From: Carl Ellison <cme@TIS.COM>
Date: Mon, 7 Aug 95 08:36:32 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: ACLU Opposes Exon-Like Speech Crimes in Managers Amend. to House Telco Bill
In-Reply-To: <199508050036.RAA18410@comsec.com>
Message-ID: <9508071534.AA19224@tis.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



>Date: Thu, 3 Aug 1995 11:06:19 -0400
>From: ACLUNATL@aol.com

>					The amendment would have the
>effect of actually usurping control from parents in favor of a government
>approval panel.

Anecdote:

	I was in Cambridge MA this past weekend visiting old friends, some
at church.  I sat across from one such at lunch -- a young guy up from
Texas going on about how good it is that people are fighting cyberporn.

	I brought up parental control in attempted rebuttal and he switched
immediately to the idea that `parents usually *are* the child abusers and
we need to protect children from them -- not give parents control over what
gets communicated electronically'.

	I was surprised at the speed with which he switched to that line of
thought.  It's clear that this chess game opening has been played by or
around him before.

	[Come to think of it now, it's completely consistent with the
anti-abortion stand: that children (starting at fetus) are the property of
Society and parents are required to serve Society as soon as a child is
conceived (or perhaps as soon as they start having sex).  If it's child
abusers you're talking about, that line of reasoning can carry emotional
appeal.  However, I lived in Utah at a time when it was illegal for parents
to instruct their children about birth control (I was told (I didn't read
the law personally.)).]

 - Carl

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Carl M. Ellison    cme@acm.org    http://www.clark.net/pub/cme/home.html  |
|PGP: E0414C79B5AF36750217BC1A57386478 & 61E2DE7FCB9D7984E9C8048BA63221A2  |
|  ``Officer, officer, arrest that man!  He's whistling a dirty song.''    |
+----------------------------------------------------------- Jean Ellison -+