Help stop Internet Porn - Please!

[Dixieland Dancer]

My son was looking for something recently on the internet and did a basic search and was flooded with hits of pornography. His search was as basic as toys. I'm sure you can imagine the trash that hit the screen. I was appauled! I immediately got a filter that keeps that trash out of our home (hopefully) but I am told the libraries and some school computers do not have these filters. I believe the solution is to come up with laws that protect these innocent children from being bombarded with this kind of mind altering perversions.

If you agree, I would like to ask that you sign the attached petition. The bills in question have already passed the house but there is a threat it will be defeated in the senate. Thanks for your support!

Here is the link.

I agree to this !!! All that unasked porno on the internet is a real pest !!!!

[Ann]

The land of the free huh?

If people wants to look at porn and want to have porn sites, then let them! I don't think it's right to force them to give up their domains and move to .adult or .sex or whatever. Now, I personally despise all sorts of porn and I despise the sex-centered society we live in, but we can't go around and tell what other people can do and not do! That simply isn't right.

BTW, do a search on altavista.com for "sexual education" and you will get up banners ON altavista with sexual content. That's sad and shouldn't be like that, that one I couldn't agree with more. The same goes for spam, but I hate ALL spam and not just the "buy viagra" shit.

And as for filtering programs, nothing suck worse. I have thankfully never been on a computer with a filter like that but I have heard stories about how people with those filters installed cannot go to a page that contains a cuss word or such things.

This reminds me of the V-chip or whatever it was called that was released in the USA. I heard a good saying about that which also goes for this; "the v-chip, the modern replacement for good parenting". If you don't want your kids going to porn sites, then get involved in what they do, care and spend more time with them and so on.

So sorry, but I won't be signing that petition. I'm sure I somehow will offend people with my post, but this is how I feel about things like that.

[jackiesdaisy1935]

Dixie, I agree with you wholeheartedly and have signed the petition. It seems every time you search for something, a porn site comes up. I was looking for something to do with the 'Whitehouse' meaning in Washington, D.C. and I got caught in a ton of porn sites. I hate it, you can't get out of them.
Jackie

[Former User]

I didn't sign it. Why? Well, because it won't help a bit. Sex and porn will never ever dissapear from this world, there's too much money involved in it and too much people involved in it. It's a pity, but can't be helped. This petition nor US Congress can't do a thing about Internet porn, for as long as there's people looking at it, we will have it. Wheter we like it or not.

[gini]

I have a friend who is an administrator at a very large law firm.

Years ago, when the firm installed computers and could network it was also easy to trace what sites were being viewed.

And what sites did these lawyers view - research? yeah, right!

Not just a few, but most of them went right to the porn sites.

[Dixieland Dancer]

Originally posted by Ann
The land of the free huh?

If people wants to look at porn and want to have porn sites, then let them! I don't think it's right to force them to give up their domains and move to .adult or .sex or whatever. Now, I personally despise all sorts of porn and I despise the sex-centered society we live in, but we can't go around and tell what other people can do and not do! That simply isn't right.

BTW, do a search on altavista.com for "sexual education" and you will get up banners ON altavista with sexual content. That's sad and shouldn't be like that, that one I couldn't agree with more. The same goes for spam, but I hate ALL spam and not just the "buy viagra" shit.

And as for filtering programs, nothing suck worse. I have thankfully never been on a computer with a filter like that but I have heard stories about how people with those filters installed cannot go to a page that contains a cuss word or such things.

This reminds me of the V-chip or whatever it was called that was released in the USA. I heard a good saying about that which also goes for this; "the v-chip, the modern replacement for good parenting". If you don't want your kids going to porn sites, then get involved in what they do, care and spend more time with them and so on.

So sorry, but I won't be signing that petition. I'm sure I somehow will offend people with my post, but this is how I feel about things like that.

Freedom is not free!! It was bought with a huge price!!! I for one am very thankful for the price that was paid and to all the families that have "sacrificed" to provide that freedom. The belief that the land of the free means everyone has the right to do whatever they want at the expense of others is not what America's freedom was originally all about and how it has gotten so misinterpreted is beyond me. We cannot afford to give the porn industry a free pass to assult our children.

I am not suggesting that pornography will be banned from users who want to look at it. I am merely interested in getting it to stop being so easy to unwittingly "fall" onto their sites to those who do NOT want to see it! Where are "our" freedoms and who is protecting them?

I am a very active parent with my son. I am glad that I have the kind of relationship with him that he can tell me about getting porn sites while looking for "toys" for a friends birthday present online! I am also not naive enough to believe that I can spend 24 hours a day with him and shelter him from all the sex, violence and general decay of moral values in the world today. I can only give him a strong foundation at home and hope it is enough to help him filter out the crap he is being bombarded with.

Why is is so hard for someone to switch their domain to .adult or .sex to preserve the innocense of our children. Why do they need to see someone mastrubating or performing oral sex or any other kind of sexual act on the internet? Perhaps the recent surge in kidnappings of so many children for the pleasure of child sex would not be as rampant as it is if we took a stronger stand on protecting the ones who can't protect themselves yet. The sad part is that then they are usually murdered so the perpetrator can attempt to remain anonimous without someone to tell what happened! Who tried to protect these childrens rights? I can with a clear conscience say that at least I tried even if it didn't succeed. A drop in a still lake still causes a ripple effect to some degree!!

I will take a filtering device on my PC anyday in order to try and protect my 12 year old son from being victimized by unwanted assults of pornography. That is one way I can show him I am involved in his life and that I am trying to protect him. I will "sacrifice" in order to keep him "free" from that trash! Actually it is no sacrifice for me since I don't want to have that trash unwantingly passed onto me either!!!! My home PC is in a very central room in our house so that I can see what and where he is going. When he does something innocent like looking for "toys" (something I would probably do a search on too if I was looking for general childrens toys) and is bombarded with porn, who is protecting his freedom? Who is making it safe for him to use his PC without being forced into looking at adult content.

I am sorry you feel that you can not sign the petition. Personally I don't expect everyone here too. Only those who agree with the message the petition stands for and that is simply don't make it so easy for porn to be distributed everywhere. It is no different than going to a grocery store and buying food and then one day going into the grocery store and having someone performing sex in front of your eyes when all you wanted was a dozen eggs!!!

My wish is that I didn't have to defend this post. My request wa for those "who agree" to sign the petition. I realized that not everyone would agree. There was no need to make flaming remarks about America and her being the land of the free. This freedom we possess gives us the right to sign or not to sign. There was no need to question the amount of time that parents spend with their children. Basically, there was no need to remark at all. I thought that was apparent from my original post. I would not of posted at all if I realized I was going to get flaming replies.

I will not reply to this post again. Please just ignore it if you don't want to sign the petition!!!

[lovemymaltese]

I heard that. It is the most disgusting thing ever. I am so sick of the emails with terrible phrases as the subject title, pop-up ads with dirty pictures, I am ready for it to stop too.

[Sudilar]

I signed the petition!!

[Ann]

In response to Dixieland Dancer:

Let me start off my reply with a quote from one of your presidents; "Those who would give up their essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.". This was said by Benjamin Franklin.

Then let me ask you, how did I FLAME you?! A flame is saying things like "go to hell you stupid moron yadda yadda" or whatever, what I said was just voicing my opinion and HARDLY a flame. Furthermore you are acting like I called you a bad parent; when in reality all I did was say a "witty" quote said about the V-chip which REMINDED me of this whole discussion.

And how can you act like this has to do with YOUR freedom? This is my biggest problem with discussion like this, it's "freedom" as long as it's something YOU like!! Just because you hate porn doesn't mean those people don't deserve THEIR freedom to have sites like that on the net. And sorry to say this, but for you to say that it's not as big deal for the porn owners to give up their domain names just shows that you really know a little about this. Domains are extremely hard to come by these days cause everything's already been registered and a domain name is a trademark, people know it by that name. To force people to give up their property and get some new extension is silly and would not even do any good at all!

I'm not even going to get involved in your whole comment about how you are "thankful for all the soldiers who sacrificed their lives to keep the USA free" because that is one of the things that piss me off more than anything. War is NOT fought to keep a country free; it's fought so a select few people can gain more POWER and MONEY. I suppose you're one of those people who think Hiroshima and Nagasaki is all great and dandy right?

Oh well... I hate getting involved in things like this, it's so pointless. All I did was state my OPINION and you had to act like I was flaming you just ONLY because I did not agree with YOUR view.

Sorry... This is just so silly of us.

[wolflady]

Dixie, I signed the petition. I agree with you whole heartedly. Porn (sleaze) is probably the one thing I hate most in this world aside from cruelty and mean people and no morals. I think it's rediculous that I have to see this f***ing garbage when I don't want to. What about my freedom FROM sleaze?? It really gets me that people can ban WORDS from the Pledge of Allegiance, but we can't ban Sleaze??!!!! I have no respect for people interested in that garbage and even less respect for the people that act in/ pose for the sole purpose of being sleazy. I have the highest respect for men who do not like that crap (which is few and far between). As for child porn, that is just sick. What kind of sickos would do that to a child and post it on the internet for other sickos to look at??!!! Frankly, they should all be arrested.
What about our freedom to protect our children from sleaze and from being corrupted. Why is it that there are children 12 years old having children. It seems this world is going to hell in a handbasket because kids are so desensitized to sleaze and violence at such a young age these days. Too bad the media doesn't try and promote morals in society. To be honest, that is one of the reasons I'm unsure I want to have children, because what will they be exposed to??

I agree that all the disgusting piggish sleaze balls that WANT to look at porn can do so in the privacy of their own home...and pay fees to view it. So, I'm not saying to ban it altogether, because I know that would never happen. But, if there were fees charged for that garbage, then obviously the people that WANT to look at that crap...can. They can pay for it. As long as it's not forced on me, that's fine. But I think it's absolutely REDICULOUS that no matter what you may be searching for on the internet....free easily accessible porn links are available and sometimes even forced upon you (pop up windows). That is just unfair to the people that have morals and DO NOT support that crap. Heck, I was doing some research on Bluebirds for my mom and I got hits of porn. Bluebirds!!
I'm sorry, but this is just a sore subject with me (and I don't mean to offend anyone. We all have our opinions...and my opinion is I hate that crap and I don't think it's fair that it's forced upon so many people so easily)...and if they can ban WORDS from certain things, certainly porn is more destructive to people than a word is.....

[moosmom]

Boy is this a hot and heavy subject (no pun intended ). I think we all have good points here.

I was once searching for "pet shelters" or something like that for a story I was writing and what popped up on my screen was a woman with big boobs and a bunch of other nasty crap!! I was mortified and looked around to make sure no one from work was looking over my shoulder.

Personally, I am also sick of it. If I wanted to see porn, I would've gone onto a porn site. I hate having that crap shoved in my face. And I'm tired of the spam mail I get (38-50 a day) telling me in the re: line "you've gotta see this!!" I make it a point of not opening ANY e-mail from anyone I don't recognize. That's why I urge people who want to e-mail me to put their name in the re: line so I know who it is.

The major point I want to make here is that it is the parent's responsibility to monitor their children's internet activity. That's what "parental blocks" are for. The internet should not be used as a babysitter. In this day and age, and I am not accusing anyone, just making a point, it is so easy to tell your kid to find something to do. Computers and the internet are a wonderful learning and research tool. But it is also a black hole for some pretty scary stuff. The internet should be used wisely.

If you want to see porno, fine, it's your choice. Porno should be a choice not something that is forced upon you. Did I sign the petition? No, for the same reason Casper & Kitty did. I don't think it's going to make a difference. If I did, I certainly would have signed it.

[ChrisH]

I signed the petiton.
I really don`t want to get into a debate here, I would just like to echo Dixieland Dancers request for "those who agree to sign the petition". Forgive me if I`m wrong but it does seem that some have not looked at what the petition actually asks and have just dismissed it out of hand. As for not making any difference maybe, maybe not, but there is a quotation I heard somewhere which says something like: "All that is needed for evil to flourish is for good men to stand by and do nothing"

[mugsy]

I'm with you Ann, we have a thing here in the US called freedom of speech and expression. While I personally despise porn, I won't interfere with other people's right to view it. I find it degrading to women, but, I guess, they made the choice to participate, so, they must not mind and as long as they leave me alone, then all the better. As for pop-ups, just delete them....it's just one button. That is one of the reasons I wouldn't use AOL on a bet because they allow the popups and ads etc. We don't get them at all with comcast because they don't let it in. Now, they do have the right to send it as a means of advertising, so if your ISP allows it...just delete it.

I don't know all of what's going on with this thread since a few of the people responding are on my ignore list, but, our Constitution, for better or worse, allows us to express ourselves freely. By censoring, all you are doing are furthering the "Big Brother" syndrome.

By the way, some of us were black balled on this particular forum for not dealing with pet related stuff, so why is this ok?

I respect everyone's opinion on here and everywhere else since this is what makes us "us" and any different is being intolerant, but I won't be signing the petition either.

[Former User]

Originally posted by ChrisH
Forgive me if I`m wrong but it does seem that some have not looked at what the petition actually asks and have just dismissed it out of hand.

I can only speak for myself, but I looked it thru, didn't just come here to express my opinion without reading the subject first!