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Zoie's Worst Birthday Present

On February 8th Zoie turned one year old. She got a lot of neat presents
and got to try cake and ice cream for the first time. She also got a
terrible birthday present from President Bill Clinton. Some might think
that having The Telecommunications Act signed on her birthday would be a
neat thing. Perhaps this would be the case, if it were not for the
Communications Decency Amendment.

Zoie has been on the web for almost a year and a half, and she only
recently turned one year old. Now her parents are concerned over the future
of the internet, and the future of free speech.

Zoie has two educated, attentive parents. She does not need the government
to babysit her. She certainly doesn't need the government to override her
parent's right to make their own determinations about the appropriateness
of information she has access to.

Not every child out there with access to the internet has parents with the
time, energy, interest or knowledge to monitor how they are using this
resource. That is what needs to be changed, not the internet. It is called
parenting.

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Here are some commercial tools currently being marketed to aid parents in
monitoring and limiting access to material available on the internet:

   * Surfwatch
   * Cyber Patrol
   * Net Nanny
   * CompuServe Parental Controls
   * The Internet Filter

© 1996 zap@red-branch.mit.edu