate members of Congress about the Internet and to encourage more members to get on-line.
"The CDA debate sent a pretty clear signal that many members of Congress are lost in cyberspace," White said. "The bottom line is that we're never going to get good laws until we get our legislators up to speed on Net issues. The court's decision this morning will help educate members and so will the Internet Caucus. When Congress rewrites the CDA next year, I am optimistic that we will have more enlightened members who won’t make the same mistake twice."
Tomorrow White will join the three other co-founders of the Internet Caucus in introducing a Sense of Congress resolution calling on members to get up to speed on Internet related issues and use this new medium to communicate with their constituents. The non-binding resolution will be introduced in both the House and the Senate.
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Posted on June 13, 1996