You can't ruin it for everyone!

A Win for Free Speech Online
Published: January 26, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/opinion/27tue2.html

This is a New York Times editorial about the Supreme Court refusing to save the Child Online Protection Act, which protects children from sexually explicit online material. Their decision was based on the reason that the law tried to infringe too much upon constitutionally protected free speech. The New York Times editorial board agrees with the Supreme Court on this issue, allowing free speech to prevail.

Overall, I thought this editorial was very well-written, and it is certainly evident that the editorial board did a sufficient amount of research on the topic. The editorial includes several references to previous cases involving this issue, as well as some of the decisions made by the Bush administration. I definitely agree that the Child Online Protection Act infringes upon free speech, which is protected under the Constitution. As mentioned in the editorial, there are other methods that can be implemented to avoid children coming across sexually explicit material online. Parents can use filtering software that will keep indecent material away from their children, but will not infringe upon free speech rights for everyone else. It's all about compromise.