WASHINGTON -- House lawmakers agreed yesterday on a plan that would make it illegal for a company to knowingly transmit sexually explicit and other "indecent" material to minors over computers.
The agreement makes it all but certain that if legislation overhauling the nation's telecommunications laws is enacted, it will contain some of the most sweeping anti-smut provisions ever imposed on computer communications.
The plan is part of negotiations on a larger telecommunications bill and settles differences among House members who were deeply divided over how to best limit children's exposure to smut carried on computer services, including the global network, Internet.
The plan not only toughens an anti-smut provision contained in a House telecommunications bill, but brings it in line with a provision in the Senate's telecommunications bill.
"We're on the road to an agreement that most can agree to," said Sen. J. James Exon, D-Neb., author of Senate's anti-smut provision, which like the House plan also outlaws the transmission of indecent material to minors.
House and Senate lawmakers serving on a committee to reconcile House- and Senate-passed telecommunications bills met for the second time in six weeks yesterday.
"I'm determined to finish this bill," said Sen. Larry Pressler, R-S.D., architect of the Senate's telecommunications measure and chairman of the conference committee.
Supporters are scrambling to bring a final bill to each chamber for a vote by Dec. 15. Rep. Thomas Bliley, R-Va., the primary author of the House bill, said the conference could be completed within days.
While the panel ended up reconciling nearly three dozen largely non-controversial provisions contained in both bills, it has yet to resolve differences on the most contentious issues -- the conditions by which Bell companies may enter the long-distance business and media ownership.
A tentative agreement on another contentious issue -- cable deregulation -- would lift existing price regulations on all but the smallest cable TV systems in at least three years. Small systems would be deregulated upon enactment.
The House's anti-smut plan -- a combination of dueling proposals from Rep. Rick White, R-Wash., and Henry Hyde, R-Ill. -- would prohibit content providers on a computer service from "knowingly sending or directly sending" sexually explicit material to anyone 18 years old or younger.
Companies that provide access to computer networks, like America Online and CompuServe, would not be liable under the provision, White said.
The Department of Justice would enforce the provision, which also carries criminal penalties of up to two years in jail and $100,000 in fines.