Judge realizes: on the Internet, no one can tell you're a kid

A federal judge today an injunction against a new Massachusetts law that tried to apply its "matter harmful to minors" law to the Internet.

Because it's difficult to ascertain someone's age on the 'Net, that attempt turned out to be far too broad. The fuss began back in February, when the state supreme court ruled that the "matter" which could harm minors did not legally include electronic transmissions. The result: overturning a conviction of a man who engaged in lurid instant messaging chats with someone who he believed to be 13 (in reality, "she" was the police, who arrested the man when he tried to meet the "girl"). Alarmed at the prospect of sexual predators texting away to minors, the state legislature acted quickly -- perhaps too quickly. In April, the "harmful to minors" law received a brief update -- not more than a couple of paragraphs -- but they had profound implications for free expression. The new law extended "harmful to minors" to the Internet. In addition to smutty books, films, pamphlets, pictures, plays, dances, and even statues (!), Massachusetts decided that the "matter" which might harm minors would now include: "electronic mail, instant messages, text messages, and any other communication created by means of use of the Internet or wireless network, whether by computer, telephone, or any other device or by any transfer of signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data, or intelligence of any nature transmitted in whole or in part by a wire, radio, electromagnetic, photo-electronic or photo-optical system."