Or just very good at faking it?

Of course the main point, which you refuse to see, is that Google does *not* care about privacy. Their actions in China prove this. But COPA has a legitimate purpose. It doesn't inhbit free speech at all. It inhibts porn. Porn is *not* speech.

[link|http://www.copacommission.org/report/statements/hughes.shtml|The subject is COPA]. COPA is about children online being protected from stuff that no responsible parent would suffer them to be exposed to. That includes porn used by sexual predators to lure underage "partners."

In fact, the emphasis all along has been on preventing pederasty.

Excerpt:

The failure to adequately enforce child pornography and obscenity laws has led to a pervasive "anything goes" mentality by online pornographers and sexual predators. Our recommendation for Law Enforcement action is critical to curbing the sexual exploitation of children online. Aggressive prosecution will not only minimize children's direct exposure to online porn and sexual predators, but also decrease the sexual abuse of children by those acting out behavior depicted in pornography.

[link|http://www.protectkids.com/policy/index.htm|Still more]

Excerpt:

The COPA Commission, a congressionally appointed panel, was mandated by the Child Online Protection Act, which was approved by Congress in October 1998. The primary purpose of the Commission is to "identify technological or other methods that will help reduce access by minors to material that is harmful to minors on the Internet."

The Commission released its final report to Congress on Friday, October 20, 2000.

The Report advised Congress that it could take steps to protect children online, by dedicating more resources to the prosecution of Internet obscenity and child pornography.

I say:

Do you how they *make* child pornography?


[link|http://www.fradical.com/Importance_of_COPA.htm|Science says: it gets worse. Porn creates perverts.]

Excerpts:

The prevention of "child porn crimes" leads us directly to the "Child Online Protection Act" (COPA). COPA, scheduled for debate before the US Supreme Court in March, would criminalize commercial Web sites (1) that regularly engage in the business of selling, and (2) then knowingly make available to minors, the kind of pornography that meets the legal standard of obscene or obscene for minors.

The National Law Center for Children and Families wrote the "COPA Brief of Members of Congress." The brief made legal history by unveiling recent data on how pornographic pictures re-form the human brain:

Sophisticated medical diagnostic techniques confirm that images override text for brain dominance and research indicates that a pornographic environment "colonizes" a viewer's brain, producing structural changes in the brain that are involuntary and can last for years...

Until recently most neurologists doubted the affect of media upon the national mind. Naturally we would expect a lag time until legislators and judges also understand a causal connection. The scientifically fraudulent idea that erotic images are harmless speech and children are naturally sexual has led to mass child victimization. An uninformed judiciary has subjected millions of children and youths to toxic images that now dominate their brains, minds, memories and conduct.

The First Amendment was designed to protect words- discourse, not pictures-arousal. Pornographic images neurochemically blitz our brains--overriding legitimate informed consent. Enlightened lawmakers will have to bring our laws up-to-speed with the power of media to shape our brains, minds, memories and our civility. COPA is a beginning.


I say:

Won't someone please think of the pervs?