STAND. COM. REP. NO.1642

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2001

RE: S.R. No. 7

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing, to which was referred S.R. No. 7 entitled:

"SENATE RESOLUTION URGING THE IDENTIFICATION OF INAPPROPRIATE AND PORNOGRAPHIC MATERIAL ON THE INTERNET,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to urge Hawaii's congressional delegation to explore the possibility of assigning domain lines for adult-appropriate and child-appropriate websites on the Internet.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from an individual.

Your Committee finds that children need to be protected from exposure to pornography on the Internet, but that the filtering of websites, which has been proposed as one method for accomplishing this goal, raises constitutional, as well as practical problems.

Your Committee further finds that the issue of assigning top domain lines is the responsibility of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). For several years, the issue of assigning the top domain lines ".kids" and ".xxx" for sites appropriate for children and adult viewers, respectively, has been argued without success to ICANN. Therefore, this measure requests Hawaii's congressional delegation to explore the possibility of assigning these top domain lines to facilitate the identification of websites appropriate or inappropriate for viewing by children.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of S.R. No. 7 and recommends its adoption.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing,

____________________________

RON MENOR, Chair