--- Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2002 12:22:54 -0500 To: declanat_private From: Alan Davidson <abdat_private> Subject: Re: FC: House panel vote Wed. on bill forcing ICANN to create .kids Hi, Declan - As you noted, the .kids bill will be marked-up in subcommittee on Wednesday. The markup is of a *new* bill HR 3833 - which includes two major changes from previous legislation that was the subject of hearings this fall: * it calls for creation of .kids.us, not a new gTLD * it focuses on kids 12 and under, not 17 and under The changes do mitigate some of the problems with reaching a global consensus on .kids, with Congress putting mandates on ICANN, and with thorny issues about what material is appropriate for teens. However, concerns remain: How do you come up with a country-wide consensus on what should be in .kids? Will families in New York City and Salt Lake City agree on what is appropriate for kids under 13? How will you enforce such a standard? Are we giving parents false hope about creating a "safe" zone for kids that might not be so safe? And should Congress really be placing these mandates on a registry operator anyway? Case in point: The bill limits .kids.us to material "suitable for minors," defined as material that "is not psychologically or intellectually inappropriate for the age of the targeted audience." Who is going to interpret that? CDT's letter from last fall on .kids is available online at: <http://www.cdt.org/dns/011031dotkids.shtml>http://www.cdt.org/dns/011031dotkids.shtml We expect to put the new bill text up shortly at: <http://www.cdt.org/dns/>http://www.cdt.org/dns/ - Alan Alan Davidson, Associate Director 202.637.9800 (v) Center for Democracy and Technology 202.637.0968 (f) 1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 1100 <abdat_private> Washington, DC 20006 <http://www.cdt.org>http://www.cdt.org The Honorable Fred Upton 2333 Rayburn Office Building United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 The Honorable Edward J. Markey 2108 Rayburn Office Building United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 October 31, 2001 Dear Chairman Upton and Congressman Markey: The Center for Democracy & Technology is writing to voice its questions and concerns about a proposed Congressional mandate for a ".kids" top level domain. This issue is raised by H.R. 2417, the ".kids Domain Name Act." We understand that the legislation is moving away from creation of a ".kids" top level domain, and we are encouraged by this shift. However, we are writing to highlight concerns about the negative effect that such a mandate could have on efforts to effectively protect children, free expression, and the management of the domain name system. The protection of children online is of paramount concern worldwide. CDT has been a leader in seeking ways to preserve free expression online while assuring that children are safe. CDT was an active participant in the development of GetNetWise, a "one-click-away" resource of information and tools for families seeking to guide their children's online experience. CDT has also been active in representing public interest perspectives at ICANN and recently co-authored a major study on public participation in DNS coordination. Our questions about creation of a ".kids" domain are twofold. First, it is not clear that creating a ".kids" top level domain would effectively protect children online or satisfy the diverse needs of families around the country and the world who wish to control their children's online experience. Second, creation of the domain may well have unintended consequences that run counter to US interests in free expression and governance of the Internet. 1. Each American family is unique in its view of what material is appropriate for children. Throughout the United States, parents have widely varying opinions on what material is appropriate for their children, online or off. Some families greatest concern is about their child's exposure to hate speech; others may wish to keep their child from sexually oriented material; still others may want to avoid violent content. What is appropriate for a family in New York may not be right for a family in Peoria. Effective administration of a ".kids" domain would require agreement on a national standard for what is right for children. Given the diversity of values among American families, it may be impossible to create such an all-encompassing standard. Doing so could result in many children gaining access to material that their family believes is not appropriate, or being denied access to material their parents may believe is right for them. 2. Similarly, it is not possible to establish a single, global standard for child-appropriateness that reflects the diversity of cultures online. The Internet is a global network that is accessed by every country on Earth. The diversity of values represented on the Internet makes it impossible to identify a uniform, "one-size-fits-all" standard of child-appropriateness. Some kinds of content that most Americans find inappropriate for children are acceptable abroad, and vice versa. Such a lack of uniformity in standards seriously challenges any attempt to fairly administer a ".kids" domain. 3. Forced migration of content to ".kids," or to other new domains, could harm free expression values online. While not proposed today, creation of a ".kids" domain raises the fear that other domains could be mandated in the future that might encourage discrimination against certain content. 4. A ".kids" domain could provide a tempting place for predators to identify and contact children online. As Congress's own Commission on Online Child Protection noted, an Internet domain devoted to children would create a risk that "concentration of children's activities in this area could attract predators." 5. A US Congress mandate to ICANN to create .kids should be avoided, lest other governments attempt to do the same. While the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a U.S.-based organization that manages the DNS system under arrangement with the Department of Commerce, it is designed to serve and be responsive to the global Internet community. A dictum from Congress that ICANN install ".kids" would threaten ICANN's international standing and credibility as an international manager. It could also encourage other governments to pressure ICANN to help implement their own policy agendas. CDT participated as a member of the Children's Online Protection Act Commission, established by the Congress to evaluate the accessibility, cost and effectiveness of technologies and methods to protect children, as well as their possible effects on privacy, First Amendment values and law enforcement. The Commission heard the testimony of a wide range of experts on the issues, and concluded that the best way to protect children online was through public education, user empowerment, and aggressive enforcement of existing laws. The findings of the Commission indicate that there are many reasons why the creation of a ".kids" top level domain is not a workable solution to the problem of protecting children online. We encourage the committee to continue its move away from a mandate for ICANN to create a ".kids" top level domain. We would be happy to work with the committee on this issue and to have the opportunity to discuss this issue with you further. Sincerely, Jerry Berman Executive Director Alan Davidson Associate Director ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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