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The Internet is a great resource for all kinds of information, especially when it comes to scientific research. However, on the Internet one will also find any kind of abnormality the human mind could possibly think of.2 Information of such a kind, whether it be politically, or sexually indecent, or offensive in any other way might possibly affect the development of minors. Even though there is no proof for the connection between audiovisual violence and real violence, a lot of people think that the increase of violence is a result of detailed presentation of cruelties in the media.3

Both countries, the United States and Germany took a different approach to deal with that type of information published on the internet.

By now, most Americans have an internet connection or at least access to a connection. The evolution of the Internet, as far as private use is concerned, started out in the United States at an earlier point in time than anywhere else in the world.4 Due to that fact, Americans have had the Internet for a much longer period of time.5 Therefore, compared to the controversy in Europe the discussion about the necessity of regulating influence on unwanted contents is already quite advanced.6

The discussion started out as early as 1990, when in Germany most people had not even heard of the Internet yet. The enormous potential of the Internet and associated concerns have increasingly come to the attention of the public since the mid-90’s.7 According to a study of the Princeton-University in 1995 eighty-five percent of the American people were afraid that pornographic contents published on the Internet might turn into a danger for the youth.8

The first attempt of the American legislator to react to the new possible threat was the Communications Decency Act.10 In February of 1996 Congress approved the Act and it was signed by President Clinton on February eighth of 1996. Even before that date the Act had already been a controversial matter.11

It was the aim of the Communications Decency Act to protect the youth from the bad influence of pornographic and other offensive information by creating rules over punishable contents on the Internet. It prohibited the use of an interactive computer service to knowingly transmit, send, or display any “indecent” or “obscene” material to minors.12 One of the essential ideas of the CDA was the responsibility of the Internet providers for the behavior of their customers. The provider was obliged to suppress any indecent, or patently offensive content scattered over his pages by his customers. In case of violation of this obligation, the provider could be punished according to the CDA. The punishment ranged from a fine up to 250.000 $ up to two years of imprisonment.13 However, the CDA also allowed providers to insulate themselves from liability and invoke affirmative defenses.14 Since the Act did not distinguish between mass communicative services and individual communication, these rules could have also been applied to private e – mails.15