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Plans in the U.S. House of Representatives to stake out a safe haven for kids on the Internet moved one step closer to fruition Thursday when a panel of the Energy and Commerce Committee approved a bill to create the "kids.us" domain name.

The legislation, which seeks to create a domain name that pertains only to material appropriate for children under 13, was given the green light by the committee's telecommunication panel.

Legislators who introduced the bill earlier this month said that they were concerned about the extensive amount of information available on the Internet that is inappropriate for children, such as pornography.

Parent's Place

Although lawmakers want to provide a safe zone for children to access information, the bill emphasizes that the protection of minors from potentially harmful material on the Net is first the job of parents.

The bill states that kids.us would be operated and maintained by the registry holding the contract for the second-level domain name.

The Dot Kids Implementation and Efficiency Act of 2002 (H.R. 3833) is now due to go before the full Energy and Commerce Committee.

A committee representative could not confirm Friday when the proposed legislation will be considered by the committee.

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