FCC Adds Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act Provisions to E-rate

This order adds the statutory language from the Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act regarding the education of students about appropriate online behavior to the existing Federal Communications Commission rules implementing the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) for the schools and libraries universal service support mechanism (also known as the E-rate program).

The FCC’s CIPA rules were also implemented at the direction of Congress, and school and library E-rate applicants that seek to receive discounts on Internet access or internal connections have been required to certify their compliance with CIPA since 2001. The Protecting Children in the 21 st Century Act directs E-rate applicants to also certify that their CIPA-required Internet safety policies provide for the education of students regarding appropriate online behavior including interacting with other individuals on social networking websites and in chat rooms, and regarding cyberbullying awareness and response. The FCC implements this statutory language verbatim. The FCC also makes minor non-substantive revisions to rules to conform to existing statutory language from the CIPA statute where necessary.