[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.