Communications Decency Act: Supreme Court Decision

Statement by Ken Wasch
President
Software Publishers Association

Thursday, June 26, 1997

The Software Publishers Association (SPA) and its 1,200 member companies applaud today's decision by the Supreme Court to strike down the 'Communications Decency Act' citing it as an abridgment of the First Amendment Rights of all American citizens. The position of the software industry has always been clear and unequivocal: the Bill of Rights guarantees every citizen freedom of speech and, today, that applies equally to the online world.

However, while SPA and its members are pro-free speech, we recognize- and we understand-the legitimate concerns of parents, the President, legislators and other citizens about the content and suitability of many online sites for our children. We believe parents should have an opportunity to block objectionable content from access to minors, but the best solution for these concerns is through self-regulation by the software industry and content publishers. Further legislation by Congress in this area is unnecessary.

In their 7-2 decision, the justices spoke of other options that are widely available to control indecency on the Internet. SPA has long been a committed supporter of the Recreational Software Advisory Council (RSAC) and its Internet ratings system-RSACi-which has assigned objective content labels to more than 35,000 online sites over the past year. Even more importantly, RSACi has provided content ratings to a majority of the top 100 online Web sites.

Today, RSACi is the world's leading Internet content ratings system empowering parents to block potentially offensive online content. The RSACi ratings system allows all citizens to benefit from this exciting world without the inhibition of state-imposed censorship.

Contact: Ken Wasch, (202) 452-1600 ext. 310 or kwasch@spa.org
Information on SPA can be found at http://www.spa.org
Information on RSAC and RSACi can be found at http://www.rsac.org