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Senate Passes Porn Ban

In a move to produce sweeping changes to the nation's telecommunication industry and culture the United States Senate overwhelmingly passed last week the heavily amended meaure 81 to 18. The bill will allow cable and telephone companies to compete in each other markets and will override existing state laws.

The Senate also voted overwhelmingly to ban "obscene" material from computer on-line services and the Internet.

In a 84-16 vote the Senate agreed to toughen existing provisions, originally written by Sen. James Exon, D-Neb., that would ban indecent and obscene materials on computer services and the Internet global computer network.

In an unusual move, Exon read a prayer written by the Senate chaplain that praised God "for the advancements in computerized communications we enjoy in our lifetime." The prayer called on God to "guide the senators as they consider ways of controlling the pollution of computer communications."

Under a compromise, fines would be increased for companies or people that transmit obscene communications over cable, broadcast television and radio. The fines, administered by the Federal Communications Commission, would be increased to $100,000 per violation from $10,000.

Another new provision would require on-line computer services to restrict children's access to so-called indecent materials like chat lines or photos by requiring users to verify their age with a personal identification number, Senate aides said.

In return, more contentious provisions were dropped, including one that would have required cable operators to keep so-called indecent programs off the "basic" tier Ð the lowest level of cable service.

Criticized by a minority of Senators as anti-consumer and pro-business, most lawmakers say the bill will spur competition in the telephone and cable industries and lower prices.

"Rather than being a contract with America, this legislation looks like a contract with corporations," said Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.). "We worried too much about liberating businesses and not enough about liberating people."

Other critics of the legislation say the big winners are the media and communications companies that have since 1985 spent nearly $40 million lobbying on communications issues. Television broadcasters, cable-TV companies and local telephone companies were all delighted with Thursday's vote, while many consumer advocates denounced the bill.

The Clinton Administration voiced concerns about deregulating the telephone and cable industries before adequate competition can develop to keep prices low and provide incentives for new services. The White House also said it wants stronger universal access protections and opposes opening up U.S. telecommunications markets to investment by foreign corporations because of national security concerns.

The measure also addresses what has suddenly become one of the hottest issues in Washington: sex and violence in the media and in cyberspace. The bill imposes severe restrictions on the transmission of indecent material over the Internet, and would require the television industry to develop a ratings system and an electronic blocking scheme to enable parents to prevent their children from viewing objectionable TV programs.

While sympathetic to parents who may want to control their children's exposure to so-called indecent images on television and on computers, the bill's author, Sen. Larry Pressler, R-S.D., said he is no advocate of government intervention in this area.

It is unclear how the Senate's Internet restriction might apply to a computer network that stretches around the globe and is used by millions of computer operators outside the reach of U.S. laws.

Citing potential First Amendment violations and privacy invasions, Exon's plan is opposed by the Clinton administration, the American Civil Liberties Union and computer user groups.

Computer groups say the proposals to restrict so-called smut are too broad. "They dumb down the content of the entire media to make it acceptable to children," said Mike Godwin, staff counsel to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group for computer users.

"Anybody who voted for the Exon amendment doesn't know anything about the Net," said Paul Saffo, a researcher at the Institute for the Future, a nonprofit organization in Menlo Park, Calif. "It's well-intentioned but wrong-headed, applying an old broadcast mentality of regulation to an entirely different technology."

Unlike television, which carries programs into people's homes whether they want them or not, computer users choose which information to receive.

A top excutive in the computer industry supports actions by the Government to ban offensive materials on the Internet.

Speaking in Singapore, HP's chairman, president and chief executive officer Lewis Platt favors laws to control the Internet. He mentioned misuses including "an amazing amount of pornography" on the network

Platt is a member of a U.S. government board advising on policies required to tackle social issues resulting from the widespread use of communications and information technology.

"We really are going to need some government regulations, some security which gets built into these networks," Platt said.

Before the Senate bill becomes law it must be merged with a bill yet to be passed by the House. The current House bill deregulates the industry in ways similar to the Senate bill but lacks the controversial censorship provisions. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R., Ga.) has made it known he is uncomfortable with government regulation of the Internet.

vern@cybertoday.com