Administration Working on Plan to Keep Smut Off Computers
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By JEANNINE AVERSA
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Trying to stay a step ahead of Congress, the Clinton
administration is putting together a plan to keep obscenity and child
pornography off computer networks. "We are currently developing a 
legislative proposal that will best meet these challenges and provide 
additional prosecutorial tools," Kent Markus, an acting assistant 
attorney general at the Justice Department, wrote in a letter Wednesday 
to senators.

While the administration has raised constitutional concerns about other
plans to restrict smut in cyberspace, Markus said its own legislative
package will take into consideration "the need to protect fundamental
rights guaranteed by the First Amendment." It's not clear how the 
administration would do this. Justice Department officials working on the 
plan were not available to comment Wednesday. Senate legislation 
reforming telecommunications laws contains a provision outlawing smut in 
computer communications and over telecommunications networks of the future.

The provision, written by Sen. James Exon, D-Neb., would punish people who
transmit "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy or indecent" materials. The
measure would impose fines of up to $100,000 and jail terms of up to two
years on violators.

The Clinton administration, the American Civil Liberties Union, computer
users and privacy groups all have raised First Amendment concerns about
Exon's provision, saying it would outlaw indecency, which is
constitutionally protected speech.

Court decisions generally protect indecent speech in written and broadcast
material but not obscenity. The courts have defined obscenity as having no
redeeming social, political or literary value as measured by contemporary
community standards.

Exon has said his proposal is consistent with the First Amendment because
the courts have permitted regulation of protected speech in the interests
of children. "His goal is to protect children," Exon spokesman Russ Rader
said.

The administration has other concerns, which it outlined on Wednesday.
Exon's plan would thwart enforcement of existing laws regarding obscenity
and child pornography, threaten privacy rights and have the unintended
consequences of jeopardizing law enforcement's ability to conduct
court-ordered wiretaps, Markus wrote.

It would thwart enforcement by creating a higher legal standard than now
exists for the government to prove guilt, he wrote. Under the Exon
provision, only those persons with "actual knowledge" of the "specific
content of the (unlawful) communication" could be held criminally liable.
The administration recommended that Congress undertake a comprehensive
review of current laws and enforcement resources for prosecuting on-line
obscenity and child pornography.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., raised concerns about the Exon proposal at a
Judiciary antitrust subcommittee hearing.
Leahy said he is convinced that portions of the Exon plan "undercut privacy
protections for on-line communications."