Today we lost Dr. Randy Pausch, the upbeat Carnegie Mellon professor who gave the infamous "last lecture" that inspired the world. Dr. Pausch delivered the lecture in September, 2007, just shortly after being told that he had a life expectancy of only a few months due to advanced pancreatic cancer. His lecture was recorded and posted to YouTube, where it became a worldwide phenomenon. He later published a book of the same name.
Although most people know Randy from his lecture, he was also well-respected in the field of computer science, most notably in virtual reality. He led the development of the Alice project, which is designed to simplify the way people learn computer programming. It's actually one of our recommended software packages for learning to program. Randy's impact in the realm of computer science education will be felt for a long time to come.
Randy leaves behind his wife, Jai, and his three children, Dylan, Logan and Chloe, as well as many family and friends. He was 47. You can read more about Randy's life and legacy on the Carnegie Mellon website. There is also information on how to make a donation in his memory.
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit agreed today with a 2007 lower court ruling against the Child Online Protection Act (1998). The law, also known as COPA, makes it illegal to make "harmful" material on commercial websites accessible to minors. Under the law, sites wishing to include such content are expected to use a credit card as a confirmation of age. The law, which has been criticized as nearly impossible to uphold, has again been declared a violation of the first amendment, and therefore unconstitutional. It is important to note that COPA is different from COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act), which makes it illegal to collect personally identifiable information from children 13 and under.
Critics, including the ACLU, have long complained that the law is overly vague and that the burden of keeping children safe from "inappropriate" materials should fall on parents. The U.S. Justice Department and other proponents of the law argue that the tools available for parents and institutions (namely Internet filters) are not enough to protect our children.
As a parent, I have had mixed feelings about COPA for a while now. Of course, I would like my children to be able to explore the Internet free of pornographic language and images. On the other hand, I'm not sure I want someone else deciding what is appropriate for my family. Right now it may be sexual content, but it certainly opens the doors for the censorship of a variety of things that fall into more gray categories. And, how does this protect our children from the plentiful websites run from outside the United States?
I'm curious to know what you think? What is the best way to protect our kids from harmful content? Is it a law? A filter? A parent standing over their shoulder?
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View the Opinion of the Court (pdf)
