April 21

Events

• Current events

• 1998 - This COPA is no fun at all! - The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act became the law of the land in the United States on this date. The law was intended to protect children from being taken advantage of when using the Internet in a number of ways. It made it an offence for commercial websites to make pornographic material that is "harmful to minors" available to juveniles. It limited how and how much personal information one could legally collect from children under the age of 13 online, for example. On first glance, it appeared that the act was designed to limit the ability of businesses to take advantage of children in their marketings strategies, but the restrictions also were quite conveniently designed to target pedos chatting with kids online. If a child were to reveal their name or address, for example, that could be seen as a violation of the act by zealous cops looking to bust pervs. The ACLU challenged the constitutionality of the act in federal court. In March, 2003 the act was ruled an unconstitutional restriction on free speech by an appeals court.