    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book II)]
    [July 16, 1997]
    [Pages 960-961]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Announcing Steps To Make the Internet Family-Friendly
    July 16, 1997

        Thank you very much, Lois Jean, and thank you, Steve Case. Thank
    you, Mr. Vice President, for all the work you've done on this issue. And
    to Secretary Daley, Commissioner Varney, Deputy Attorney General Waxman,
    and the Members of Congress who had to go for a vote, I thank all of you
    for your interest. And thank you, all of you, who come here from the
    various companies, who were part of the Vice President's meeting this
    morning, and from other interested groups.
        I think it's fair to say that history will evaluate the Internet as
    having sparked a revolution in information perhaps every bit as profound
    as the printing press. For today, at the click of a mouse, children can
    tap into the resources of the Library of Congress, to a great museum,
    communicate with classrooms around the world. I am particularly proud to
    point out that the Internet allows us now to journey beyond the Earth.
    Just since July 4, NASA's Mars Pathfinder website has received more than
    27 million visits. And we are very proud of that and proud of NASA.
        But we all know and we've heard the horror stories about the
    inappropriate material for children that can be found on the Internet.
    We know children can be victimized over the Internet. After the Supreme
    Court struck down the portion of the Communications Decency Act last
    month affecting this as an abridgement of free speech, we brought
    together industry leaders and groups representing teachers, parents,
    librarians to discuss where to go next.
        This morning there was a discussion that I believe can fairly be
    said to have reached a consensus about how to pave the way to a family-
    friendly Internet without paving over the constitutional guarantees of
    free speech and free expression. The plan has three components: new
    technologies, enforcement of existing laws, more active participation of
    parents.
        As you have heard already, with regard to technology, the computer
    industry is developing a whole toolbox full of technologies that can do
    for the Internet what the V-chip will do for television. Some of the
    tools are already widely in use, as Steve said. They give parents the
    power to unlock and to lock the digital doors to objectionable content.
    Now we have to make these tools more readily available to all parents
    and all teachers in America. And as new tools come on-line, we have to
    distribute them quickly, and we have to make sure that parents are
    trained to use them.
        In an extremely adroit use of language in our meeting earlier, one
    of the leaders said, ``Well, Mr. President, you've talked about how
    technologically inept you are; perhaps you would be our guinea pig as
    each new thing comes along, and then we could certainly certify that if
    you can figure out how to use it, anybody can.'' [Laughter] And so I
    sort of volunteered. Having been damned with faint praise, I enjoyed
    that.

    [[Page 961]]

    [Laughter] But I think it is important--it is important to know not only
    that things exist but that they are being used and that they can be
    used. So we had a little laugh about what is a very serious element of
    this whole endeavor.
        Today several industry leaders are taking major steps in this
    direction. I'm pleased to announce first that Netscape Communications
    has committed to add family-friendly controls to the next release of its
    popular Internet browser. Parents who use the Netscape browser to
    explore the Internet will be able to tell the browser precisely what
    types of materials they do not wish their children to see. Microsoft,
    which also offers a popular Internet browser, has already incorporated
    this technology. Therefore, with Netscape's pledge today, we now have
    assurance that 90 percent of all software used to explore the Internet
    will have family-friendly controls built right in. It's also important
    to note that all of the major companies that offer Internet service now
    provide some form of family-friendly controls. And I commend all of them
    for that.
        For these controls to work to their full potential, we also need to
    encourage every Internet site, whether or not it has material harmful
    for young people, to label its own content, as the Vice President
    described just a few moments ago. To help to speed the labeling process
    along, several Internet search engines--the Yellow Pages of cyberspace,
    if you will--will begin to ask that all websites label content when
    applying for a spot in their directories. I want to thank Yahoo!,
    Excite, and Lycos for this important commitment. You're helping greatly
    to assure that self-labeling will become the standard practice. And that
    must be our objective.
        Beyond technology, we must have strict enforcement of existing laws,
    the antistalking, child pornography, and obscenity laws as they apply to
    cyberspace. In the past 3 months alone, the FBI has expanded by 50
    percent the staff committed to investigating computer-related
    exploitation of minors and established a task force to target computer
    child pornography and solicitation. In the past 6 months, the Department
    of Justice has increased the number of lawyers working in its Child
    Exploitation and Obscenity Section by 50 percent. We simply must not
    allow pornographers and pedophiles to exploit a wonderful medium to
    abuse our children.
        And finally, we must recognize that in the end, the responsibility
    for our children's safety will rest largely with their parents. Cutting-
    edge technology and criminal prosecutions cannot substitute for
    responsible mothers and fathers. Parents must make the commitment to sit
    down with their children and learn together about the benefits and
    challenges of the Internet. And parents, now that the tools are
    available, will have to take upon themselves the responsibility of
    figuring out how to use them. I think it's fair to say that all parents
    will likely lag behind their children in facility on the Internet, but
    at least if we understand the tools that are available, it will be
    possible to do the responsible and correct thing.
        Thanks to the talents, to the creativity, to the commitments of so
    many of you assembled today, we have now, therefore, a roadmap toward
    constructive steps for a family-friendly Internet. There is still a lot
    to do. Parent groups and educators must work to help hone our labeling
    systems so that they will actually screen out materials we don't want
    our children to see and, as others have said today, with equal energy
    help to highlight the materials that serve our children best. That is
    very, very important.
        The Internet community must work to make these labels as common as
    food safety labels are today, to continue to expand access to family-
    friendly tools, including software to protect children's privacy from
    unscrupulous vendors. With a combination of technology, law enforcement,
    and parental responsibilities, we have the best chance to ensure that
    the Internet will be both safe for our children and the greatest
    educational resource we have ever known. And that is our common
    commitment, and for that, I thank you all very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:45 p.m. in Room 450 of the Old Executive
    Office Building. In his remarks, he referred to Lois Jean White,
    president, National Parent Teacher Association, and Steven Case,
    president, America Online.