Congressional Record—Senate S9017
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June 26, 1995 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S9017 the problems of decolonization. It has After this history, the image of puter networks, I believe Congress outlived its purpose. Rather than President Nelson Mandela—a man im- must act and do so in a constitutional search for a new purpose for this Coun- prisoned for 27 years in his fight manner to help parents who are under cil, we should ask whether it should against apartheid—handing the World assault in this day and age. There is a exist at all. Cup trophy to the white captain of the flood of vile pornography, and we must Mr. President, the other major area rugby team is indeed a powerful sym- act to stem this growing tide, because, for reform is in our thinking about bol of the dramatic changes in South in the words of Judge Robert Bork, it what the United Nations is and what Africa. Throughout the country, whites incites perverted minds. I refer to its role should be in American foreign and blacks alike celebrated the victory Judge Bork from the Spectator article policy. We cannot expect the United of the Springboks, the mascot of the that I have permission to insert in the Nations to be clearer in purpose than is national team. RECORD. its most powerful member state. Mr. President, I join with the inter- My bill, again, is S. 892, and provides At its core, the United Nations is a national community in congratulating just this sort of constitutional, nar- collection of sovereign states and is be- the people of South Africa on winning rowly focused assistance in protecting holden to them for guidance, funding, the rugby World Cup. It has been a dra- children, while also protecting the and, ultimately, legitimacy. The polit- matic and historic time in South Afri- rights of consenting adults to transmit ical decisions that drive the Organiza- ca. This victory, bringing together all and receive protected pornographic tion and define its proper role in inter- South Africans, exemplifies the material—protected, that is, under the national politics must be made in na- progress to date and the hope for the first amendment. tional capitals, not in New York. future of a great country. Also, according to the Carnegie Mel- I have grown increasingly concerned f lon University study, cyberporn is real- about the tendency toward a fuzzy ly big business. Some computer net- multilateralism that has come to mark CYBERPORN works which specialize in computer U.N. policy toward the United Nations. Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, there pornography take in excess of $1 mil- We have shown a penchant for dumping is an article from Time magazine and lion per year. difficult problems in the lap of the an article from the Spectator magazine Later this week, I am going to intro- United Nations and then complaining that I ask unanimous consent to have duce the Antielectronic Racketeering when no solution is forthcoming. The printed in the RECORD at the end of my Act of 1995 which will target organized tragedy in former Yugoslavia may be remarks. crime which has begun to use the awe- the most dramatic current example of The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without some powers of computers to engage in this phenomena. The truth is, we can- objection, it is so ordered. criminal activity. not so easily wash our hands of dif- (See exhibit 1.) As we all know from past debates in ficult decisions. Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, this this body, organized crime is heavily The United Nations is not a sub- morning I want to speak on a topic involved in trafficking illegal pornog- stitute for American leadership in that has received a lot of attention raphy. The Antielectronic Racket- international affairs. Rather, it is one around here lately. My topic is eering Act will put a dent into that. avenue available to exercise that lead- cyberporn, and that is, computerized In closing, Mr. President, I urge my ership. pornography. I have introduced S. 892, colleagues to give this study by Car- I believe we must own up to the truth entitled the Protection of Children negie Mellon University serious consid- about our role in the United Nations. from Computer Pornography Act of eration, and I urge my colleagues to The United Nations has many failures, 1995. support S. 892. I yield the floor. but we fool ourselves if we merely This legislation is narrowly drawn. It EXHIBIT 1 point fingers at New York and blame is meant to help protect children from [From the Spectator, Feb. 4, 1995] the United Nations for its short- sexual predators and exposure to AN ELECTRONIC SINK OF DEPRAVITY comings. The United States is first graphic pornography. NEW YORK.—If last year it was merely among equals in the U.N. system. The Mr. President, Georgetown Univer- modish to be seen speeding down the infor- failures of the United Nations are, in sity Law School has released a remark- mation superhighway, this year it is fast be- reality, our own. able study conducted by researchers at coming essential, at least in America. Hitch We would do well to reflect honestly Carnegie Mellon University. This study your wagon to cyberspace, says the new on that unavoidable truth. On this raises important questions about the Speaker of the House, Mr. Newt Gingrich, availability and the nature of and your democracy will become absolute, golden anniversary, we must decide with all America joined together for the first whether we will continue to muddle cyberporn. It is this article I ask to time into one vast and egalitarian town along, or whether the United States have printed in the RECORD. meeting. once again will assume its unique man- Later on, on this subject, some time Mr. Gingrich made this all clear two weeks tle of leadership at the United Nations. during the middle of July, I will be ago when he unveiled a new system for I, for one, believe we must lead. conducting hearings before the full Ju- bringing Congress to the electronically con- nected populace, which in honour of Presi- f diciary Committee to fully and com- pletely explore these issues. In the dent Jefferson is called ‘‘Thomas’’. Anyone with a computer and a modem at home or in CONGRATULATING THE SOUTH meantime, I want to refer to the Car- AFRICAN RUGBY TEAM the office (or even up in the skies, courtesy negie Mellon study, and I want to em- of USAir’s new back-of-the-seat telescreens) Mrs. KASSEBAUM. Mr. President, on phasize that this is Carnegie Mellon may now, with only the click of a few but- Saturday South Africa defeated heav- University. This is not a study done by tons, find the text of any bill, any resolu- ily favored New Zealand in the world some religious organization analyzing tion, any government statement. rugby championship. I rise today to pornography that might be on com- Mr. Gingrich is hugely excited by this congratulate the South African rugby puter networks. idea—going so far as to suggest, and not at team, as well as the people of South Af- The university surveyed 900,000 com- all facetiously, that perhaps every citizen be given a thousand-dollar tax deduction to rica, on this historic victory. puter images. Of these 900,000 images, allow him to buy himself a laptop computer. For years, because of its apartheid 83.5 percent of all computerized photo- Thus will all America be conjoined, he ar- policies, South Africa has stood on the graphs available on the Internet are gues, and thus will its democracy be ever outside of international sports com- pornographic. Mr. President, I want to strengthened as in no other country on petitions. From the Olympics to the repeat that: 83.5 percent of the 900,000 earth. World Cup, South Africa—a country of images reviewed—these are all on the Fine, say I, and not just because I will be- intense sports fans—had become iso- Internet—are pornographic, according come richer by $1,000. For the last three lated and banned from many competi- to the Carnegie Mellon study. years or so I have been a dedicated and en- thusiastic user of the Internet. (The Inter- tions. And more than most other Now, of course, that does not mean net—‘‘the net’’ to those in the know—began sports, rugby had become closely asso- that all of these images are illegal innocently enough 20 years ago as a vast ciated with the former white govern- under the Constitution. But with so worldwide network of computers, linked to- ment and its apartheid policies. many graphic images available on com- gether by government-funded telephone VerDate Aug 31 2005 05:42 May 28, 2008 Jkt 041999 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 J:\ODA15\1995_F~1\S26JN5.REC S26JN5 mmaher on MIKETEMP with SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS S9018 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE June 26, 1995 lines, with high-powered government-funded computer and a telephone, anywhere on (or get, I think, the drift. Others are more horri- ‘‘exchanges’’ to speed calls on their way, above) the face of the earth. fying still—those that end with the invari- which enabled universities and governments There are about 5,000 separate newsgroups able ‘snuff’ scene, but whose enticements on to swap information. Five years or so ago, on the net, each one of them presenting the way include ‘best’, ‘torture’, ‘gore’ or its controllers opted to make it more demo- chatter about some scintilla of human ‘amputees’, and which refer to sex with ani- cratic, and now anyone is able to connect to knowledge or endeavour.