COPA Report to Congress Still Influencing Policy

The Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee is pleased to report that even after 10 years of its release the COPA Commission’s final report to Congress is still being downloaded at an astounding rate — between 700 and 1,000 copies a month. Users from all over the world are downloading the report from the COPA Commission, a congressionally appointed panel mandated by the Child Online Protection Act. The primary purpose of the Commission was to “identify technological or other methods that will help reduce access by minors to material that is harmful to minors on the Internet.” The Commission released its final report to Congress on Friday, October 20, 2000.

As a public service the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee agreed to virtually host the deliberations of the COPA Commission on the Web site COPACommission.org. The final posting to the site was the actual COPA Commission final report making it available for download. In the subsequent 10 years it is estimated that close to 150,000 copies of the report have been downloaded. The Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee‘s contribution to the COPA COmmission’s legacy is especially important since only handfuls of the original report were actually printed due to budget constraints.

Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee Chairman Jerry Berman served as a COPA Commission commissioner. Executive Director Tim Lordan served on a more recent Congressionally appointed blue ribbon panel called the Online Safety and Technical Working Group (OSTWG). That commission sent its report to Congress in June of 2010.