[wizzkid89]

I was on the ask me help desk site for teens and I was looking for new posts to help with when I saw the ads on the page they went as such:

CUTE BLACK GUYS: Date Sexy Black Singles. Join Tens of Thousands of Black Singles.

Cute Young Guy: Meet men with similar for dating & more. Go search free.

Hot Men: Great Deals on Hot Men Shop on eBay and SAVE!

Outsports: Gay sports with jocks, gay athletes stories, pics and more.

There are so many things wrong with those ads it's not even funny, and let me get this out of the way I don't have a problem with gay men, black men, whatever I do not care. My problem is that young teens come on here for help not for vices. You can make the argument that they can get it anywhere if they can find this place they could find that, but that is my point exactly the internet is out of control. I work on computers and help with software sometimes( I don't work at a business it's just a hobby call me crazy!) and I know systems are built that can prevent this. I know personally how easy it is to get pornography on the internet and I have heard of young kids their ages still 1 digit doing it and they should told that it is wrong and that the internet is a tool not xxx show room. Either way my question is that what is your idea of about censoring the internet and making it tougher for kids to get to porn, violence, and other things they are not allowed to hear or see? Also, would you agree if the only way for them not see it was for you not see it also?

My opinion even though the argument for free speech will inevitably find its way here, do you really want your kids to be exposed to this. The only problem is the more and more kids know more about the internet and computers than their parents. I hope that windows will start to ship software like parental controls they have on TV for there new operating system "project longhorn" I believe it could benefit a lot of parents and not only kids because they won't have to start thinking about sex earlier than they have to. It just saddens me that libraries allow kids to look at porn, maybe not allow but they don't stop if by restricting sites. Like in my high school they have banned sites from ever being able to pop up by shutting down certain web addresses, such as kids can't go on myspace, or use text messaging such as aim, and they can't go on to blogs because of the server, which is something I wish the government would allow or at least let windows make a software or chip that can regulate this information on a small scale so people can at least use it in their homes.

[Fr_Chuck]

Yes, I get about 3 or 4 of the African inheretence scams every day in my email. I get pop up adds for sex aids and drugs.

On my own Yahoo church group message boards we get dating for Christians from time to time.

But then in real life there are con men who try to sell you bad stock, call you on the phone and ask for donations for fake police groups.

Men hang around malls and fast food places to "hit" on young girls.

So on the internet where people don't have to show their face, it is much easier to temp people on all sorts of scams.

I guess out of ten purchases on Ebay I have been cheated 3 times.
And I have been told by many this is average.

So is it bad, you sure bet it is.

It is un expected, sadly no

[wizzkid89]

I totatlly agree, yet I write for acknowledgement because once it is acknowledged it can be changed.

[fredg]

Hi,
Congress recently voted down a bill that would either limit, or control Porn on the internet.
Start writing letters to Senators and others. Things will only change when the voters of this country wake up.
I agree completely with you about all this on the internet, free to anyone. It should be controlled by the Federal Gov't; but, the bill was voted down.

[Curlyben]

Hi,
Congress recently voted down a bill that would either limit, or control Porn on the internet.
Start writing letters to Senators and others. Things will only change when the voters of this country wake up.
I agree completely with you about all this on the internet, free to anyone. It should be controlled by the Federal Gov't; but, the bill was voted down.

Unfortunately Fred no ONE government has control of the internet. You can ban porn in the USA but then you'll just drive them to other, more open countries (Eastern Europe).


Look at the CAN-SPAM act, has this really reduced the amount of spam mail fly about?

The only way to really stop these activities is through user education and you have as much chance of Elvis doing a come back tour!

[fredg]

Unfortunatly Fred no ONE government has control of the internet. You can ban porn in the USA but then you'll just drive them to other, more open countries (Eastern Europe).


Look at the CAN-SPAM act, has this really reduced the amount of spam mail fly about ??

The only way to really stop these activities is through user education and you have as much chance of Elvis doing a come back tour !!

It would be very good for America, if we could ban porn on the internet in the US. But, it would remain to be seen; about other countries getting more and more of it. Americans should begin to realize that we must start looking out for ourselves more, for a change.

[Curlyben]

Consider the facts.
Porn, in all its forms, accounts for around 75% of the TOTAL internet !
It is a multi BILLION dollar industry!
Ideas to limit it (.XXX domain) have already been shot down by the GWB's office even tho' everybody thinks it's a great idea (Story here )

Now, as with most things in the USA, money can buy a lot of political influence, so how can America really stop it?

[ScottGem]

I was on the ask me help desk site for teens and I was looking for new posts to help with when I saw the ads on the page they went as such:.

Hi Whiz,
Several comments here. First on free speech. There is NO free speech issue here. The First Amendment prohibits the enacting of laws abridging free speech. But that does not affect a private organization. AskMeHelpDesk is owned by private individuals. They have the right to regulate what is posted here. They have established a set of posting guidelines about what can and can't be posted. The posts that you describe are ads and are not allowed. They should be reported immediately. There is an icon to the Right of the Rate This Post link that you can use to report such garbage. They will be removed.

In your note you refer to systems that can prevent it. I'm not sure what you are referring to. The Internet was built to be free flowing. It is not controlled by any one entity (country, company, individual, etc.). This is both one of its greatest strengths and one of its greatest weaknesses. There is no current way to implement the controls you refer to.

A lot of what you complain about is the fault of parents. The controls you refer to should be the province of parents. Young children should not be allowed on the Net without supervision. Older children need to demonstrate responsibility before being allowed unsupervised.

The answer is not wholesale blocking of specific areas or features.

Check out Ben's responses here. One of the ideas that has been promoted is the establishment of a "red light district" for sexually oriented material. Creating a top level domain of xxx would allow parents and organizations ro simply block that domain. Of course it would mean the entire world getting behind this and establishing laws that punished firms for using non xxx domains for such material.

Censorship is not the answer. Censorship only opens a Pandora's box. The question of who chooses what can be censored and what can't is investing too much power in those arbiters.

There were documented instances of people researching breast cancer, but being shut out of valid web sites because of the use of the word "breast".

Scott<>

[ScottGem]

It would be very good for America, if we could ban porn on the internet in the US. But, it would remain to be seen; about other countries getting more and more of it. Americans should begin to realize that we must start looking out for ourselves more, for a change.

Fred,
Do you understand what you are saying? Are you that naïve?

What good does the US banning porn sites do when the Internet is INTERNATIONAL? Do you have any idea how many WEB sites are hosted outside the US and therefore not subject to its laws? Its like state gun control laws. What good is a restricitve law in one state, when someone can just drive an hour or so and buy a gun in another state?

And if you want to talk about Americans looking out for themselves, what about the economic ramifications? Do you have any idea of how much porn contributes to the US economy in the form of jobs and taxes? There is clearly a market for sexually oriented web sites. The best solution is to regulate it and segregate it so only those who want it can get to it.

Scott<>

[Curlyben]

Excellent Points thanks for expanding on mone ;)

[Nez]

A good discussion going here.Unfortunatly,or depending on your point of view,the net is a "free for all",with anyone with a laptop,uplink capabilities,say a truck in some distant desert,a cheap satellite link,a download to a sympathetic isp,and your in business.
There is plenty of parental control software on the market,but as we all know,kids are generally very good at getting around this,so unless you limit their access time,or supervise them 24/7,you could have problems.The isp which I use,gather information periodically,for "statistical purposes",on what exactly your doing on-line.This is in conjunction with the police,and security services.However,if someone goes to a porn site,or "dodgy" political views site,it doesn't mean that fifty armed cops will burst into your house.This doesn't mean that my isp doesn't trust it's customers however. :D
If like me you stick to forum sites such as this,and others,basic news sites,sports,and of course the weather,then you've nothing to worry about.I'm a news and tech junkie anyway.
If you suddenly had a situation where it was against the law to go to certain sites,oh,let's say decadent western news sites,as one huge country is telling it's people not to do,then you will end up with an "underground" market.That,in my opinion,is when things could get dangerous.
No,the net will rumble on,broadband will become a way of life,and in ten years,or less,all the dross,despicable,and undisirable sites will hopefully be frozen out of the market,as the public at large,just stick to the "normes" of life,and leave the criminal flotsum stewing in some jail,with a hefty fine,and sentence over their heads.

[NeedKarma]

Ads, what ads? :) Get Firefox and Adblock - you'll never see these ads.

[wizzkid89]

Sorry about the corny jokes I just feel that we could lighten things up around here, I don't think we need to try and insult anyone else or try and put them down, this is a fourm for debate not fighting.

Anyway, I think it would be very easy for windows to include their own type of net nanny when they start to ship out their new operating system, that way parents can set a password on it and boom it's all over. It would make a life a lot easier if the parents didn't have to go out and buy it, but rather just a normal program like windows media player. Either way, we should all know that free doesn't always mean free, yes you can access the internet but that goes through your service provider which has it's own server, which could then restrict web sites. It could be like a subsription type thing were you sign up for it the it blocking sites or you don't.

[Curlyben]

An interesting idea Whizz, but as every one knows there are two ways to do things; Mirco$oft's and the right way.

How many people go out and buy CD burning software because the windows one just doesn't cut it ?

Also the problem with this is, that Net Nanny like programs have been proved to be ineffectual at the job they where designed to do. Yes granted they block the most obvious content, but they are easy to circumnavigate.

After all the biggest smut peddlar on the net is the great Google and you imagination ;)

[ScottGem]

Anyways, I think it would be very easy for windows to include their own type of net nanny when they start to ship out their new operating system, that way parents can set a password on it and boom it's all over. It would make a life a lot easier if the parents didn't have to go out and buy it, but rather just a normal program like windows media player. Either way, we should all know that free doesn't always mean free, yes you can access the internet but that goes through your service provider which has it's own server, which could then restrict web sites. It could be like a subsription type thing were you sign up for it the it blocking sites or you don't.

Um, Its been there for a long time. Its called Content Advisor and it don't work!

Consumer Reports did a report on WEB filters a while back and found them to be, at best, only 60% effective. Again I use the example of someone doing research on Breast cancer. Either they will find a lot of porn sites or they will be blocked from legitimate sites.

Scott<>

[ScottGem]

I heard this on the radio this morning, though I mssed some of the details and can't find an article about it.

From what I recall it seems a NJ school (I believe a jewish school) has not only banned use of the Internet on their premises, but has banned their students from using it period! Parents have cancelled Internet subscriptions.

While I agree that the Net can be a dangerous place, this seems like throwing out the baby with the bath water (I'm just full of clichés, aren't I ;)?). Should people stop driving because of the high rate of automotive fatalities?

Gimme a break!

Scott<>

[fredg]

Hi,
I am all for the NJ school! Sometimes, drastic measures must be taken to get action. In this case, canceling your ISP.
Money is the bottom line for any business, unless of course, it's non-profit; then they also need donations sometimes.
For example; If everyone stopped driving cars, the oil companies would be "begging" us to drive again, maybe even paying us for a change to get gas!
I know this sounds absurd about the gas, but could it happen...
Porn on the net is getting absolutely out of hand, and eventually, there might be a solution. But, for the present time, someone has to take a stand! Maybe this is the start of something really good.

[NeedKarma]

If I banned the internet for my kid I believe he would be at a serious disadvantage later in life. The web can be great source of knowledge and entertainment when one does not spent all their time on its dark side. I will continue to monitor my kid's usage as they are young by having the computer in an open area. When they get old enough they hopefully will have the morals and good judgement to make their own decisions. But I'm not going to ban it - it will only make them more curious to see it when they are away from home. Jesus man, they have had porn mags for decades and we aren't raving sex perverts (I speak for myself).

[ScottGem]

Hi,
I am all for the NJ school! Sometimes, drastic measures must be taken to get action. In this case, canceling your ISP.
Money is the bottom line for any business, unless of course, it's non-profit; then they also need donations sometimes.
For example; If everyone stopped driving cars, the oil companies would be "begging" us to drive again, maybe even paying us for a change to get gas!
I know this sounds absurd about the gas, but could it happen....
Porn on the net is getting absolutely out of hand, and eventually, there might be a solution. But, for the present time, someone has to take a stand! Maybe this is the start of something really good.

What a short-sighted, reactionary piece of garbage! Please Fred, call your ISP and cancel your Internet access. Do Not Pass GO, Do Not Collect $200. Do it immediately!

I'm just finishing a book (The Lazarus Vendetta, part of Robert Ludlum's Covert-One series). The premise of this book, is the character calling himself Lazarus believes that technology has polluted the earth. His solution is to kill off most of humanity to cleanse the planet. Sounds like you would agree with him!

There are so many things wrong with this its hard to know where to start. You know I spend a lot of time on the Net. I rarely encounter porn. Almost all the porn I do encounter is in spam, not coming across it when I surf. I agree that spam is getting out of hand, but spam is a by product of the Net, not the Net itself.

The point is there is so much good that comes from use of the Internet. I could spend hours just listing some of them. To ban it because of one of the dangers is stupidity. And what right does this school have to dictate what students do on their own time or what their parents do? If my daughter's school had ever tried something like that I would be at the next shool board meeting raising one hell of a stink.

And what would really happen if people stopped driving enough to really affect the oil company's bottom lines? Well first they would need to lay off workers. Gas stations would shut down, putting more people unemployed. Car manufacturers would have to cut back. Governments would lose tax revenue, causing everything else to become more expensive. The society we live in is way too interconnected (not necessarily a bad thing) for things to operate in a vacuum. There are almost always ramifications, some far freaching.

Getting back to this school. Are these parents going to be able to drive their kids to the library whenever they need to do research? My daughter missed almost 2 weeks of school recently because of an illness. She was able to keep up with her classes by e-mailing her instructors. These students wouldn't be able to do that.

In other posts you have gone on about American Values. Well the primary and most cherished American value is individual freedom! Do you deny that? If not, how can you applaud an action that clearly and arbitraily deprives people of that most cherished American value?

Open your mind Fred! Try thinking about what you are saying instead of posting such drivel.

Scott<>

[wizzkid89]

Great post, your right mostly everything is interconnected, and because of that we have to take the good with the bad.