by
Sharon Bradley, Reference Librarian
New Law Makes the Internet
Safe for Children
On December 4, 2002 President Bush signed the Dot Kids Implementation
and Efficiency Act of 2002 (HR 3833, P.L. 107-317, 116 Stat 2766) which
is intended to make it safer for children to surf the Internet by setting
up an Internet domain free of adult material. Web sites with an address
such as www.websitename.kids.us would have to certify they are free of
sexually explicit material, hate speech, violence or other content not
suitable for children under 13.
One of the interesting findings set out in the act was that 19% of youth
(ages 10 to 17) who used the Internet regularly were the targets of unwanted
sexual solicitation, but less than 10% of the solicitations were reported
to the police. 47 USC 941(2)(6). Online Victimization:
A Report on the Nation’s Youth
"It will function much like the children's section of the library, where parents feel comfortable allowing their children to browse," Bush said when signing the law.
Links to outside Web sites would be banned, and features such as instant messaging and chat rooms would not be allowed unless they could be certified as safe.
Lawmakers in Congress had hoped to authorize simpler addresses such as www.websitename.kids, but backed off after witnesses said it would be difficult to require the international body that controls domain-name policy to set up a .kids domain alongside the likes of .com and .org.