U.S. declares War on Porn

Baltimore Sun ^ | April 5, 2004 | Laura Sullivan

[Quick1]

WASHINGTON -- Lam Nguyen's job is to sit for hours in a chilly, quiet room devoid of any color but gray and look at pornography. This job, which Nguyen does earnestly from 9 to 5, surrounded by a half-dozen other "computer forensic specialists" like him, has become the focal point of the Justice Department's operation to rid the world of porn.

In this field office in Washington, 32 prosecutors, investigators and a handful of FBI agents are spending millions of dollars to bring anti-obscenity cases to courthouses across the country for the first time in 10 years. Nothing is off limits, they warn, even soft-core cable programs such as HBO's long-running Real Sex or the adult movies widely offered in rooms of major hotel chains.

Department officials say they will send "ripples" through an industry that has proliferated on the Internet and grown into an estimated $10 billion-a-year colossus profiting Fortune 500 corporations such as Comcast, which offers hard-core movies on a pay-per-view channel.

[Quick1]

Interesting. Hopefully it works as well as that "War on Drugs" thing we had a while back.

[Hunble]

I like porn....

[thoughtomator]

If it does, every schoolkid in America will have ready access to porn.

[Support Free Republic]

Rank	Location	Receipts	Donors/Avg		Freepers/Avg		Monthlies
35	South Dakota	105.00	2	52.50			35.00	3

Thanks for donating to Free Republic!

Move your locale up the leaderboard!

[cyborg]

Another government tax boondoggle. Unless it's children, who CARES?

[AdamSelene235]

We might as well go all the way:

The Prohibition Party

[Pan_Yans Wife]

I think the problem may be that they have to look in order to find the child pornography, so all falls under their gaze.

[maxamillion]

Me too...

[mylife]

They can stop it and shouldnt try to unless there are innocents involved,

BUT there should be some regulation on the dispersal of porn to try to keep it from readily falling into the hands of kids.

Kids are gonna find it, but it shouldnt show up unsolicited.

In the old days a kid wasnt gonna walk into the porn shop and thats the way it should be.

[mylife]

thats they cant stop it

[cyborg]

Sheesh. Well I guess someone has to do it. I saw child porn once. When I refreshed the page to get the URL to forward to the FBI the page was already taken down. Unreal.

[quantim]

Lam Nguyen's job is to sit for hours in a chilly, quiet room devoid of any color but gray and look at pornography.

Like so many federal jobs, a waste of time and a total waste of tax dollars.

[cyborg]

Parents really need to be vigilant. I agree pop up ads and the like should not show up unsolicited. Incidentally, I got a XXX pop up while visting the Abercrombie and Fitch catalog *LOL*

[breakem]

Our government IN ACTION or is that 1 word?

[mylife]

I saw plenty of dirty pics as a kid, but it didnt just show up in my reasearch as I was doing homework on the computer

[Andyman]

In a short time we went from a President who viewed it to a President who fights it.

[Hunble]

Today, if you get exposed to child pornography, you can bet that there is some Government employee posting it.

This is how they justify their jobs.

[antiRepublicrat]

spending millions of dollars to bring anti-obscenity cases to courthouses across the country for the first time in 10 years.

It's not like they have anything better to do with those millions, like catch kidnappers and kiddie porn producers, stop terrorists, etc. I'm sure they'll be just as successful as they were with the WoD, and maybe even manage to drive the business underground, depriving the government of tax revenue and increasing the likelihood of women getting abused.

[oceanperch]

Wonder what the job criteria is to watch porn all day.

Do the men get debriefed at the end of the day?

Does it lesson their desires for their spouse in the private life, like eating chocolate untill you get sick?

I think this is a good job for women not men. We would be more objective.

[cyborg]

There are plenty of good internet filter programs and there are internet dial ups who screen XXX pics from their servers. I suggest every parent have either a filter program or get server based filtered company thing. There is a lot of porno out on the Internet but I am skeptical anytime the government expresses an 'interest' in internet policing.