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78R1477 CME-D
By: West H.C.R. No. 13
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, A 2000 sample survey of 1,501 of the nearly 24
million school-aged children regularly using the Internet in the
United States found that approximately one out of every four
children in that sample had experienced unwanted exposure to sexual
images while on-line; and
WHEREAS, The development of the Internet is widely regarded
as the most profound change in the way people communicate since the
invention of the printing press, but as remarkable as it may be,
there are risks to children that are unique to such a pervasive and
accessible medium; with the development of newer and increasingly
invasive technologies that can deliver or disguise unwanted
material through direct marketing e-mails, or "spam" mailings, the
risks are even more pronounced and difficult to detect; and
WHEREAS, Compounding the challenge of protecting minors from
inappropriate material on-line is the fact that children often
understand more about the Internet than their parents, teachers,
and other caregivers; in addition, common sense measures used to
secure a child's environment in the "physical world" are not
feasible in cyberspace; and
WHEREAS, In a bipartisan effort to address these concerns,
congress passed the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA) and
the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) and, in doing so,
criminalized Internet transmission of indecent materials to
minors; however, the Supreme Court ruled in 1997 that certain
provisions of the CDA were unconstitutional and in 2002 upheld a
district court's temporary injunction against enforcement of COPA
on the same grounds; and
WHEREAS, Recognizing the need to make children's on-line
experiences safe, educational, and entertaining while honoring
constitutional safeguards, the 107th Congress is considering
legislation that would address specific questions posed by the
Supreme Court without discouraging the evolution of the Internet
or violating the First Amendment; and
WHEREAS, Modeled after existing law that regulates the
identification of sexually explicit advertisements sent via U.S.
mail, House Resolution 2472 requires the National Institute of
Standards and Technology to prescribe an electronic tag that would
identify sexually oriented messages and allow parents to use the
filtering tools already available on e-mail programs to block
messages bearing the tag; the legislation is a balanced and
realistic solution to the complexities of protecting free speech
and children on-line; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the 78th Legislature of the State of Texas
hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to enact
the Protect Children From E-Mail Smut Act of 2001; and, be it
further
RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, the
speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the
senate of the United States Congress, and all the members of the
Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this
resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a
memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.