Www.harmful to minors.com : an analysis of Congress' attempts to regulate pornography on the Internet

This study examines the constitutionality of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, the Child Online Protection Act, and the Children's Internet Protection Act in terms of the evidence used to justify the acts, the scope of the acts to Web sites for commercial purposes, and the application of strict scrutiny by the District Court while reviewing CIPA. Court decisions, congressional records and hearings, and Supreme Court briefs were reviewed to determine the manner in which Congress created and justified each act and the courts respective responses. Findings show that while Congress did not provide evidence justifying each act, the limitation of COPA to Web sites for commercial gain was incorrect, and strict scrutiny was correctly applied by the District Court in American Library Association. Future studies could include the Supreme Court's evaluation of the constitutionality of COPA and CIPA.