eLearning Service

The New York Times reports that Senior Judge Lowell A. Reed Jr. of Federal District Court in Philadelphia struck down a 1998 law that made it a crime for Web sites to allow children to gain access to material deemed “harmful.”

The ruling is the second major setback in federal efforts to control Internet pornography. The United States Supreme Court struck down a similar law in 1997.  Judge Reed ruled that the law was ineffective, overly broad and at odds with free speech rights, adding that there were far less restrictive methods like software filters that parents could use to control their children’s Internet use.

“Despite my personal regret at having to set aside yet another attempt to protect our children from harmful material,” Judge Reed wrote, he said he was blocking the law out of concern that “perhaps we do the minors of this country harm if First Amendment protections, which they will with age inherit fully, are chipped away in the name of their protection.” 

Civil libertarians applauded Judge Reed’s decision as a victory for free speech and creativity on the Internet.

The Internet “would have had to be brought down to a level that is acceptable to a 6-year-old and that would have had a devastating effect on the kind of interactions that take place on the Internet,” Chris Hansen, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union said.  See the article for more background and details, and the PDF court decision.