The law required schools and libraries to block online material deemed "harmful to minors" or lose federal Internet financing.
The 1998 act imposed civil and criminal penalties, including up to six months in prison, for offering commercial material online that was "harmful to minors".
Google is to spend $5m £3.1mm) fighting child pornography and abuse, the company will announce today, after criticism that it is not doing enough to prevent the spread of harmful online imagery.
And at hundreds of local, provincial and national offices of the various ministries concerned, custom-tailored software helps authorities find "harmful" online postings and get internet service providers to take them down.Compliance is expected within seconds.
At the same time, spreading information online can be harmful, she said, citing the recent case of a young man in New Jersey who committed suicide after a fellow student posted video of him in a gay sexual encounter.
Indeed, so rampant and potentially serious has the problem of internet publication become that the criminal law is now coming to the fore as being the most potentially effective means of controlling, albeit to a limited extent, the more dangerous and harmful online abuse.
The Commons culture committee was already planning to hold an inquiry in the autumn into harmful online content and child protection.
Leading internet firms, including Google and BT, have been holding talks with the government about restricting access to harmful online content.
Leading internet firms, including Google and BT, will hold talks with the government on Tuesday about restricting access to harmful online content.
The committee is holding an inquiry into harmful online content and child protection, but Mr Whittingdale said it could also look at the issue of "trolling" - the use of social networking accounts by individuals or groups to write abusive messages to others.
