Immediately after President Bill Clinton signed the 1996 Telecommunica
tions Reform Act, which included the Communications Decency Act-an att
empt to censor the Internet of any obscene, indecent, or annoying comm
unications-several of those opposing the Act initiated litigation to h
ave the Act declared unconstitutional. These actions are the foundatio
n for this study, a study that attempts to assess the perceptions of I
nternet users regarding the censorship of Internet-accessed material.
Specifically, demographics of Internet users as well as estimates of t
heir reported Internet usage per week were used to establish who, if a
nyone, feels the need for regulation of the Internet. Although essenti
ally all Internet users in this study perceived the need for regulatio
n of the Internet, it was those who used the Internet 6 or more hours
per week that were more likely to see the need for regulation.