Section 502 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, commonly known as the Communications Decency Act, detailed what could not be transmitted via the WWW to minors under the age of 18. The Communications Decency Act made it illegal to transmit or display "obscene, lewd, and indecent" materials to minors. However, the language in the act was so vague that many believed that the act would impact what adults could have access to on the Web. Many viewed the act as blatant censorship and therefore unconstitutional . Several Internet groups and businesses petitioned the courts to strike down the act as unconstitutional. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) challenged the act all the way to the Supreme Court. In June 1997, the Supreme Court ruled that the act restricted adults access to information on the Web, which in turn amounted to censorship, and was therefore unconstitutional. The government, however, plans to re-draft legislation concerning what is and is not appropriate material for the Internet. Censorship of materials on the Internet is a violation of our constitutional right to freedom of the press because the First Amendment states that Congress shall make no law abri

To conclude, because of Congress and filtering programs, the Internet will just conform to narrow-minded criteria that will turn the "Internet soapbox" into a vast wasteland of opinionless nothing. Sure, it's completely reasonable to block porno and hate sites from the innocent eyes of our children, but it seems the blocking software companies have taken this a little too far. Our Constitutional rights are being invaded unjustly, and this ought to cease immediately. Perhaps the future will bring new hope for free speech on the Internet, but then again, we never know.

Certain programs block sites because of keywords, not necessarily pertaining to content. This restricts sites that may be useful to education of students, or even adults. "While the Banned Books page and Femina.com are blocked because the URL's exist as entries on Net Nanny's blocked site list, more Web sites are blocked because they contain keywords which activate Net Nanny's word filter. TIME journalists reported in an August 1997 article that Net Nanny blocked the National Organization for Women Web site (which was the source of much more controversy when the same Web site was blocked by CYBERsitter)." How do the creators of these programs vindicate this detail? In the case that an individual discovered she had breast cancer, she would not have the access to information concerning this topic. Sometimes this can go a bit further. "A Friends University professor also described being denied access to information the Episcopal Church's position on homosexuality, at an unspecified Web site." Keyword blocking has an obvious flaw. It obstructs sites that are in no way offensive, to anyone, because of postulated content. This form of blocking should be the first and foremost aspect to be consummated.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Episcopal Church's, Cancer' Homosexual, Internet Act, CEO CYBERsitter, Expression Alliance, SmartFilter X-Stop, Decency Act, Amendment Congress, United Violence, Women Web, free speech, web site, hate crimes, blocking software, access information, free speech internet, speech internet, filtering programs, free expression alliance, supreme court, internet free, computer terminals internet, filtering software, blocking software computer, software computer terminals,
Approximate Word count = 1209
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)