The interest in encouraging freedom of expression in a democratic society outweighs any theoretical but unproven benefit of censorship. President Clinton signed it into law a week later. The CDA, according to its proponents, would protect children from sexual predators and pornographic materials they might otherwise encounter on the Internet. Other people, though, saw it differently. Obscenity law considers literary, artistic or scientific value.
Indecency law makes no such exceptions.
The CDA equated Internet communications with radio and TV broadcasting, rather than print media such as books and newspapers. This subjected it to restrictions that are more severe than those applied to any other medium. Although the bill provided for some protection for service providers, this shelter only existed if the provider took an active role in censoring public and private messages. Otherwise, the service provider could have been held responsible for what its users sent in their email or posted on their Web sites. This is comparable to holding librarians and postmasters responsible for the content on bookshelves and in parcels.