Pending presidential approval, U.S. schoolchildren soon will have access to the first-ever internet domain designed specifically for kids. The initiative is yet one more attempt by Congress to shield children from accessing inappropriate material online—but observers caution that it's not a panacea and will only be as effective as the adults who are in charge.

Congress on Nov. 15 approved the Dot-Kids Implementation and Efficiency Act of 2002, leaving it up to President Bush to sign the bill, which promises to carve out some child-friendly territory within America's .us web domain, called .kids.us.

Built and policed by NeuStar Inc., a corporate manager of communications services, the new space will not allow web sites to provide hyperlinks to other sites existing outside the .kids.us territory—nor will it tolerate other sometimes risky communications services, such as chat rooms and instant-messaging services, unless content providers can guarantee their safety.

"This is our nation's best chance to guarantee kids an online experience that is fun and age-appropriate," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who wrote the Senate's version of the bill.

Proponents of the system hope it will provide such an experience by ensuring that only those sites promising the most appropriate content for children under the age of 13 be allowed to join the domain.

According to Barbara Blackwell, NeuStar's manager of public relations, the company is in the process of soliciting children's advocacy and online safety groups, as well as educators and parents, for suggestions about what qualities a site should demonstrate to be deemed acceptable.

So far, the company has proposed a number of potential standards. Some of the possible restrictions would include no sexual content of a normal or perverted kind, no lewd display of genitals or female breasts, a ban on any of the "seven dirty words" as identified by the Federal Communications Commission, no teenage and adult game sites, and no content that displays revealing attire, advocates the legal or illegal use of drugs, or promotes gambling, alcohol consumption, tobacco use, and violence or hate crimes.

Exceptions to these provisions would be made only if the suggested content is considered to have serious educational value to children, NeuStar said.

NeuStar also is looking at applying guidelines to internet and advertising safety that are similar to those proposed by the Children's Online Protection Act (COPA) and the Children's Advertising Review Unit, part of the Better Business Bureau.

Currently, the company is working through the comments it already has collected about its proposed guidelines. James Casey, director of policy and business development for NeuStar, said official specifications will be released in a matter of a few weeks.

"First and foremost, we want to build a space that kids will use and actually come to," Blackwell said.