Internet: An Overview of Key Technology Policy Issues Affecting Its Use and Growth

August 2006:

Introduction
The continued growth of the Internet for personal, government, and business purposes may be affected by a number of technology policy issues being debated by Congress. Among them are access to and regulation of broadband (high-speed) Internet services, computer and Internet security, Internet privacy, the impact of “spam,” concerns about what children may encounter (such as pornography) when using the Internet, management of the Internet Domain Name System, and government information technology management.

This report provides overviews of those issues, plus appendices providing a list of pending legislation, a list of acronyms, a discussion of legislation passed in earlier Congresses, and a list of other CRS reports that provide more detail on these and related topics. Other issues that are not directly related to technology could also affect the use and growth of the Internet, such as intellectual property rights and Internet taxation. Those are not addressed in this report, but the list of CRS products in Appendix D includes reports on related topics.

Because this report is updated only periodically, it does not attempt to track legislation. For more timely information, see the other CRS reports identified in the following sections and in Appendix D. ..Source.. by CRS Service