From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Jun 1997 05:53:43 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: The Cartoon Decency Act, from The Netly News
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.95.970615143809.1004A-100000@well.com>
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http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/opinion/0,1042,1055,00.html

The Netly News Network
June 13, 1997

The Cartoon Decency Act?
by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com)

        We all know what threats confront our children today: War.
   Hunger. Poverty. Ignorance. But animated cartoon characters on the
   Net?

        Actually, the Center for Media Education and its allies ignored
   the others and just zeroed in on the looming menace of Net-toons
   yesterday during the Federal Trade Commission's interminable privacy
   hearings. CME's Shelley Pasnik warned, "Animated product
   spokescharacters are coming into our childrens' computers... Parents
   are deeply troubled by the intrusive nature of the online [world]
   coming into our homes." Hadn't she read Kurt Anderson's editorial in
   The New Yorker this week, that the onslaught of 'toons signals a
   cultural renaissance in the U.S.? Doh!

        The Center for Media's alarums sound familiar. Supporters of the
   notorious Communications Decency Act cried that "pornography is coming
   into our home computers" and used the same excuse of "protecting
   children" to justify passing the law.

[...]

        Next came Michael Brody from the American Academy of Child and
   Adolescent Psychiatry, who cranked up the rhetoric even more. "Ronald
   McDonald is so very busy in a cyberspace with no child rules. With
   entertainment and advertising totally merged, Ronald exploits children
   easily," Brody said. "Cholesterol is not the real public health menace
   on Ronald's web site, but the invasion and destruction of a child's
   fantasy life." Good thing he hadn't seen HotWired's Cocktail site.

[...]