For all of the benefits the Internet and the World Wide Web have brought to business, communication, and information sharing, one of the biggest issues facing the Internet is the easy accessibility of "adult" content by children.

"Increasingly, children find themselves in front of a computer screen bombarded with images, and often parents feel powerless to prevent it," said Royce. "In fact, a recent report noted that one in five children receive an unwanted sexual advance while online."
When navigating the Internet, children can unintentionally access sexually explicit, excessively violent, and other inappropriate material. There are innumerable pornographic sites on the Internet that use "copycat URLs" to take advantage of innocent typographical mistakes of young Internet users.

Similarly, many children and adults are surprised when a domain name registration has expired or if a website owner forgets to renew its address. Speculators who make a living trafficking in expired domain names often quickly snap up these website addresses. These names, owned by church groups, nonprofit organizations, and municipalities, are then sold by speculators to pornographers who use the innocent sounding names for explicit material.

The Dot Kids Implementation and Efficiency Act of 2002, H.R. 3833, passed the House in May to facilitate the creation of a new, second-level Internet domain within the United States country code domain - "kids.us" - for children under the age of 13. (For example, if the Boy Scouts of America, whose current website is "www.scouting.org", chooses to locate in ".kids.us", their new website would be: "www.scouting.kids.us). The bill provides a safe online environment for children from materials that are inappropriate for minors, helps to prevent children from being exposed to harmful material or unwanted advances, and gives parents another tool to make their child's Internet surfing safer.
"This is a serious concern for parents. Much like a children's section of the library, this legislation will create a haven for Internet material that promotes positive experiences for children and families using the Internet," said Royce.