Communication Decency Act oof 1996

Eboni Thompson
Communications Decency Act of 1996

In an attempt to regulate speech on-line by the Supreme Court, the Communication Decency Act is the government’s attempt to regulate speech on-line. Title 5 of telecommunication act-which is an act that provides a blue print of rules for every industry of communication- the Communication Decency Act attempts to regulate offensive and inappropriate indecency and obscenity.

This act interprets to say that there is legistration on the Internet; operators of Internet are not publishers and are therefore not provided the same rights and privileges. This act also relieves Internet service providers of liability of information posted by other Internet providers. Although, in order to be relieved of this liability, the internet carrier must satisfy each of the three questions:

1. The defendant must be a "provider or user" of an "interactive computer service."
2. The cause of action asserted by the plaintiff must "treat" the defendant "as the publisher or speaker" of the harmful information at issue.
3. The information must be "provided by another information content provider," i.e., the defendant must not be the "information content provider" of the harmful information at issue.

The goal of the Communication Decency act is to protect Internet users, especially youth. Some of the problems or criticisms this faces is the first amendment right of freedom of speech. Many feel that it should not be the up to the government to deem what is considered constitutional to post via Internet.