The continued growth of the Internet for personal, government, and business purposes may be affected by a number of technology policy issues being debated by Congress. Among them are access to and regulation of broadband (high-speed) Internet services, computer and Internet security, Internet privacy, the impact of "spam," concerns about what children may encounter (such as pornography) when using the Internet, management of the Internet Domain Name System, and government information technology management. This report provides overviews of those issues, plus appendices providing a list of acronyms, and a discussion of legislation passed in earlier Congresses. Other issues that are not directly related to technology could also affect the use and growth of the Internet, such as intellectual property rights and Internet taxation. Those are not addressed in this report. This report does not attempt to track legislation. For more timely information, see the other CRS reports identified in the following sections. A December 2006 survey by the Nielsen/Net Ratings market research firm found that 78% of active home Web users connected via broadband during the month of November, up 13 percentage points from 65% of active Web users a year ago. Social activities dominate broadband time online: websites for online gaming, instant messaging, e-mail and social networking all made the top 10 list when ranked by average time per person among broadband users at home. The Internet has become an integral part of everyday social life, particularly among children and teenagers. A spring 2006 Pew Internet & American Life survey found that 48 million Americans—mostly those with high-speed access at home—have posted content to the Internet. The Fifth Study of the Internet by the Digital Future Project Finds Major New Trends in Online Use for Political Campaigns highlights the major findings in the Annenberg School's Digital Future Project, which is studying the impact of the Internet on Americans. Among the findings are: Internet users are finding growing numbers of online friends, as well as friends they first met online and then met in person. Internet users report having met an average of 4.65 friends online whom they have never met in person. Although more than 40%of users say that the Internet has increased the number of people with whom they stay in contact, a lower percent say that since starting to use the Internet they are communicating more with family and friends. While large percentages of Internet users say that going online increases contact with family and friends, almost all users report that the Internet has no effect on the time spent with close friends or family face-to-face. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issues biannual reports on broadband Internet access service. In its July 2006 report, the FCC reported that during the year 2005, high-speed lines serving residential, small business, larger business, and other subscribers increased by 33%, to 50.2 million lines. High-speed lines serving residential and small business subscribers increased by 36% during 2005, to 42.9 million lines. Additional demographic information on Internet users is compiled by MRI Cyberstats. Rural Americans are less likely to log on to the Internet at home with high-speed Internet connections than people living in other parts of the country. However, rural areas show fast growth in home broadband uptake in the past two years and the gap between rural and non-rural America in home broadband adoption, though still substantial, is narrowing. As of March 2006, 39% of adult rural Americans went online at home with high-speed Internet connections compared with 42% of adults in urban and suburban areas. A Nation Online: Entering the Broadband Age , the sixth report released by the U.S. Department of Commerce examining Americans' use of computers, the Internet, and other information technology tools, examined the geographic differences in broadband adoption and the reasons why some Americans do not have high-speed service. According to the September 2004 report, although the rate of Internet penetration among rural households (54.1%) was similar to that in urban areas (54.8%), the proportion of Internet users with home broadband connections remained much lower in rural areas than in urban areas. There are many different estimates of international Internet usage. Some sources which compile Internet usage data are: the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the CIA Fact Book, and independent market research firms such as Nielsen//NetRatings, eMarketer, and the Computer Industry Almanac. According to a January 2006 estimate from the Computer Industry Almanac, the worldwide number of Internet users is 1.08 billion. The 2 billion Internet users milestone is expected to occur in 2011. Much of current and future Internet user growth is coming from highly populated countries such as China, India, Brazil, Russia, and Indonesia. In the next decade many Internet users will be accessing the Internet with mobile devices, in addition to personal computers. Broadband subscribers in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries reached 181 million by June 2006. Over the past year, the number of broadband subscribers in the OECD increased 33% from 136 million in June 2005 to 181 million in June 2006. This growth increased broadband penetration rates in the OECD from 11.7 in June 2005 to 15.5 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants one year later. The main highlights for the first half of 2006 are: Northern European countries have continued their advance with high broadband penetration rates. In June 2006, six countries (Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland, Korea, Switzerland and Finland) led the OECD in broadband penetration, each with at least 25 subscribers per 100 inhabitants. Denmark now leads the OECD with a broadband penetration rate of 29.3 subscribers per 100 inhabitants. The strongest per-capita subscriber growth comes from Denmark, Australia, Norway, the Netherlands, Finland, Luxembourg, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The United States has the largest total number of broadband subscribers in the OECD at 57 million representing 31% of all broadband connections in the OECD. The U.S. Census Bureau releases quarterly retail e-commerce statistics. On November 17, 2006, its estimate of U.S. retail e-commerce sales for the third quarter of 2006, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, was $27.5 billion, an increase of 4.5% from the 2 nd quarter of 2006. Total retail sales for the 4 th quarter of 2006 were estimated at $991.7 billion, an increase of 0.7% from the 2 nd quarter of 2006. E-commerce sales in the third quarter accounted for 2.8% of total sales. ComScore Networks reported its e-commerce sales estimates for the first three quarters of 2006 and forecasts for the entire year. Overall, comScore forecasts that total online spending in 2006 will reach approximately $170 billion. Of that total, the market research firm estimates that non-travel e-commerce will break the $100 billion threshold for the first time. Through the first three quarters of 2006, total e-commerce spending rose 19 percent versus last year to $122.1 billion, buoyed by a 24% increase in non-travel spending to $69.1 billion. Broadband Internet access gives users the ability to send and receive data at speeds far greater than conventional "dial up" Internet access over existing telephone lines. Broadband technologies—cable modem, digital subscriber line (DSL), satellite, wireless Internet, and fiber—are currently being deployed nationwide by the private sector. While the numbers of new broadband subscribers continue to grow, some areas of the nation—particularly rural and low-income communities—continue to lack sufficient access to high-speed broadband Internet service. In order to address this problem, the 109 th Congress considered, but did not pass, legislation to address the scope and effect of federal broadband financial assistance programs (including universal service), and the impact of regulatory policies and new technologies on broadband deployment. These issues are anticipated to continue to be a focus of the broadband policy debate in the 110 th Congress. Some policymakers, believing that disparities in broadband access across American society could have adverse economic and social consequences on those left behind, assert that the federal government should play a more active role to avoid a "digital divide" in broadband access. One approach is for the federal government to provide financial assistance to support broadband deployment in underserved areas. In the 109 th Congress, legislation was introduced, but not enacted, to provide financial assistance (including loans, grants, and tax incentives) to encourage broadband deployment. (For more information on federal assistance for broadband deployment, see CRS Report RL30719, Broadband Internet Access and the Digital Divide: Federal Assistance Programs , by [author name scrubbed] and [author name scrubbed].) Others, however, question the reality of the "digital divide," and argue that federal intervention in the broadband marketplace would be premature and, in some cases, counterproductive. The debate over access to broadband services has prompted policymakers to examine a range of other issues to ensure that broadband will be available on a timely and equal basis to all U.S. citizens. One facet of this debate focuses on whether present laws and subsequent regulatory policies are needed to ensure the development of competition and its subsequent consumer benefits, or conversely, whether such laws and regulations are overly burdensome and discourage needed investment in and deployment of broadband services. The regulatory debate focuses on a number of issues including the extent to which legacy regulations should be applied to traditional providers as they enter new markets, the extent to which legacy regulations should be imposed on new entrants as they compete with traditional providers in their markets, and the treatment of new and converging technologies. For example, present law requires all incumbent local exchange (telephone) carriers (ILECs), such as Verizon or SBC, to open up their networks to enable competitors to lease out parts of the incumbent's network.