PDA

View Full Version : Senators propose labels for adult Web sites



stephanie
04-12-2007, 02:42 PM
Democrats....still working hard at taking away our freedoms...

By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Published: April 12, 2007, 10:27 AM PDT
TalkBack E-mail Print del.icio.us Digg this

Operators of Web sites with racy content must label their sites and register in a national directory or be fined, according to a new U.S. Senate proposal that represents the latest effort among politicians to crack down on Internet sex.
The requirements appear in legislation announced Thursday by two Senate Democrats, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Max Baucus of Montana, that they say will "clean up the Internet for children."

The proposal, which the senators describe as a discussion draft, relies on the idea of embedding a new tag--such as <L18>--in all Web pages that the government deems unsuitable for minors. Then future Web browsers used by minors could be configured to reject L18-labeled Web pages.

An earlier Web-labeling idea
The Department of Justice during the Clinton administration proposed Web labeling, but a federal court took a dim view of it. Here's an excerpt from the 1996 opinion.
The government's tagging proposal would require all content providers that post arguably "indecent" material to review all of their online content, a task that would be extremely burdensome for organizations that provide large amounts of material online which cannot afford to pay a large staff to review all of that material. The Carnegie Library would be required to hire numerous additional employees to review its online files at an extremely high cost to its limited budget. The cost and effort would be substantial for the library and frequently prohibitive for others.
"We want to keep our kids safe when they're on the Internet," Baucus said in a statement. "Parents and teachers shouldn't worry about their kids when they're on the computer at home or in the classroom. This bill will help keep kids safe and give parents peace of mind."

Web sites with "harmful to minors" content on pages that are initially viewable to visitors must use the tag to be devised by the U.S. Department of Commerce or face civil fines. Pryor's office says the federal government would be able to "shut down" noncompliant sites, but that portion is not actually in the bill.

Another section of the Cyber Safety for Kids Act of 2007 would require the owner of any Web site with adult content on it to say so when registering the domain with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. The owner must also give ICANN the Web site's Internet Protocol address and other information.

"The labeling part of it is going to be constitutionally problematic," said Marv Johnson, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. "They are in essence requiring labels on this material. There are some cases that have talked about labels on movies, which is why that's 'voluntary' rather than government-mandated. They're going to have some problems with that."
http://news.com.com/Senators+propose+labels+for+adult+Web+sites/2100-1028_3-6175549.html?tag=nefd.lede#talkback

Nuc
04-12-2007, 05:42 PM
I'm totally in favor of the first amendment and against censorship. But so many of the porn sites depict illegal acts like child molestation or rape that something has to be done. This will be one of the big ethical battlefields of our century because there is an epidemic of sex crime being sold as entertainment.

Samantha
04-12-2007, 05:50 PM
Democrats....still working hard at taking away our freedoms...HAHA! So on the other hand, Republicans....working hard to let your kids watch porn on the internet?

You're pretty out there eh steph?

In my opinion all porn should be on .xxx websites. That way, it would be easy to block them if parents needed to do so.

stephanie
04-12-2007, 06:23 PM
HAHA! So on the other hand, Republicans....working hard to let your kids watch porn on the Internet?

You're pretty out there eh steph?

In my opinion all porn should be on .xxx websites. That way, it would be easy to block them if parents needed to do so.



There's already way's to block these sites that the parents can use..

This is just a backdoor way for the Dems. to start infringing into the Internet

I know where I am...But I believe you reside in the twilight zone..:poke:

5stringJeff
04-17-2007, 01:52 PM
HAHA! So on the other hand, Republicans....working hard to let your kids watch porn on the internet?

You're pretty out there eh steph?

In my opinion all porn should be on .xxx websites. That way, it would be easy to block them if parents needed to do so.

I agree. Pornography on sites that don't end with .xxx should be outlawed. That would make it easy for porn to keep its businesses going and those who want to keep away from it to keep away.

Samantha
04-17-2007, 03:18 PM
I agree. Pornography on sites that don't end with .xxx should be outlawed. That would make it easy for porn to keep its businesses going and those who want to keep away from it to keep away.
It would make it soooooooooo much easier. It's been submitted, but lobbyists have shot it down. I'd like to see congress take it on again.

Mr. P
04-17-2007, 03:28 PM
It would make it soooooooooo much easier. It's been submitted, but lobbyists have shot it down. I'd like to see congress take it on again.

I'd like to see the Government keep their fingers off the internet totally.

Samantha
04-17-2007, 03:42 PM
I'd like to see the Government keep their fingers off the internet totally.You don't mind child porn? You don't mind pedophiles hunting down children online? You don't mind children seeing pictures of porn?

5stringJeff
04-17-2007, 04:35 PM
I'd like to see the Government keep their fingers off the internet totally.

In general, I agree. However, this is really no different than having access to adult book stores, strip clubs, etc. restricted to those over 18.

Mr. P
04-17-2007, 04:53 PM
In general, I agree. However, this is really no different than having access to adult book stores, strip clubs, etc. restricted to those over 18.

It's different in that an ISP must be purchased along with a phone line or cable.
If a minor is allowed to do that it's the parents problem, not the Billions of adult users of the net, IMO.

5stringJeff
04-17-2007, 04:56 PM
It's different in that an ISP must be purchased along with a phone line or cable.
If a minor is allowed to do that it's the parents problem, not the Billions of adult users of the net, IMO.

You already have to purchase an ISP to have a website. All we're saying is that the address should end in .xxx.

If a minor is allowed into a strip club, is that the parent's sole problem? Or is the club held responsible?

Mr. P
04-17-2007, 05:24 PM
You already have to purchase an ISP to have a website. All we're saying is that the address should end in .xxx.

If a minor is allowed into a strip club, is that the parent's sole problem? Or is the club held responsible?

Strip clubs are locally regulated. The net is not and honestly I hope it never will be. I don't have a problem with the xxx thing imposed by the folks that hand out the .??? stuff, but what will that solve, if parents don't put the xxx filter on the puter? It's a tough job keeping kids from things you don't want them to see or hear or be exposed to these days, but it is the parents job, not the Governments'. Unfortunately the only sure way I see of solving this access problem is banning xxx sites totally or creating a pay per view sub-internet. I'm not for that, not because I care about them, but because it means Government intervention.