Dot Kids Act

Citation: Dot Kids Implementation and Efficiency Act of 2002, P.L. 107-317, 116 Stat. 2766 (2002), codified at 47 U.S.C. 941.

The Dot Kids Act represents an entirely new approach to government regulation of the Internet - dividing up the Internet into “cyberzones.” While Congress’ previous focus in protecting minors on the Internet had been on keeping children out, the focus of the Dot Kids Act is to keep children in. The Act called for the creation of a new, second-level Internet domain (.kids) within the United States country code domain (.us) dedicated solely to age-appropriate children’s content.

Section 941(c) of the Act sets forth a dozen requirements for website owners to meet in order to register in the new domain, but only two are specific content-related requirements. Subsection 10 requires a written agreement with the registrar that any “two-way and multi-user interactive services” would comply with the domain’s “written content standards,” while subsection 11 requires a written agreement that prohibits hyperlinks that take users out of the dot kids domain. The “written content standards,” as established and administered by current domain registrar Neustar, state that “the following content is NOT permitted within the kids.us domain: Mature/adult content, Pornography, Explicit language, Violence, Hate speech, Drugs, Alcohol, Tobacco, Gambling, Weapons [and] Criminal activity.”

While the Act does not mention privacy, the current guidelines specifically call for compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) from all registrants.