Legislation (S. 2537) that would create a global “safe space” on the Internet for children was the subject of a September 12 hearing by the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space.
Sponsored by Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and John Ensign (R-NV), the bill would require the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) within the U.S. 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. 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.
Sen. Dorgan presided over the hearing. “The bill we are considering today would establish a children’s section of the Internet and would specify that material in the domain would be suitable for minors under the age of 13,” he stated. “Our children need a safe place on the Internet, and this bill has a good chance of passing,” he said.
Sen. Ensign agreed. “Although the Internet is a wonderful, extraordinary tool, it can be used to take our children, often unknowingly, into a world of pornography, drug use and violence,” he stated. “The Dot Kids bill is a victory for parents and families,” he continued. It provides a specific section of the Internet for children, where they “will be safe from pedophiles, pornography, and violence,” he added.
The sole witness on the first panel was Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), sponsor of a companion bill (H.R. 3833) which passed the House on May 21 (see The Source, 5/24/02). He called the legislation a positive approach to the problem of child safety on the Internet. “Nothing can replace parental supervision,” he said. “Yet, parents are desperate for more tools to help keep their children safe on this new electronic medium,” he added.
Rep. Shimkus outlined the provisions of the Dot Kids Act, comparing the child-friendly secondary domain within the .”us” country code to the children’s section of the library. “Placing this child-friendly site within the “.us” country code is a brilliant strategy that avoids the traditional pitfalls,” he stated. “First, it does not affect anyone’s right to free speech, and the use of the domain is strictly voluntary,” he explained. Second, “the subdomain will be as safe as it can possibly be,” he continued, and added, “The bill bans hyperlinks that would take children outside of the ‘kids.us’ space and into an unsecured area.”
He mentioned that Neustar would be administering “our nation’s resource in cyberspace, the ‘.us’ country code, for free.” The legislation “allows Neustar to profit from the sale of every single one of the ‘kids.us’ registrations and even goes further to allow Neustar to get out of administering the ‘kids.us’ if it causes them ‘financial hardship,’” he explained.
Jim Casey of Neustar, Inc. expressed his concerns with the legislation. The bill passed by the House “is a sweeping mandate that does not properly consider all of the technical, market, and policy challenges,” he said, and listed several concerns with the current legislation that “extend beyond the language of the bill” to much more fundamental issues.
“The bill replaces sound business practice with regulatory mandate and interferes with existing efforts for the effective development of the kids.us domain,” he emphasized. He continued, “The bill takes the unprecedented step of requiring a government contractor potentially to sustain a significant loss on a government contract, without taking into account the effect of that loss on the kids.us space or the .us domain itself.” He added, “The legislation, as proposed, likely will do more harm than good to a child-friendly environment within the .us country code.”
He told the subcommittee that Neustar would continue “to work with a wide range of public and private organizations, as well as Congress, toward the successful development of the kids.us domain without the need for the kind of comprehensive legislation contained in the proposed bill.”
“This is an important piece of legislation,” said Sen. Dorgan. “Assuming Congress does nothing, tell me the time frame your company would accomplish a space for children on the Internet?” he asked.
“Figuring out the proper structure and content management would be an important first step,” responded Mr. Casey.
“Someone has to regulate the content,” said Sen. Dorgan. “If we don’t regulate the content, it would be a useless effort,” he added.
“Difficult, if not impossible,” agreed Mr. Casey.
“If I were in your position, I might argue the same points,” said Sen. Ensign. “We’ve waited long enough for this, and our gut is telling us that people want something like this,” he added.
Ann Brown of Safer America for Everyone, who also testified before the subcommittee, agreed. “Certainly, this would be something that would be used,” she said. “Getting this done in a timely manner is essential,” she added.
