Is circumvention permitted in order to protect children from content on the Internet?
The DMCA includes an exemption for both the circumvention and the circumvention device ban for programs whose sole purpose is to assist individuals to prevent minors from accessing objectionable material on the Internet. [1201(h)] This exemption is unfortunately too narrow because the technological mechanisms protecting these materials may also be used to protect other types of materials on the Internet. Developing and distributing a program that is designed for the protection of minors is vulnerable to legal liability for other uses that can be made of such a product.
