overseas online censorship law

This page explores overseas legislation, codes of practice, enforcement measures such as hotlines, and major government and industry initiatives.

It covers -

• the US
• the UK
• New Zealand
• Canada
• overseas industry codes
• hotlines
• major initiatives

     US

The controversial US Communications Decency Act (CDA) was struck down by the Supreme Court in mid-1997, the Court ruling that the legislation violated free speech. 

US government approaches to online content regulation have since then been in disarray. That's likely to continue, following the mid-June 2000 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals decision against the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) and litigation by the ACLU and others to test the December 2000 Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA).  

The Court disallowed COPA, noting that

because of the peculiarly geography-free nature of cyberspace, a 'community standards' test would essentially require every Web communication to abide by the most restrictive community's standards.

Disagreement continues about ratings, filters and even a special "Children's Web".

Libraries and other bodies are currently fighting the CIPA Act, tied to federal Budget legislation and mandating the use of filters by public libraries despite recurrent official/private findings that the technology does not perform as advertised. Consumer protection, it appears, doesn't extend to the smut filtering business.

The Commission on Online Child Protection (COPA Commission), a US federal government agency, was established in 1998 in conjunction with COPA Act, to "identify technological and other methods that will help reduce access by minors to material that is harmful to minors on the Internet".  

The Act sought to prohibit sites from knowingly making available to children material that is sexually explicit.  Commercial providers of such material may defend themselves by restricting access to the sites, eg by using a credit-card based subscription or an identity service such as AdultCheck.  

The Commission survived initial challenges to the Act and presented its final report on 20 October. The report encompasses rating systems, filters, age verification systems and a special 'X' domain. The Commission held a number of hearings and called on experts such as Lawrence Lessig in preparation of research papers.  Some of those papers are highlighted in the following pages of this guide.

     UK

The regime in the UK is similar to that of Australia.

In the UK the Court of Appeal (in the 2002 R v Westgarth Smith and Jayson) held that mere internet browsing of web pages or opening of email containing indecent photographs of children is an offence under the Protection of Children Act 1978.

     New Zealand

In New Zealand online censorship is based on the Broadcasting Act 1989 and the complementary Film, Videos and Publications Classification Act 1993 (here), administered by the Censorship Compliance Unit (CCU) - formerly the Censorship Board - within the Department of Internal Affairs and the Office of Film & Literature Classification (OFLC). A brief overview (PDF) is available, with more detailed coverage on elsewhere on this site. The Acts are complemented by other legislation relating to imports/exports and other matters.

Around half of ISPs in the shaky isles subscribe to the voluntary New Zealand Internet Code of Practice (CoP), similar to that developed in Australia under the auspices of the IIA. Official statements have tended to suggest that "viewing" will be regarded as a significantly lesser offence than "downloading" or publishing offensive content.

This site features a history of censorship in Australia and New Zealand, examining the evolution of the regime from the 1850s onwards and pointing to particular resources such as In the public good? Censorship in New Zealand (Palmerston North: Dunmore Press 1998) by Chris Watson & Roy Shuker.

    Canada

In Canada, on the other hand, despite a recent history of book banning (eg Rushdie's Satanic Verses) and public debate over proposals from Andrea Dworkin and Catherine McKinnon, government agencies such as Industry Canada have announced there's neither the will nor it seems the need to develop discrete online censorship legislation.

An introduction to the Canadian regime is provided by essays in Interpreting Censorship in Canada (Toronto: Uni of Toronto Press 1999) edited by Klaus Petersen & Allan Hutchinson.

     industry codes

The UK Internet Services Providers Association revised code of practice is now available online; other overseas ISP industry bodies have similar codes.

     hotlines

The EU, US and other jurisdictions are increasingly underpinning enforcement of online content management legislation by supporting the establishment of hotlines for complaints about illegal material. They are run by a range of organisations - industry, users, child welfare and public bodies - and have varying functions and procedures. 

While their effectiveness is uncertain, advocates argue that since the first was established in 1996 they have resulted in detection of thousands of  kiddie porn images, which are removed or forwarded to police agencies for investigation.

International co-operation between hotlines is growing, especially through the work of the EU-based INHOPE organisation. 

INHOPE's site provides a useful starting point for study of hotlines, in particular through Nigel Williams' paper The Contribution of Hotlines to Combatting Child Pornography on the Internet. In Australia the federal government has recently established an advisory service, NetAlert, that includes a hotline. 

     major initiatives and community awareness

Globally the contentious nature of online censorship has meant that most attention has focussed on child pornography. The EU's European Action Plan for Safe Use of the Internet (IAP) is an attempt at a pan-European policy.

The IAP site identifies individual national and EC initiatives, along with background documents. The January 1999 Paris conference on The Sexual Abuse of Children, Child Pornography and Paedophilia on the Internet was organised by UNESCO.

The site of the 1999 Vienna conference on Combating Child Pornography on the Internet points to many a range of resources. The Bertelsmann Foundation - owner of BMG and other parts of the global Bertelsmann media conglomerate - has sponsored a series of conferences and studies on self-regulation and internet content rating of Internet content, in particular the Munich Internet Content Summit of September 1999.

The US government's Cybercitizenship site - "surf like a hero, not a zero" - joins numerous private sector sites.




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