The CDA forbids the knowing creation and distribution of indecent and patently offensive communications over computer networks to minors and provides the following three groups with statutory defenses to criminal liability: access service providers, innocent employers, and individuals who in good faith take reasonable and appropriate actions to restrict the access of minors to offensive materials. Further, the CDA exempts from criminal and civil liability any person who in good faith asserts one of the three affirmative defenses. Although the intent of Congress was to eliminate indecent materials on the Internet, the act was misconstructed. By violating the first amendment right of adults to engage in indecent though not obscene communications with other adults, the act epitomizes congressional involvement in government censorship. As such, the act supplants traditional liberal values by proscribing the right of free speech based on a legislative notion of the common good. The author strongly recommends Congress refrain from any future attempts to regulate the Internet. 213 footnotes