[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 69 (Thursday, May 13, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5193-S5194]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




VIOLENT AND REPEAT JUVENILE OFFENDER ACCOUNTABILITY AND REHABILITATION 
                              ACT OF 1999

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate will now resume consideration of S. 
254 which the clerk will report.
  The legislative assistant read as follows:

       A bill (S. 254) to reduce violent juvenile crime, promote 
     accountability by rehabilitation of juvenile individuals, 
     punish and deter violent gang crimes, and for other purposes.

  Pending:

  Hatch-Leahy amendment No. 335, relating to the availability of 
Internet filtering and screening software.
  Hollings amendment No. 328, to amend the Communications Act of 1934 
to require that the broadcast of violent video programming be limited 
to hours when children are not reasonably likely to comprise a 
substantial portion of the audience.

  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to add Senator McCain as a 
cosponsor of the Hatch-Leahy amendment.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. HATCH. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative assistant proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have my full 5 
minutes as previously reserved.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? Without objection, it is 
so ordered.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, the Hatch-Leahy amendment is a good one. I 
hope everybody will support it. I have talked for years about 
empowering users of the Internet to control and limit access to 
material they did not want to see and that could be found on line. This 
could be any type of material. Parents may not want their children 
buying things. There may be obscene material. It could be types of 
sites parents are against.
  We also know there is a lot of amazing and wonderful material on the 
Internet. While I oppose efforts in Congress to regulate content of the 
Internet, I do want to make sure children can be protected, that 
parents have the ability to do that, and this gives them a chance to do 
it.
  I have always believed the power to control what people see belongs 
to the

[[Page S5194]]

users and the parents, not the Government. The amendment the chairman 
and I offer requires large on-line service providers to offer their 
subscribers filtering software and systems to stop objectionable 
materials from reaching their computer screens. I am supportive of 
voluntary industry efforts to come together and provide Internet users 
with one-click-away information resources on how to protect children 
when they go on line. Senator Campbell and I joined Vice President Gore 
at the White House last week to hear about this one-click-away 
amendment. Our amendment helps promote the use of filtering 
technologies. It is better than Government censorship. It is a fall-
back provision, if the companies do not do it themselves.

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