What is the best way to stop underage youth from viewing pornographic material online on a national level?

Question

What should the government do about this pandemic?

Answer 1

As one who has concerns in this area, I have come up with a few things that I think are essential.

First, right now, there are thousands of pornographic websites that give you plenty of "free looks" before you even enter the site, prove your age, provide a credit card, etc. I think the gov't should make it mandatory that ALL pornographic websites must have a "plain home page"--that is, the opening page is devoid of any sexual images, etc. Otherwise, youth can visit such sites and get an eyeful without any need to actually "enter" the site.

Second, I would make it mandatory for all current and future porn websites to end in ".sex." For instance, if there is a website named "porn.com," it would become, "porn.com.sex." This would allow EASY filtering (i.e., a computer could be programmed to simply not allow any access to websites with .sex endings). Something similar was was voted down by an ignorant Congress. But it did not go far enough. It did not require ALL porn sites to end in .sex. That is the only way to be able to automatically segregate that sort of stuff from other internet material.

Third, I would make failure to comply a BIG DEAL. Any website in the world that showed such images without following the rules, would be fined a tremendous amount of money. Further, search engines should bear some of the responsibility--if a website like that is lurking out there, then Yahoo and Google, once alerted, should block it from their search engine.

Fourth, I would give tax incentives to search engines to NOT show pornographic websites. That is, if a person wanted to see such, they would have to actually TYPE IN the website address, and not just do a search on "sex," etc.

Lastly, I would get LIBRARIES out of the porn business by making it clear that because children are in libraries, they cannot permit pornography on an computers the are visible to innocent passersby. Period. It is an outrage that my tax dollars are used so that libraries can ensure that any pervert can come to the library and view whatever trash he/she wishes to view--sometimes in view of children.

Answer 2

This is clearly a difficult thing to address.

Obviously, parents should be responsible for knowing what their children are doing. There are plenty of inexpensive ways to protect your children on your home PC.

I think it might be helpful if all pornographic sites on the internet ended in a specific extension or set of extensions such as .XXX, .POR, etc. This would make filtering these sites out a little easier, although it might be nearly impossible to do this at this time since sites are already formed and doing business.

Our libraries also should not allow this material on their PC's. I know many do and this simply should not be tolerated if the library is publicly funded.

I know many sites have age verification systems on them and this is yet another way businesses can help keep minors out.

I'm not sure if the government should really do anything at this point. Everytime the government gets involved in anything it usually gets screwed up worse than it was before.

Answer 3

make it so you have to type in a credit card number to verify age only. maybe have it appear on the statements, perhaps, to catch kids who stole their parents'.

It's pretty bad I agree for kids to view adult material. The stuff out there isn't your Dad's playboy it can really warp people and mess kids up. I'm fine with consenting adults viewing it (though I think most is gross) but the lame "I am 18" click to enter boxes aren't actually working. They're a joke. What 15 yr old boy is going to be honest if he wants to see nudity and sex? Pornography is the worst teacher of sex.
add:
people on here seem to think that simply because one doesn't want minors to view porn means you are uptight. That really isn't the case. I am all for comprehensive sex education and parents growing a pair and actually talking to their kids about sex. Porn can be harmful when kids aren't old enough to process it. Porn is really not the healthiest outlet for burgeoning sexuality.

Answer 4

I don't think it can or ever will be stopped. Young minds are filled with too much curiosity not to mention the constant pressure that comes with living in the society that we live in today. Sex is everywhere you look in a sense. The government can't do anything to change this and there really isn't anything we can do either.

Answer 5

If we knew that the world would be a better place. Somewhat. Thing is they have tried to do some stuff but it's always so technical and they parents have to learn how to use the stuff and they don't really tell them how to do that. And some don't even know the stuff exists. And kids are hecka smart they pick through that stuff faster than you can put it up. They like lil computer viruses for the protection.LOL

Answer 6

I don't know. How can you regulate it? People have tried with credit cards and that didn't work. I don't know. I wish I did. It is a horrible problem and it is only getting worse. I believe in freedom of speech but come on, enough is enough.
Do you have any ideas as you have obviously been thinking about this for a while?

Answer 7

Parents should take responsibility for their kids. It is not the responsibility of school or the government to raise your children. Unfortunately, there are too many people that are physically adults that lack the discipline or moral aptitude to make a good decision. Allowing your kids to drink, smoke dope, or watch porno is not the making of quality parenting.

P

Answer 8

I don't know -- castration, maybe? Cold showers? Steel drawers that constrict the genitals and make erection painful? Tell adolescents old wives' tales, like that masturbation and pornography-viewing cause pimples/infertility/hair loss/weight gain/blindness/dementia? Or perhaps we should just do away with the First Amendment already and put a lid on that whole Internet thing?

Look, whether or not you believe it's fundamentally dirty for one human being to desire another unless they are married, you've got to admit we have bigger problems to attend to.

Answer 9

I gotta agree with larmarine on this one, educate parents, so if they want to, they can prevent their kids from veiwing it. I'd rather not have the government control every aspect of my life honestly. I really don't see adolesants veiwing adult material as that big of a problem, they'll never get pregnet or get an std from their hand, lol.

Answer 10

Not a damn thing. The only time goverment should regulate porn is when it involves underage children. Kids like porn so what, sex and **** never hurt anyone. The goverment trying to regulate porn is about a much of a waste of tax payer money is the war in iraq