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.

[Atlantic Friend]

I long for the future War on Papers Thrown On The Pavement, War on Socks With A Hole In It, not to mention the War on Rude Cashiers.

[wtc911]

MYOFB = "hey, i didn't take the picture of that guy with the 12 year old...I'm just looking at it"....

[antiRepublicrat]

I T ' S    F O R    T H E    C H I L D R E N ! ! !

www.cheerleadersgettingspankedandlovingit.xxx

Running out to register that domain right now. :). The problem with an xxx TLD is what gets in there and what doesn't? Who decides? The government? Maybe it becomes overly inclusive and otherwise educational stuff gets put there (just as filtering software likes to block breast cancer sites). Then once the government has it all bottled up into one place, it blocks the whole TLD.

And even then anyone can put up sex sites at any of the country code TLDs since the US doesn't control those, so the whole thing's ineffective anyway. It'll only serve to give the pornographers more possible addresses and make whoever the registrar is a LOT of money.

[Trampled by Lambs]

Porn seems relatively harmless so long as it's performed by people who are adults and who are not abused or coerced somehow (drugs) into doing it.

It makes me sad however, to see beautiful girls (and some not so beautiful) who have such low self esteem that they are willing to make a living this way.

I will admit that I can be aroused by viewing porn.. not kiddie porn or the really sicko stuff... but I think most any man would be, whether they admit it or not. But I always find myself thinking, "thats someone's little girl.." If you like porn, would you still like it if it was your daughter performing it?

As I tell my (now adult) son, one bad thing about porn is, it can make you jaded about real sex. You may start to wonder why your wife doesn't scream and writhe and beg to do things you've only dreamed about. Real life just isn't like that, for the most part.

And I hate to tell you but your kids already do have unfettered access to porn unless you are very very vigilant and allow absolutely zero unsupervised internet access.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

MYOFB = "hey, i didn't take the picture of that guy with the 12 year old...I'm just looking at it"....

I noticed you went immediately for the heartstrings. Child pornography is a crime; rightly so. Your comments were directed at pornography in general, which includes Playboy and HBO's "Real Sex."

[Ignatz]

Running out to register that domain right now.

Lol!
The registrars already make money registering domains, and I don't begrudge them that. They provide a valuable service.
Is it a perfect solution? No. But it could be a start, and the same 1st Amendment that currently protects adult content providers using whatever TLD they now use would protect them if they were required to register under a specific TLD. It could even be to the provider's benefit, since their popups and other online advertising could be targeted to only those who's filtering software is set up to allow the assigned TLD. That, and it surely must cost them money to fight the court cases they alreay are routinely involved in.
The non-US TLD's would still be a problem, as you point out. I don't have an answer for that.....perhaps diplomatic pressure could be brought to bear, maybe as a condition of trade agreements or something.

gotta go to a meeting, back soon.

[Protagoras]

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

Hard to tell sometimes which is more harmful.

[Protagoras]

Wait, was that an argument for the legalization of prostitution I just heard? :)

Prostitution is already legal in some places.

[Aquinasfan]

It's a worthwhile cause. A PR campaign might be the best route to take since, with the advent of the pornography superhighway, law enforcement might be shovelling against the tide.

[Long Cut]

Yep, just what we need...more dollars spent trying to control and regulate the uncontrollable.

Paintings of sexual acts have been found on the walls of caves 7+tousand years old. Now, in the age of electronics and the Internet, a few FBI guys think they're going to eliminate it? All they'll do is drive it underground, where it will be totally unregulated.

For crying out loud, if you don't want to watch it, DON'T. if you don't want your kids to see it (in your home; they'll find a way, don't worry), then cancel cable, put blocking software on your computer, and keep a key to the DVD player. It's called responsibility for yourself.

IMHO, there is nothing wrong with watching attractive adults have sex. In fact, wanting to is perfectly normal and healthy. Why some people, because they do not wish to, must also take that freedom from everybody else, is still a mystery.

[Vision Thing]

Conservative values = MYOFB.

Your statement is more libertarian than conservative.

Apparently you didn't read Jim Robinson's Statement by the Founder, which you can access from the front page of the site:

As a conservative site, Free Republic is pro-God, pro-life, pro-family...

Your libertarian creed of pro-limited government falls much later in Jim's list. I leave it up to you to figure out how much precedence the owner of this site gives to myofb over pro-God and pro-Family.

[wtc911]

Yeah I went for the "heartstrings". Kiddie porn is the cold, ugly reality at the bottom of the slope. It can't be seperated without losing integrity.

[Vision Thing]

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

Hard to tell sometimes which is more harmful.

As a man sees, so he is.

[68 grunt]

Apparently you can't MYOFB.

[Vision Thing]

Apparently you can't MYOFB.

And you're a hypocrite for saying so.

And you're an idiot for not knowing you're a hypocrite.

[steve-b]

Nonsense. Being pro-God necessarily requires the rejection of any philosophy that would elevate the state into the role of God -- which is precisely what state-nannyism does.

[GSWarrior]

[68 grunt]

Name calling? My goodness. Another 'stupid one' exposed.

[Vision Thing]

Well, in your view, Reagan was no "conservative" because he let Nancy spend tax-payer resources on her Just Say No to Drugs program.

[Saturnalia]

Just a friendly fyi, if you are getting porn popups in unexpected places, chances are you have something installed that you do not want. I suggest Adaware from http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ to sweep your computer and look for installed garbage.