At a White House press conference yesterday, Mr. Gore said he helped facilitate a new parents' protection page on the Internet called the "one-click-away" resource. He said the one-click access "actually came up, first of all, in this room, around a table here in the Roosevelt Room two years ago."

And he said his remarks yesterday were prompted by a grieving parent after the Littleton, Colo., school massacre.

When he attended the memorial service, Mr. Gore said, "One of the fathers whispered in my ear during our embrace and said, 'These children cannot have died in vain. We have to act. Promise me that there will be changes.' And he repeated with a tone of urgency that would not be denied. 'Promise me.' And like any of you, my response was, 'I promise.' "

It is believed the two teen-age killers used the Internet to learn how to make explosives, and may have browsed Web sites that promote hate.

But on-line computer industry executives yesterday gave Mr. Gore's claims as much credence as his contention earlier this year that he was the "father" of the Internet.

"I got an emergency phone call yesterday that the vice president's people wanted to play off the Columbine tragedy and they wanted to find out if we would give approval to letting Gore take this public," said Bartlett Cleland, a board member of the Internet Education Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works with Congress on Internet issues.

"The vice president's people first heard about it last week," said one computer industry official. "In the wake of the Littleton tragedy, the vice president's people caught wind of what the industry was doing and they wanted to promote it -- more importantly, they wanted to claim it."

Mr. Cleland said this idea has been in the works for more than a year and has not yet been finalized. Computer on-line companies hope to actually launch the site July.

"There was no Gore involvement. They hijacked this issue. He makes it sound like he led the project. I can't imagine what he will invent tomorrow," Mr. Cleland said.

"This issue is not about any one person, this is not a partisan issue," said Chris Lehane, Mr. Gore's spokesman. "This is about giving parents the tools they need to help protect children. The vice president has been very involved in giving parents these tools throughout his career. He applauds the leadership shown today by the industry for taking strong and positive action."

The "one-click-away" resource is an Internet yellow page book for parents to find suitable information on line for their children. It would include a guide to consumer products that allow families to block, filter, or monitor access to Internet content.

In addition, it would provide information on how to report crime, with links to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's cyber-tip line. The idea for the program was the result of a meeting between computer on-line executives, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, Connecticut Democrat, and former Rep. Rick White, Washington Republican, who founded the Congressional Internet caucus in 1995. "The computer industry came up with the idea, and for the vice president to take credit is like King George taking credit for the American Revolution," Mr. White said. "That's not quite the way it worked. The sad fact is, most of us are resigned to seeing politicians taking credit for things they didn't do to get publicity."