Online Child Protection Act
The Online Child Protection
Act was passed in United States in 1998. The law is
made in order to protect minors from any kind of harmful sexual
material that is available on the internet. A minor in United
States is a person who is less than 18 years old. Child online
protection act has not come into effect as the law has been
ruled out by federal courts.
Many federal courts feel that the law violates the
constitutional right of freedom of speech. That is why this law
has not been yet implemented. The Supreme court also declared
this act as unconstitutional. Although this law has not been
passed, similar laws have come into effect in United
States.
It is said that a child has an innocent mind. Children learn
from what they see. Hence it is important to show those things
that will be beneficial to them. If an inspiring movie is
showed, it will definitely motivate them. It is said that
children should be prohibited from watching any adult content.
A law called child protection act was initiated in this
regard.
Parents generally do not allow their children to watch any
adult content. Today a variety of sources have become available
to children that show obscene content. There are many websites
that showcase content which is very harmful to children.
The internet contains a lot of unwanted material. There are
various online sites that provide harmful sexual material. This
harmful material if seen by children can have a negative effect
on them. In order to make this material inaccessible to
children, child protection act was passed.
Internet pornography is distributed via
websites and Usenet groups. The makers of child online
protection act wanted to restrict the access of internet
pornography. The makers wanted internet pornography to be
inaccessible to children who are less than 18 years.
Online child protection act limits commercial and affects
providers that are based within United States. Makers of Online
child protection act wanted all commercial distributors that
provided harmful sexual material to restrict their websites
from access to children. Sexual material that explicitly
demonstrated sexual acts or showed nudity was considered
extremely harmful for minors. According to this law obscenity
was also considered harmful to children who are less than 18
years old.
Although makers of child online protect act gave reasons for
enforcing this law, the Supreme court found these reasons
insufficient and hence the law could not be enforced.
Some believe that online child online protection act should
be implemented as we harm the children by showing any obscene
content. The lawmakers of child protection act believed that
restriction of access to websites that displayed harmful sexual
material is beneficial for minors. They believed that some
minors may commit crimes after watching this content.
Minors are citizens of tomorrow. In order to make better
citizens of tomorrow, they believed that this law should have
been implemented.
As internet is growing rapidly it is essential to protect the
kids from any harmful content. Hence it is important to enforce
this child online protection act.
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