Vigorous’ Santorum crackdown may catch Internet porn viewers

The Daily Call ^

[timlot]

Internet pornography could conceivably become a thing of the past if Rick Santorum is elected president.

The unapologetic social conservative, currently in second place behind Mitt Romney for the GOP nomination, has promised to crack down on the distribution of pornography if elected.

[Antoninus]

Preventing 12-year olds from seeing obscene material, is the parents’ job. The Federal Govt has no business in this.

It's both, actually. A government that remains aloof on such a basic moral issue as this is actually making the parents' job much harder.

Here's a question for you--is it right for the federal government to outlaw child porn?

[gogogodzilla]

Does anyone here have a problem with the concept that the President has so much power that he can dictate to *YOU* what you may, or may not, look at on the internet?

For that is the essence of what this is about.

Be honest.

(And I do have a problem with that.

[Utmost Certainty]

It's both, actually. A government that remains aloof on such a basic moral issue as this is actually making the parents' job much harder.

Here's a question for you--is it right for the federal government to outlaw child porn?

This is an issue for states and localities to legislate and enforce. I don't want it under Federal jurisdiction.

[gogogodzilla]

Wow, so the REPUBLICAN primaries in Mississippi and Alabama have the same voters the general election in all 50 states?

[Utmost Certainty]

Does anyone here have a problem with the concept that the President has so much power that he can dictate to *YOU* what you may, or may not, look at on the internet?

I have a big problem with that, yes. I want the office of the presidency to be as inconsequential to my life as possible. Limited government, please.

[C. Edmund Wright]

Yes, and as we all know, most Catholics, like Nancy Pelosi, follow official Church Doctrine to the letter. /sarc

Bye

[gogogodzilla]

Except that Thomas Paine was agnostic (possibly a Deist, though).

(And if you don’t know who he is, or what he did for our nation...)

[af_vet_rr]

This is not hard. Obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment, but almost everything else is.

Muslims think that depicting Muhammed is obscene, more obscene than pornography - they threaten people with death over silly little cartoons. If you don't think they won't try and push that angle, think again.

[Antoninus]

This is an issue for states and localities to legislate and enforce. I don't want it under Federal jurisdiction.

How do states and localities enforce laws against child porn on the internet which crosses all state and national boundaries? Or are we China if we block overseas kiddie porn sites?

[af_vet_rr]

So you are telling me that any 12 year old could access images of two men eating each others feces when you were a kid? Spare me. I was a kid in the 1970s and things have changed completely since then in terms of access to porn. That same 12 year old kid can have thousands of images of the most sickening depravity known to man burned into his brain within 10 minutes.

How about parents not letting their kids on the internet without supervision? That's a lot easier than having the federal government install filtering software and creating new bureaucracy. And don't think that this wouldn't lead to more bureaucracy - thousands of fed jobs would be created to police the internet, determining what is and isn't obscene, which internet providers are in compliance, etc.

The internet is no different than any other form of mass media. Obscenity laws that were applied to mass media in the 1940s could easily be applied to the internet.

Actually it's very different because you and I interact on it every single day. I don't have a TV station broadcasting from my office, I don't have a radio station broadcasting whatever I choose to my neighbors, I don't have a printing press cranking out newspapers and magazines.

But I do have the internet, and what is obscene to a Muslim may not be obscene to me or you, but once that camel gets his nose in the tent, all kinds of things will start being labeled as obscene.

As I said, parents need to take responsibility for their children. This idea that the federal government needs to police the internet because parents won't monitor their own kids is ridiculous.

[gogogodzilla]

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.

- C.S. Lewis

[Utmost Certainty]

How do states and localities enforce laws against child porn on the internet which crosses all state and national boundaries? Or are we China if we block overseas kiddie porn sites?

If someone in a given US state or locality is distributing child porn, prosecute them under the regional laws there. This could be done more efficiently and effectively than the Federal Govt.

If the material is coming from overseas, local providers could block content from those domains.

Still, the best option is the filter content at the most local level—i.e., by blocking material you don't wish to see on your own computer. There are numerous softwares out there for doing this.

[Utmost Certainty]

Relevant article, in sharp contrast to Santorum's views:

In 1996, Gingrich — then the speaker of the House — resisted an attempt to fight porn on the Internet.

When the Senate began to push for the Communications Decency Act of 1996, Gingrich put up a roadblock that helped undermine the act, which was later struck down by the Supreme Court. The act, introduced by then-Sen. Jim Exon (D-Neb.), would have made indecent materials on the Internet illegal and made intermediaries — such as Internet service providers — responsible for policing content on the Web.

Some saw this effort as trying to apply rules of broadcast television to the Internet. Gingrich said then that the bill would not protect children but would impinge on the rights of adults. Gingrich pushed for an alternative that emphasized parental education.

"He should be credited with helping to promote a solution to come out against regulation that would have thwarted free speech and the vibrant Internet we know today,” said Jerry Berman, founder of the Center for Democracy and Technology, one of the first cyber liberties groups.

[trappedincanuckistan]

Gingrich is for porn! :)

[gogogodzilla]

As a duly charged member of the Internet Obscenity Board, I am here to inform you that a decision has been rendered... You are obscene.

(Defined by Obscenity statue 12.1.34 ~ 43, dated 1 April 2016)

Therefore, the government will now block any internet access to you.

Welcome to Saintorum-world. Where obscenity is defined by government bureaucrats.

[gogogodzilla]

And none of those laws where enacted by the federal government, but instead were at the local government levels.

And it was good.

Additionally, you are cited as posting obscenity once again.

[Gator113]

Why can’t we just check the air pressure and keep it tuned up? LOL

I am not into porn, but there seems to me that there are a few more important crises to deal with right now.

Santorum wants a Theocracy...... and THAT will not work in this country.

[Gator113]

there seems to me = it seems to me

Sorry, all this porn talk has me distracted.

[trappedincanuckistan]

`I am not into porn, but there seems to me that there are a few more important crises to deal with right now.`

I beg to differ. When the economy collapses, and I can`t feed my children I`ll be able to take solace in the fact that there`s no porn on the internet.

[AllAmericanGirl44]

I gotta say, Rick should stick to beating obama over the head regarding healthcare, with the latest news of 20 million losing their health care.

It’s not Rick’s job to play priest, pope, parent, and it DOES turn people off, big time.