A shameful surrender to pornographers

To protect kids, why can't we require porn sites to check IDs?

By Cathy Ruse

from the April 2, 2007 edition

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Arlington, Va. - Another federal judge has struck down the Child Online Protection Act. Had it taken effect, the 1998 law would have done one simple thing: require Internet pornographers to verify the age of customers through the use of adult-access codes or credit cards.

Last month, Judge Lowell Reed Jr ruled out even this basic measure of accountability as a violation of the free-speech rights of porn purveyors and their often addicted customers.

Adding insult to injury, he said he was doing it for the kids: "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." So, by protecting the right of smut peddlers to exploit my daughter, Mr. Reed is actually protecting her right to exploit other children when she's an adult. The logic, and the arrogance, is breathtaking.

The Internet has revolutionized the way Americans conduct their daily lives. All kinds of pornography – from puerile convenience-store fare to pornographic images of violence and depravity surpassing the worst excesses of normal human imagination – are now just a click away.

Indeed, children are accessing pornography at a previously unmatched rate and with unparalleled ease. A recent study published in the journal Pediatrics showed that 42 percent of children ages 10 to 17 had been exposed to online pornography in the past year; 66 percent of the exposure was "unwanted."

Aware of its authority to regulate interstate commerce and of its compelling interest in protecting children, Congress has tried for more than 10 years to place restrictions on the distribution of online pornography, but each attempt has been struck down in the courts.

Reed's ruling, which excuses online pornographers even from having to check identification, is based on his view that today's software filters would be more effective at protecting children. There is a fundamental flaw in this reasoning that time and again has killed congressional efforts to address a profound social problem.

First Amendment law requires that, when government seeks to promote a compelling interest, the means used must restrict the least speech possible. In this case, the government's interest is protecting children from Internet pornography, the "speech" is pornography, and the restriction is the ID check.

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