Bush administration wants mandatory website labeling
From Boing Boing
Snip from a CNET News.com report by Declan McCullagh:
Web site operators posting sexually explicit information must place official government warning labels on their pages or risk being imprisoned for up to five years, the Bush administration proposed Thursday.
A mandatory rating system will “prevent people from inadvertently stumbling across pornographic images on the Internet,” Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said at an event in Alexandria, Va.
The Bush administration’s proposal would require commercial Web sites to place “marks and notices” to be devised by the Federal Trade Commission on each sexually explicit page. The definition of sexually explicit broadly covers depictions of everything from sexual intercourse and masturbation to “sadistic abuse” and close-ups of fully clothed genital regions.
Link.
Many responses brewing, including this one from the Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA):[W]e vigorously oppose an added measure included in the draft bill which would require Web sites with sexually explicit material — material that is legal, but potentially harmful to minors — to use a government-mandated labeling system. ICRA strongly believes that self- regulation of legal Internet content leads to the best balance between the free flow of digital content and the protection of children from potentially harmful material.
And ISPs are squarely in the crosshairs on this one. Snip from Red Herring article:
“The investigation and prosecution of child predators depends critically on the availability of evidence that is often in the hands of Internet service providers,†he said. “This evidence will be available for us to use only if the providers retain the records for a reasonable amount of time.
“Unfortunately, the failure of some Internet service providers to keep records has hampered our ability to conduct investigations in this area,†he added.
Mr. Gonzales said he has asked experts at the DOJ to examine the issue and provide him with recommendations. He plans to ask the heads of the major ISPs to cooperate with the effort.
posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:37:51 AM
A response from Steve at Global Adult Media:
A mandatory labeling will in no way get parents to get off thier butts and change the settings of internet explorer, nor will it stop youngsters from using other browsers who’s settings have not been set to exclude adult content. A majority of online adult content is already rated either by ICRA, or has already been determined to be adult by the search engines, and or the various parental blocking software out there such as net nanny.
The biggest hole in the internet porn to youngsters is the parents not excersising control over the technology and tools that so many younger people have access to these days. As long as younger people have the desire to view pornographic images or hear cuss words in music, they will find ways to access it. A voluntary or government mandated labeling system will only make it easier to search for and find adult content. In theory I am sure the big wigs in Washington think that mandatory labeling will make it easier for parents to filter out adult content by setting controls in browsers, or at least add a few points to thier polls for “doing something about the porn problem”, but in reality, most kids know more about the technology than thier parents, and ways around filtering software and even credit card verified age verification systems will be traded amongst youngsters, while parents live in a daydream of the government taking care of thier kids for them.
The bottom line is that there are many suggested methods for curbing pornographic exposure to kids, but parents rarely pay enough attention to employ any of them. One thing that is often left out of the discussion is the fact that making porn, drugs and “dirty music” or television shows so appealing to kids, is that they are often told these things are bad, and for adults only, which makes them more curious and increases the desire to learn more. Taking the mystery out of two people having sex by discussing those issues with kids could actualy curb the desire for porn more than all the methods currently available.
Of course you can keep your kids tvs and computers in the living room, and limit use to when there is a responsible adult in the area, as well as a host of other things, but making the subject more taboo is only going to make it worse.
With the possiblity of a government mandated labeing law, one can only hope that there is enough time for webmasters to implement it, and certainly the thousands of adult internet sites that are created and parked outside of the U.S. borders will certainly thumb thier nose at this silly regulation.
An enterprising start up company could create a search engine based around the label, and certainly drive a good chunk of traffic away from Google and into the “adult side of the internet” that so many people are looking for everyday.
ICRA Responds to DOJ’s Child Porn Legislation
By Gretchen Gallen
WASHINGTON – On the heels of U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ speech before the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children outlining his plans to eradicate child pornography, the Internet Content Rating Association has weighed in and it isn’t pleased.
While applauding Gonzales for his efforts to solve the increasing problem of child sexual exploitation through his proposed Child Pornography and Obscenity Prevention Amendments of 2006, ICRA was critical of the part of the legislation that calls for a government-mandated labeling system for all adult websites.
ICRA, a nonprofit organization working to protect children from explicit adult material while preserving free speech on the Internet, also warned the Justice Department that if the proposed bill is passed, it will only cause U.S.-based webmasters to move offshore to avoid the “well intentioned, but fatally flawed law.â€
The broad reach of Gonzales’ proposed initiative would require that all website operators include warning labels on their homepages and that all sexually explicit material is – at a very minimum – a click away. And while many website owners already do this, the labeling requirement would be enforced by the government and failure to comply could result in stiff penalties.
Instead, ICRA is proposing self-regulation as a way to prevent children from inadvertently becoming exposed to explicit sexual content. ICRA also claims that a nationally mandated system like the one proposed by Gonzales cannot guarantee international compliance.
“ICRA applauds the efforts of Attorney General Gonzalez to combat child pornography, which is abhorrent and utterly illegal,†Stephen Balkam, CEO of ICRA, said in a statement. “However, we vigorously oppose an added measure included in the draft bill that would require websites with sexually explicit material – material that is legal, but potentially harmful to minors – to use a government-mandated labeling system. ICRA strongly believes that self- regulation of legal Internet content leads to the best balance between the free flow of digital content and the protection of children from potentially harmful material.â€
ICRA instead is proposing the use of its own self-labeling system that is applicable in any language. The system also calls on parents to use filtering software to allow or disallow access to websites based on the information declared in the label.
ICRA’s self-labeling system is supported by AOL, AT&T, British Telecom, CompTIA, Microsoft, RuleSpace, T-Online, and Verizon.
Gonzales’ draft bill also proposes that by law, Internet service providers would be required to report the presence of child pornography on their systems. If they fail to do so, they could be looking at fines of up to $300,000 per violation.
At press time, the Justice Department had not responded to ICRA.
“We look forward to sharing our ideas with the Justice Department and together, we can work to prevent and punish illegal child exploitation while allowing legal access to adult material and also protecting children from potentially harmful material,” Balkam said.