I hate law. But I put a lot of effort into this position paper for my Electronic Media Law & Regulation class. So here it is.

The advent of the internet allows people to globally “communicate with one another effectively and inexpensively” (Internet, 2007). Being a medium that is growing rapidly as a vast plethora of information, it is inevitable that a government would attempt to regulate its content. In 1996, the United States Congress passed the Communications Decency Act (CDA), which is Section 502(1) of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 in Title V, intending to control pornographic content on the internet (McMurdo, 1997). Section 502(2) criminalizes the use of “interactive computer service” to “send” or “display in a manner available” to a person under age 18, any material that “in context, depicts or describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards, sexual or excretory activities or organs”. This was the first attempt to regulate the internet by a government.
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