Deleting Online Predators Act

The Deleting Online Predators Act is a piece of legislation aimed at regulating media content. It provides via Universal Service Fund, a federal mandate to install blocking software on all public computers. Thusfar it has not become law, however the bill has been introduced in the 110th Congress.

Introduction
The Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006 (H.R. 5319) passed the House in the 109th Congress, but the Senate never voted on it. The bill would mandate that schools and libraries receiving funds from the e-rate portion of the Universal Service Fund install filters to prevent minors from accessing "commercial social networking websites" and "chat rooms" at schools and libraries. While this measure does provide a mechanism whereby an adult may disable those filters, however, the broad language of the bill could include almost any webpage on the Internet (such as Amazon, Yahoo, Slashdot, Wikipedia). This measure would grant the FCC the regulatory power to decide which sites were to be blocked.

DOPA has been reintroduced in the 110th Congress:
 * In the Senate by Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) as S.49 - Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act




 * In the House by Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) as H.R.1120 - Deleting Online Predators Act of 2007



Related SourceWatch resources

 * See the other articles at the Communications, Science and Intellectual Property Policy (U.S.) portal.
 * See the main Congresspedia article on Regulating media content

External resources

 * CRS, Obscenity, Child Pornography, and Indecency: Recent Developments and Pending Issues - Report 98-670, hosted at OpenCRS June 29, 2004.
 * CRS, Internet: Status Report on Legislative Attempts to Protect Children from Unsuitable Material on the Web - RS21328, hosted at OpenCRS July 06, 2004.
 * CRS, Freedom of Speech and Press: Exceptions to the First Amendment - Report 95-815, hosted at OpenCRS April 26, 2007.
 * CRS, Constitutionality of Requiring Sexually Explicit Material on the Internet to be Under a Separate Domain Name - Report RL33224 hosted at OpenCRS January 03, 2006.