Conservative groups call for new Net "code of conduct"

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

I'm sitting in the National Press Club, in front of a
dozen television cameras, where a conservative press
conference on Kids and the Net is starting. Groups like the
Family Research Council and the Christian Coalition are
complaining that the Internet industry isn't doing enough
to label, filter, and rate the Net and is instead looking
to "make a few quick bucks."

What prompted this event is a two-day summit about to start
here in Washington, DC, where high tech firms are joining
senior administration officials. The industry's goal: to
head off the sequel to the Communications Decency Act.

Sen. Dan Coats (R-Indiana), the bill's chief sponsor, is
here today. "It has only been the threat of government
involvment that has prompted this industry to take any
steps at all," he's saying. "There is a dark side to the
Internet. That dark side brings unrestrained, unrestricted
pornographic material into every home, every library, every
school."

Now Karen Jo Gounaud is blasting the American Library
Association for the unlikely offense of condoning
bestiality. "Parents cannot being to handle these problems
alone. It's a village problem and it demands a village
solution," she says.

The solution, these groups say, is to pressure Internet
providers to adopt their "Code of Ethical Conduct." It says:
"Will adopt terms-of-service policies stating that it
reserves the right to take action in good faith to restrict
availability of material that it considers to be obscene,
lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing,
or otherwise objectionable, whether or not such material is
constitutionally protected." Among other things, the code
calls for Usenet filtering and "parental controls as the
default settings" for minors.

In a few hours (in the same room, in fact), civil liberties
and journalism groups are going to be arguing against
"mandatory voluntary" rating systems and pointing out their
flaws.

This leaves the White House precisely where it wants to be:
squarely in the middle. More on this later.

-Declan