[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 146 (Wednesday, November 13, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10964-S10966]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           DOT KIDS IMPLEMENTATION AND EFFICIENCY ACT OF 2002

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
Commerce Committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 
3833 and the Senate proceed to its consideration.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The clerk 
will report the bill by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 3833) to facilitate the creation of a new 
     second-level Internet domain within the United States country 
     code domain that will be a haven for material that promotes 
     positive experiences for children and families using the 
     Internet, provides a safe online environment for children, 
     and helps to prevent children from being exposed to harmful 
     material on the Internet, and for other purposes.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
  Mr. DORGAN. Madam President, I rise in support of H.R. 3833, the Dot 
Kids Implementation and Efficiency Act of 2002. Earlier this year 
Senator Ensign and I introduced the companion legislation, S. 2537, in 
the Senate and today I am pleased to offer an amendment in the nature 
of a substitute along with my colleagues Senators Ensign, Hollings, and 
Allen.
  As anyone who has surfed online knows, the development of the 
Internet has been a mixed blessing. On the one hand the Internet has 
brought enormous benefits to adults and children alike as it gives us 
new options for reading the news, researching school

[[Page S10965]]

papers, shopping, conducting business, and communicating with each 
other. But, on the other hand, the Internet also poses great risks to 
our children because there is no perfect way to protect them from the 
mountains of material that is inappropriate for their eyes.
  Just after we had introduced this bill in the Senate a seventh grade 
girl at Erik Ramstad Middle School in North Dakota reported she had 
been solicited for a sexual encounter online. In a school assembly the 
same day 30 other students revealed that they have been threatened 
online.
  The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has charted 
5,700 reported cases of online enticement in the past four years, and 
those are only cases that were intercepted by parents. And while there 
is not yet any way to compile Federal, State, and local cases involving 
sex, children, and the Internet, experts estimate that there are 4,000-
5,000 each year.
  The most recent study available ``Online Victimization: A Report on 
the Nation's Youth'' found that ``almost one out of five young people 
who use the Internet regularly were exposed to unwanted sexual 
solicitations or approaches'' and ``twenty-five percent had been 
exposed to unwanted online pornography'' in the previous year.
  This is a frightening situation. Computers have become an open door 
for predators into the homes of children. It is necessary to create a 
safe haven online for children to surf.
  Today we have before us a bill called the Dot Kids Implementation and 
Efficiency Act that will help this situation by creating a safe haven 
on the Internet for kids.
  Introduced in the Senate by myself and Senator Ensign, after it was 
successfully shepherded through the House by Representatives Shimkus, 
Upton, and Markey, the idea behind the ``dot kids'' domain is very 
simple--to create a space on the web that can be a cyber-sanctuary for 
kids. A place where parents and kids can be confident that every site 
on the ``dot-kids'' domain contains materials that are suitable for 
children under the age of thirteen.
  The bill calls for the creation of a sub-domain under our Nation's 
country code ``.us'' called ``.kids.us'' which will only host content 
that is age appropriate for children. A number of safeguards were also 
put in this bill. ``Dot-kids-dot-us'' will be monitored for content and 
safety; and should objectionable material appear, it will be taken down 
immediately.
  One of those safeguards is a restriction on peer-to-peer 
communication unless the entity hosting the site certifies that it will 
be done safely. And further, hyperlinks, which would take children out 
of the safe ``dot-kids'' domain are expressly prohibited to help insure 
that parents can be confident that when their children visit sites in 
``dot-kids'' they will stay within the dot-kids domain.
  Last October the Department of Commerce awarded the contract to 
handle the management and commercialization of the ``dot-us'' domain. 
And while this bill is careful to not change the terms of the existing 
contract it would condition the next contract on the creation of the 
``dot-kids-dot-us'' domain.
  So, under this bill, participation in ``dot-kids'' would be 
completely voluntary. Not only will whomever accepts the next contract 
know what they will be getting into, parents will choose to use it, and 
website operators will choose to be located within it.
  The only requirement will be that site operators on the ``dot-kids'' 
domain agree to keep their sites full of material that is suitable for 
minors. Personally, I think the idea of using our country's Top-Level-
Domain to create a cyber-sanctuary for children makes a great deal of 
sense and I want to thank all of my colleagues and the many 
stakeholders who have been involved in this legislation for all their 
hard work and cooperation in making this bill a reality today.
  I urge my colleagues to support the Dot Kids Implementation and 
Efficiency Act.
  Mr. ENSIGN. Madam President, I am pleased to rise in support of H.R. 
3833, the Dot Kids bill of 2002. Senator Dorgan and I introduced this 
bipartisan bill earlier this year to protect children on the Internet, 
and I am gratified that the Senate will act on it today.
  It is estimated today that over 140 million Americans use the 
Internet, many of them children. Most schools are equipped with 
computers, where our children learn to navigate the Internet; in most 
cases children do so with better skill than parents. No longer do our 
children have to go to the library and sift through voluminous card 
catalogues for their research projects. No longer do our children need 
to be in school to communicate with their teachers and fellow 
classmates--they can do it from home by using e-mail and instant 
messaging. Families simply need a computer with an Internet connection 
to provide children with access to a greater breadth of information 
than the Library of Congress. The educational opportunities are 
limitless.
  However, the Internet can also be used as a tool for evil. Many young 
children have tragically fallen victim to on-line predators. They have 
been stalked by pedophiles masquerading as other children. Many more 
young children on the Internet are routinely exposed to graphic 
violence, drugs and inappropriate sexual content despite parents' 
efforts at restricting such content.
  Congress first acted to protect children on the Internet in 1996 with 
passage of the Communications Decency Act, CDA. This legislation 
criminalized engaging in indecent or patently offensive speech on 
computer networks if the speech could be viewed by anyone 18 years of 
age or younger, but it did not survive constitutional challenges. The 
U.S. Supreme Court held in Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union that 
the CDA violated First Amendment free-speech protections. Congress 
subsequently responded in 1998 with passage of the Children's Online 
Protection Act, COPA, legislation that prohibited communication of 
material that is harmful to minors on for-profit websites. The U.S. 
Supreme Court, however, in American Civil Liberties Union v. Reno, 
upheld an injunction by U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on 
constitutional grounds and remanded the case for further review.
  Another attempt was made to strike the careful balance between the 
first amendment and protecting children on the Internet with passage of 
the Children's Internet Protection Act of 2000, CIPA. This legislation 
required schools and libraries that receive Federal funding to install 
filtering software to block from minors Internet content that contains 
child pornography, or other obscene and indecent material that is 
harmful to minors. Moreover, this legislation required federally funded 
libraries to block adults from accessing websites containing obscene 
material or child pornography. However, the U.S. District Court for the 
Eastern District of Pennsylvania unanimously held in American Library 
Association v. United States that CIPA was unconstitutional.
  The bill before us today represents the most recent effort by 
Congress to craft legislation that can both protect children on the 
Internet and withstand constitutional scrutiny.
  The Dot Kids bill establishes a children's section of the Internet, 
much like a children's section of the library, where children will be 
safe from pedophiles, pornography, and violence. We worked to craft the 
Dot Kids bill to withstand first amendment challenges by not imposing a 
burden on free speech to adults; the use of the Dot Kids subdomain is 
completely voluntary. As such, it recognizes and protects the rights of 
those who wish to view content not suitable for minors outside of the 
Dot Kids subdomain. Content within the Dot Kids subdomain must be 
suitable for children under 13 years of age. Dot Kids also protects 
children from accessing websites outside the Dot Kids subdomain or 
engaging in uncertified interactive services. This is a major victory 
for children and families. Chat rooms and instant messaging is a key 
component in allowing pedophiles to stalk children over the Internet. 
Liability protection was also provided for the domain administrator by 
utilizing the ``Good Samaritan'' provision in the Communications Act of 
1934. This provision will ensure that the Dot Kids administrator will 
not be held liable for actions voluntarily taken in good faith to 
restrict access to, or availability of, obscene, harassing, violent or 
other objectionable material.

[[Page S10966]]

  I am pleased that the Family Research Council, the National Center 
for Missing and Exploited Children, the American Center for Law and 
Justice, a Safer America for Everyone, SAFE, and the National Law 
Center for Children and Families have joined our effort in supporting 
this proposal.
  The U.S. House of Representatives previously passed this measure by 
an overwhelming majority vote with the hard work of many dedicated 
Members of Congress including Congressman Shimkus, Congressman Tauzin, 
Congressman Upton, Congressman Markey and Congressman Dingell.
  Mr. HOLLINGS. Madam President, I rise today in support of the 
substitute amendment to H.R. 3833, the Dot Kids Implementation and 
Efficiency Act of 2002. I am proud to co-sponsor this amendment with 
Senators Dorgan, Ensign, and Allen. This bipartisan legislation is a 
result of compromise and hard work by interested parties including 
Senators Dorgan, Ensign, Allen, and McCain. I also want to thank 
Representatives Shimkus, Markey, and Upton for their efforts in the 
House on the companion legislation. They have all demonstrated their 
commitment to making the Internet safe for children.
  In short, H.R. 3833 will create a safe haven for children on the 
Internet. It creates a domain designated strictly for minors--
``.kids.us''. This new domain will allow parents to be confident that 
their child can experience the Internet, at least in part, without 
being exposed to objectionable material. Only content producers who can 
meet the standard of providing material suitable for minors will be 
allowed to register a .kids domain.
  Really, this bill is just a next step of sorts for me. After all, I 
have been a strong advocate for a safe harbor for television to ensure 
that children are protected from objectionable material. I am happy to 
see that we are now able to extend such protections online, ensuring 
that children can safely surf the Internet without being bombarded with 
images of sex, violence, and drugs or being lured by child predators.
  I am pleased that we have been able to reach an agreeable compromise 
on this bill and look forward to working with the Department of 
Commerce and the administrator for the U.S country code domain to 
implement this legislation.
  Mr. DURBIN. Senators Dorgan, Ensign, Hollings, and Allen have a 
substitute amendment at the desk, and I ask unanimous consent that the 
amendment be considered and agreed to and the motion to reconsider be 
laid upon the table; that the bill, as amended, be read three times and 
passed and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; and that 
any statements relating thereto be printed in the Record, without 
intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The amendment (No. 4903) was agreed to.
  (The amendment is printed in today's Record under ``Text of 
Amendments.'')
  The bill (H.R. 3833), as amended, was read the third time and passed.

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