Honk if you Love Porn

Dariana at Charmed and Dangerous tagged me. So here is a list of the top five things I'm good at doing backwards.... wait that's not what the tag was about.

"Don't shoot me Kelly, but you have been tagged over at my blog. It's a great cause to safeguard our kids on the net. I don't usually do these, but this one was worth  it."

I won't shoot you... Obviously Dari knows I have a biscuit.

Anyhow the tag that goes back to Blogger Power asks that I correspond with porn websites by asking them to stop the free tours.

Here is the request I am suppose to make.

Please require a password-protected login before allowing even free access to explicit adult content. We understand that selling porn is your business and we respect your right to make a legal living. But understand our legitimate concerns and work with us. You already have the “warning adult content” on your websites. Yet kids, who are not legal customers of your product, ignore the warning. So to prevent them from having direct access to explicit images, texts and sounds, the simplest way is to have a password-protected login. No more “free tours” before a visitor supplies basic information.

Ok Dari, don't get mad at me, remember... I have a gun.

I think this is pointless. Do I want children viewing porn? No. But this campaign is pointless. Google image search kissing and see what you get. Adult websites offering free tours can all shut their doors and lock them with deadbolts tomorrow and porn on the internet will still be just as available to curious kids as it is now.

Parents should protect their kids from the internet. The internet should not protect itself from kids. The internet is just like the real world. You wouldn't send your child out the front door and say "see ya later?" If you do it's because you feel comfortable with what you've taught them about how to be responsible, not talk to strangers, and what to do if they get lost.

I know being honest about this won't make me popular with the "there ought to be a law" crowd. But I think it's a pointless campaign and I don't think it should be up to websites to protect children from content.

I also feel like it's the camel's nose. Who gets to decide what is pornographic? How long before I get an email requesting that I password protect my site because it contains adult content and themes?

Some of the things I say here are not appropriate for children. Tony at Traveling Tales sent me an email to let me know that because he felt his son was old enough now, he could link my blog to his. I thought that was very responsible on his part.

Asking adult sites to password protect free content is irritatingly ignorant. A web campaign that would better serve the problem would be to educate parents and educational institutions on how to implement safeguards to prevent kids from accessing anything not approved for them to see.

These websites offer solutions and information about how to protect children from adult content online.

http://dailycupoftech.com/howto-help-protect-your-children-on-the-internet-in-progress/

http://familyfirst.net/internetguide/isp.htm

There are numerous products and services as well.

http://www.cyberpatrol.com/

http://www.optenetpc.com/

I'm tagging (challenging) 5 people to write their thoughts about internet porn. Anyone else who wants in, leave a comment and I'll add you to the list.

Flirty Kitty

Nickle & Dimes

Plumbutt

When We Were Liars

Rocky Jay

also participating:

All The Info

Comments

[Tony]

In 2000 I was teaching a class titled "Introduction To The Internet." It was an eight hour class that covered what e-mail was and how to set up a free account. How to search. How to surf. Really just the basics of the internet (and oh how that's changed in the last seven years) for people that were new to the net.

One thing I always pointed out was that there was porn on the internet. That there would always be porn on the internet. That no matter how hard you tried the only way to avoid porn on the internet was to simply not use the internet. I would then follow this with a list of some programs that could be used to help filter internet content.

The biggest thing I stressed with internet porn was that the parents in my class should take an active role in their kids internet surfing. What is little Johnny looking for? Who is little Suzy chatting with? Talk to your kids, educate your kids, WATCH your kids.

Don't yell at your kids "NO NO NO!" when they ask to use the internet. Talk to your kids. Help them understand what you feel is right and what is wrong. Then take an hour out of your busy day and surf the net with them.

[Charles]

Excellent post. Kids are going to do and see stuff they shouldn't, and putting up more restrictive measures will only slow them down -- it won't stop them. The internet is like TV - you have to police it yourself. I believe a simple solution to help end kids accessing porn is to have the computer in aan area of the house where at least one adult is usually present, such as the kitchen/family room.

[James Cooper]

Very well put. I am in complete agreement with you that it is the parent's responsibility to be aware of what their children access and make sure that they have an understanding of what they may encounter on the Internet and in the world at large.

Too many parents throughout the years have been quick to find scapegoats in everything but their own parenting and would rather shift responsibility for their children's welfare and education on other people. Passing the buck never accomplishes anything and sooner rather than later people have start being responsible or things will only go downhill.

[Joysie]

talking about kids, shocking study this week shows 1/3 of kids under 13 watch porn!

http://fly2.ws/boys-view-porn

[Mike]

Great tools exist - it is the reason I can't see any porn at work (Dam IT people) - so, yes, great tools exist.

If parents would only use them...

Kelly, did you bake those cookies or is someone just imaginative with photoshop? they are just great - I have a visual.

[Art Shepherd]

When the gingerbread house is a rockin'
don't come a knockin'
One of the last sanctuaries of childhood innocence gone!! I'll never be able to look at a gingerbread house again without an unsettling urge to peek in the window...who knew what was going on in there!
I guess we should have known...right?
Cookies have needs too apparently but I never realized that they LIKE to be eaten.
If one takes a bite is it then a menage a trois?

[Dariana]

Kelly, its almost ironic you tagged RockyJay, lol. I was featured as "Arse Of The Day There". Rocky and I are "buds". I love his site and in no way want to shut down internet porn sites as they all have the right to post or host whatever they please. I hardly call Rocky's site a Porn site though. What I do want to see, is webmasters insert something into their programming that would possibly help cut down on children being able to view these actual "poronography" sites. Granted, it is available many places on the net and will never totally be out of their reach, but if webmasters could just use some common sense (as many of them are parents too) I do think it would help a lot. Will this project stop it? No, but it may make people more alert. I value your opinion and thank you for taking time to at least share your views. And, in my line of work, I bet my gun is bigger than yours, lol.

[Dariana]

P.S. If you read all of my post on this at my blog and the one about MSNBC's To Catch A Predator series, then you know that I do not blame the internet for what kids see. I blame parents for not paying closer attention to what their kids are doing and for not setting down and talking to them. See my comments on both these posts at my blog. I have been on the net since 1992, and was programming computers for the FEDS in the late 70's before most people even owned a real computer. My kids grew up on them. I couldn't watch them every second and I didn't try, but I gurantee they were monitored a lot closer than most kids. My children are both parents now too and say they are grateful I cared that much. All kids will be curious, but we still need to talk to them with an open mind and remember what it was like to be their age.

[jca]

honk

[Liz]

Password protection won't solve anything since email addresses don't have your age attached. I agree with Mike--use software that blocks porn if you don't want your kids viewing it. You can't protect your kids from everything though. All parents should monitor their child's internet usage just as you would their free time and friends.

[M]

I'm waiting for someone to actually bubblewrap their child... First dodgeball, then teg, now internet porn, sheesh, no fun to be a kid anymore...

This is an old arguement that has been around and around. "Free tours" are a way to drum up business and if one place does not offer it, the business will go somewhere else where they can get a peek and know what they are buying. It has nothing at all to do with porn, and everything to do with money.

Your tagger obviously hasn't thought things through. It's about parents taking some responsibility for their kids.

Some parents sued Myspace because their daughter was sexually assaulted by a person she met on there. Very tragic, yes, but not the fault of Myspace. A judge agreed and threw out the case with a written opinion that the parents need to take responsibility for their daughter too.

Sorry for the rant, this is really a firebrand topic...

[Drizztdj]

I'll try to include a little more in-depth verbage about the wonders of internet lesbian fisting tomorrow.

As a parent however I would like the responsiblities to rest on my shoulders as to what I consider "explict" or "morally wrong" or "not appropriate". And would take full responsiblity for their actions.

Anyone who cops-out and blames MySpace/DonkeySex.com/VividVideos.com for the consequence of their child's actions relating to porn, needs to stop trying to pour a hot cup of McDonald's coffee in their lap to make a few bucks for their own inaction.

[Michael]

I couldn't agree more. It's one of my pet peeves... parents blaming everyone else but THEMSELVES for what their kids watch, see online, or trouble they get into. They whine that they don't have enough time to spend on their kids. Meantime they own 2 cars, both mom and dad work full-time jobs, and they live in a house that is bigger than what they need.

It's all about priorities, and with a lot of parents, their kids are NOT their first priority. With very few exceptions there is NO excuse for both mom and dad to be working full-time jobs.

[monique]

I finally posted about this. I kinda went in another direction. I'm the sure the men out there will disagree with me.