A federal district court has ruled that the government cannot censor online speech under the Child Online Protection Act, according to the ACLU. The law was enacted in 1998, but courts immediately prohibited enforcement.
COPA would impose large fines and up to six months imprisonment for publishing material online that’s deemed “harmful to minors,” even if it might be extremely useful (safe sex information might fall under this, for instance). It was found that even some of the worst blocking programs would be more effective at protecting children from sexually explicit material than COPA.
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