On May 21, the House easily approved, 406-2, bipartisan legislation (H.R. 3833) that would create a new Internet domain especially for children. Sponsored by Reps. John Shimkus (R-IL) and Edward Markey (D-MA), the bill would require the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) within the Commerce Department to establish a second-level domain, .kids, under the top-level country code, .us, appropriate for children under age 13.
Every country has a two-letter country code top-level domain. For the United States, the country code top-level domain is .us. In October, the NTIA entered into a contract with NeuStar, Inc. to operate and improve the .us domain. NeuStar also would manage the new .kids.us second-level domain.
Under the legislation, the .kids.us site would contain material suitable only for minors, meaning that the material would be “wholesome, educational, informational, and entertaining.” Although the domain would be content-restricted, the bill’s sponsors contend that the carefully-drafted legislation would not impose any burdens on free speech rights and would pass constitutional muster.
“The proposed legislation will not subject all of the Internet communications to a ‘harmful to minors’ standard,” explained Rep. Markey. “Moreover, it doesn’t even curtail speech throughout the entirety of the “dot us” country code domain. Speech more appropriate for adults or teenagers will not be affected by this bill and can appear elsewhere in the .us domain,” he said. “Finally,…signing up for a .kids domain, …remains completely voluntary and the free choice of both speakers and parents,” he added.
Rep. Shimkus agreed. “Dot kids allows for the voluntary placement of material on a ‘.kids.us’ subdomain that an independent review board finds appropriate for young children,” he said. “I have repeatedly said that libraries have children’s books sections; why can’t the Internet have the same type of section devoted to children’s interests?” he asked.
