For this activity I completed the 30 question quiz about the first amendment. I scored a 21-30 which isn’t too bad given I have not reviewed the topics involving the first amendment in a while. I scored well on the basic questions about the amendment, but when it came to examples involving schools and certain situations I was unsure exactly what the answers were. After reviewing the quiz I feel I have an even better understanding of the amendments range of coverage for the American people.

An interesting case involving the first amendment is Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union. The main question for this case was if the Child Online Protection Act’s requirement for online publishers to prevent children from accessing things that would be harmful to minors would likely intrude the First Amendment by restricting too much protected speech?

The court found that “Congress had not yet met its burden to show that the COPA requirements were more effective than other methods of preventing minors.” Basically saying this is not an effective method to prevent minors from accessing said sites that could be harmful to children.

This was a fairly recent case that went through the court system in 2004. With the world continuing to grow into a more immersive and online lifestyle with applications like YouTube, TikTok, and other social media platforms kids are at the peak of most people’s concern.

Personally, I think a large majority of this issue would be resolved if parents made sure their kids were in the position to not find anything that could harm them. If kids don’t have access to phones so early in their life it would make this problem a tad bit easier. But, I understand why this impedes on the first amendments rights by restricting too much protected speech.