After CDA ruling, Net polices itself

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"The Internet is a wonderful education tool; it can put the equivalent of the Library of Congress on a student's desktop," said Peter Nickerson, developers of Seattle-based BESS Internet Filtering Services, in a statement released after the CDA ruling. "But it can also put a library of Playboys and books like The Terrorist's Handbook there too. Two bomb scares in western Washington this spring have demonstrated the possible negative aspects of Internet access."

The steps necessary for electronic self-governance will require discipline and participation in the truest form of digital democracy, because it can succeed only with the cooperation of the millions of sites online--a feat that is certain to tax even the strongest supporters of a free Internet.

As the offline world knows well, however, international agreements are a delicate art form for even the most skilled diplomats--and they can get complicated in a hurry with something as unpredictable as a new form of global communication. Leaving aside the battles in the United States, disputes have arisen from Germany to Singapore over controversies ranging from pornography to neo-Nazi literature.

Not surprisingly, many remain unconvinced that Internet self-rule is possible. "The industry is now starting to realize what a mess they've gotten themselves into," said Bruce Taylor, president and chief counsel of the National Law Center for Children and Families, a leading supporter of the CDA. "They're going to have a hard time sorting out the compliance issue."

The obstacles aren't deterring Albert Vezza and other representatives of the World Wide Web Consortium, which began work on a technical standard to help govern the darker corners of cyberspace long before Senator James Exon's staff wrote the first draft of the Communications Decency Act. That standard, the Platform for Internet Content Selection, was finalized and adopted by consortium members last month.

"There has to be some buy-in to the system," said Vezza, associate director of the Laboratory for Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "We've been talking to many international organizations and governments, and they will probably go down that road."