Internet PornographyMaterial intended for adult use has been widely available to all via the Internet. Without any regulation, the Internet remained untouched until a few days ago, when the president passed the Communications Decency Act. This law was passed to put an end to problems arising from the Internet. The CDA makes it a crime to knowingly send "indecent" material that is likely to be viewed by a minor via an online computer service or over the Internet computer network. Those convicted of this crime face up to two years in prison and fines of up to $250,000. Pornography is still available online, but when this law is implemented it will drastically change the Internet as a whole. The law makes it illegal to knowingly transmit obscene or indecent material to a minor. Some protections exist for online service providers such as America Online and Prodigy, whose systems are used for such transmissions. The control of cyberporn has raised many First Amendment questions as the government seeks to regulate who controls the flow of such information. Many people seem to think that this is the best way to police the Internet without restricting free speech. In my opinion, the only reason Internet pornography is such a big topic is because children are learning to use computers at such a young age that they find their way to this small group of sexually explicit sites. But in reality these pornographic sites are only a very small part of the millions of sites on the world wide web. There has been extensive discussion about proposing a classification system. Theirs was a rating system for violence, nudity, sex and language that found success in video games and films. Thanks to the Recreational Software Advisory Council, hundreds if not thousands of websites and home pages could be evaluated and regulated. There would be no problem violating constitutional rights if it only resulted in ensuring that minors could not have access to this type of information. But as soon as the federal government decides to tell us what we can and cannot say on the Internet, it would be considered a violation of our First Amendment free speech rights. A point made by the author of the article I found on Editor & Publisher "If hard-core pornographic materials are illegal in traditional distribution channels, they should also be illegal on the Internet.