SpectorSoft Corporation
Supreme Court Ruling Forces Parents to Protect Kids from Porn
VERO BEACH, FL - July 5, 2004 - In an historic decision, the Supreme Court struck down the Child Online Protection Act, which was designed to punish pornographers who do not take steps to make sure children cannot access their web sites.
The Supreme Court felt that the law violated First Amendment guarantees of free speech and sent the case back to a lower court. This is the second time that the Supreme Court has effectively blocked legislation attempted by Congress to shield children from Internet pornography. In 1997, the SupremeCourt rejected the Communications Decency Act.
"There is a potential for extraordinary harm and a serious chill upon protected speech" if the law took effect, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the 5-4 majority.
Mr. Kennedy added that software that includes filtering may be preferable to legislation because it is less restrictive and probably more effective at keeping kids from viewing Internet smut. According to Kennedy, "COPA presumes that parents lack the ability, not the will, to monitor what their children see."
Parry Aftab, cyber lawyer and the world's premiere online child safety advocate, was immediately called on by the major news networks to comment on the court's findings. According to Ms. Aftab, "These Supreme Court cases clarify once more that parents need to be in charge of their children's safe surfing. I have been saying for ten years that the Internet is a dangerous place for children and that we can't expect the government to watch our kids in cyberspace. Parents have to take charge and know exactly what their kids are doing so they can make the proper decisions. Justice Kennedy talked about filtering software, which I think is one good step."
"Even more important than filtering is monitoring software that can monitor what your kids do online. When you can see what they are doing, what they are looking at, who they are talking to, then you know if you have a problem and what action you need to take, like blocking them from certain web sites."
__________About SpectorSoft
SpectorSoft develops, markets and supports PC and Internet monitoring and surveillance products for education, business, government and home users, including Spector Pro, eBlaster, Spector for Mac, Spector CNE Investigator, and Spector 360.
More than 50,000 companies and more than 400,000 consumers have purchased SpectorSoft solutions to crack down on Internet abuse in their business or home, and SpectorSoft has been selected for three years by Inc. Magazine as one of the Fastest Growing Private Companies in America. SpectorSoft monitoring technology is a THREE-TIME winner of the prestigious PC Magazine Editors' Choice Award.
For more information about SpectorSoft Corporation and its monitoring software products, please visit www.spectorsoft.com. For more information about SpectorSoft's Partners Program, please visit www.spectorsoftpartners.com.
To schedule a product demonstration, please contact press@spectorsoft.com , or call: (772) 770-5670 .
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