Senators renew call for .xxx domains

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Test no, guess yes?

re. Leria?s: ?The real worry is that ? children ? will grow up to see [sexual activity] as normal ? and will reject the religious and sexual conservatism of the adults and politicians ?.?

Forest-for-the-trees insightful, simple, and to the point. Both sides can agree on this! One side thinks such a result would be good, the other bad. (here ?thinks? means opines, not knows). Both wish the other shared their views. One side hopes for consensus but allows for differences, the other considers it justified to impose their rules by peer pressure and legislation. The difficulty in convincing one?s peers can be bypassed by indoctrinating the young (education and indoctrination differ only connotatively). Similarly, censorship can be defended as ?protection from harm? when harm is somewhat circularly defined from pre-existing beliefs (opinions) rather than from any empirical facts.

Letting children view pornography disturbs me, as something undesirable and to be avoided, but I recognize that is largely an emotional reaction without medical, psychological, or sociological evidence either pro or con. As for historical evidence, the libertarian Asian and European nations have been around a lot longer than us (and than the earlier cited, meant-to-be-a-warning Sodom), and are surviving quite well. It is the repressive societies that are having and causing trouble.

Note that this .xxx push follows the justice dept?s recent demands for MSN, AOL, Yahoo and Google each to hand over one million random web search records. The stated purpose was to show, in a future study, that filter software is less effective than proposed alternatives. How such purely descriptive data could possibly prove or disprove the assertion was not explained. The conclusion seems already to have been made, and stated without embarrassment (or possibly mis-stated to cover another purpose).

It also follows legislation that resulted in the closing of a number of adult web sites that did not have verified & registered proof of previous models? ages and correct names, regardless of whether they were obviously adult or not, and regardless of the models? desire for anonymity. While recognizing the costs, I myself consider this new name & age requirement to be a reasonable way of reducing future exploitation and abuse of children. But I am also aware that it is just one of a growing number of measures meant to control or curtail the adult entertainment industry. There are some who would consider it moral to remove ALL adult sites, and who know that associating it with the welfare of children is a tried and true aid to passing legislation. Beware of such arguments and hope that congress gives freedom more than lip service, or at least understands supply and demand, and is aware of the tax revenue it derives from one of the internet?s largest industries.

Back from the forest to this one tree:
If an .xxx domain seems desirable or unavoidable then nucrash?s fledgling idea of enticing or rewarding providers and users for going there, rather than punishing those who don?t, would seem behaviorally the most effective and could easily be combined with Roger Ramjet?s expanded idea of automatic and trackable redirection from .com. It could also remove or reduce the costs of changing web pages, logos, ads, brochures, mailers, etc. as a further inducement. It does not answer the stickier question of what content ?should be? xxx, but allows time to observe what evolves and to gather information. There is also the question of what ?shouldn?t? be. Most adult providers are not at all interested in attracting kids -- partly for ethical reasons, partly to avoid litigation, and mostly because kids lack credit. The next problem will be how to prevent mortgage financers and soul-savers from registering as xxx to profit by deceit.

Posted by: Ynona   Posted on: 03/21/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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