The Starr Report: Indecent Material That Can't Be Blocked
How Parents Can Respondby Lawrence J. Magid
Sunday, September 13th, 1998
About a year ago, the President of the United States met with leaders of the online industry to ask them to come up with voluntary procedures to protect children from inappropriate material in cyberspace. Little did the President know that he would be the subject of what will undoubtedly become the Internet’s most widely read X-rated document. That document was first posted Friday, September 11th on Congress's Web site -- the very body which, two years ago, passed a law that would have made criminals out of anyone who "makes, transmits, or otherwise makes available any comment, request, suggestion, proposal, image, or other communication which is obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent."
The Communications Decency Act (CDA) of 1996, was struck down by the Supreme Court. Subsequent to the Court's ruling, the President and members of Congress called upon the online industry to develop procedures and technologies to protect kids from cyber smut. Of course, such an official and historic document, however, lascivious, would have probably been exempt from the CDA, but it doesn’t change the fact that the content in the report contains passages that are clearly "indecent."
It is ironic that the Starr report was released only a few days before the online industry will announce to the world its progress in implementing the protections that the President and members of Congress have called for. Yet, despite the industry's best intentions, there is no way to keep children completely unaware of the basic content of this document.
Kids Online Week whichs run September 14th throught the 20th is also the beginning of the America Links Up campaign which, on Tuesday, September 15th, will conduct a National Town Hall meeting in Washington DC aimed at helping children and families surf the Internet safely and productively. SafeKids.Com is one of the sponsors of the event along with the American Library Association, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, National PTA and several corporate sponsors including America Online, AT&T, Disney Online and Microsoft.
Included on the agenda at the Town Hall are discussions on how parents can shelter children from inappropriate material. Yet, Kenneth Starr’s report on President Clinton’s admittedly "inappropriate relationship" is, itself, a sexually explicit document.
One way to protect kids from sexually explicit material is for parents to use filtering software that blocks access to inappropriate sites. Yet the Starr report isn’t posted on the types of sites that are typically blocked by such software. To the contrary, it’s on several government and news sites that are often highly recommended for children. The Library of Congress’ Thomas site –where the document was first posted – is one of the most recommended Internet sites for kids. The document can also be found on AOL and the web sites of most major news organizations, which are often recommended as positive sites by Internet child safety advocates, including yours truly.
I’m not suggesting that the report should be kept off the Internet nor do I think that filtering programs should necessarily block it from children. It’s important to remember that the Washington Post, New York Times and numerous other newspapers have also reprinted the report in full. Perhaps more disturbing, lurid details about the President’s sex life have dominated the non-stop TV coverage that was undoubtedly viewed by millions of children. Even if you blocked the entire Internet, kids would still be exposed to this disturbing story.
Talking With Your Kids
Parents can, of course, attempt to shield their children from the report itself, but, unless your kids are very young or living in a bubble, it’s almost impossible to shield them from the story. Today, just everyone in the world (including many pre-schoolers) have been confronted with details of the affair.
The pervasive distribution of this report demonstrates the need for parental involvement in children’s use of the Internet, TV and other media and in their lives in general. This is one document that you can neither ignore nor filter out. SurfWatch has reportedly blocked the report at numerous Internet sites. But even if you do steer your children away from reading it on the Internet, they'll still be exposed to the story unless you block out all TV, newspapers and conversations with friends.
Regardless of whether your kids read the report itself; you should talk with them about the issue so that they gain from the perspective, wisdom and values that you bring to this and other difficult subjects.
It may not be necessary for parents to go over the details with their children about what Clinton and Lewinsky allegedly did near the Oval office but you should be prepared to answer any questions they bring up.
How you approach it with your kids depends on a number of factors including what, if any, questions they bring up. If the kids are very young, there is no need to go into much detail. But if they ask, it is important to find a way to talk about it with them. It's may also be important to re-assure younger children that the country is going to be OK, no matter how this is resolved.
There are also some lessons to be learned. This might be a good time to talk about the consequences of inappropriate behavior and lying about one's behavior. It’s an opportunity to discuss how people, even if they are fundamentally good people, can get into trouble for certain types of actions and how they can get into even deeper trouble by lying about what they’ve done or failing to take responsibility for their actions. If you have older children, you may wish to discuss the political and legal ramifications.
There are a number of values that can be discussed in a conversation about this issue that might not only help explain it to children but provide an opportunity for a broader and more meaningful discussion. These include responsibility, loyalty and honesty to one’s family, country and friends. But also, don’t forget to talk about forgiveness and issues of privacy and when it is and isn’t appropriate to "tell on" people.
Links to Other Useful articles:
The Starr Report: Talking to Our Kids (from Family Education Network)
Talking to Kids About the Clinton Scandal from ParentTime.
Parents See Stars and Feel Speechless at the Sight of Starr's Report from Parent Soup.
Scandal Puts Parents on the Spot from the Washington Post (9/13/98)
