CHILD ONLINE PROTECTION ACT

Child Online Protection Act.A 1998 federal statute designed to control child pornography on the Internet by prohibiting Internet speech that is “harmful to minors.” • Unlike the Communications Decency Act, COPA does not apply to e-mail or chat-room communications. Among other things, COPA applies to sexually explicit material that appears to depict minors, even if the people are actually over 18 or the images are computer-generated and do not depict living people. The Supreme Court struck down portions of the Act in Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union, 535 U.S. 564, 122 S.Ct. 1700 (2002). — Abbr. COPA. [Blacks Law 8th]