Legal Definitions - childnapping

The Child Online Protection Act (COPA) was a United States federal law enacted in 1998. Its primary goal was to protect minors from exposure to material deemed "harmful to minors" on the internet, specifically targeting commercial websites.

COPA aimed to prohibit the commercial distribution of sexually explicit material over the internet if it was considered harmful to minors. A key aspect of the law was its broad scope, which included content that merely *appeared* to depict minors, even if the individuals shown were actually adults or if the images were entirely computer-generated and did not involve real people. Unlike some other internet regulations, COPA specifically excluded email and chat-room communications from its purview.

However, significant portions of the Child Online Protection Act were challenged and ultimately struck down by the Supreme Court in 2002, primarily due to concerns that its restrictions on speech were too broad and infringed upon adults' First Amendment rights.

Here are some examples illustrating the types of situations COPA was designed to address:

• Example 1: Website Hosting Ambiguous Content
  Imagine a commercial website in the late 1990s that featured a gallery of photographs. While the models in these photos were legally adults, their styling, makeup, and poses were intentionally designed to make them appear significantly younger, resembling minors. COPA would have targeted the owner of such a website, asserting that even if the models were adults, the material was "harmful to minors" due to its deceptive appearance and therefore illegal to distribute commercially online.
• Example 2: Distribution of Computer-Generated Imagery
  Consider an online platform that allowed users to download or stream highly realistic computer-generated animations and images. These digital creations depicted characters that unmistakably appeared to be children engaged in sexually explicit acts. Under COPA, the commercial distribution of such computer-generated content would have been prohibited, as the law explicitly covered images that appeared to depict minors, regardless of whether they involved real people.
• Example 3: Commercial Subscription Service for Explicit Material
  Suppose an online subscription service offered its members access to a vast library of videos and images. A portion of this library contained content that, according to COPA's definition, was "harmful to minors," including material that visually suggested the involvement of underage individuals or was digitally created to do so. COPA was specifically designed to prevent commercial entities from profiting from the online dissemination of such material, aiming to protect minors from exposure to it.