Won’t SOMEBODY think of the children?
Because legislating federal databases full of the pr0n will keep kids safe and pure for all time. Or so Senate Democrats, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Max Baucus of Montana, seem to believe. I am a bit skeptical.
Read the article link here (pops)
First, as I’ve pointed out on this very blog, those who do this for a living as a business ALREADY label all our stuff. It’s called a Meta Tag. And software exists to filter on these special tags that the honorable gentlemen apparently are still unaware of - perhaps a little research before they next decide to pony up a ‘vote grabbing’ piece of legislation would be in order? I don’t want kids on my site - not JUST because I don’t think they need to see this stuff until they’re older, but (for the purely pragmatic reason) because THEY DON’T HAVE CREDIT CARDS. And therefore can’t buy anything, effectively wasting my bandwidth (and time). Goodness forbid a parent or teacher ever monitor what their kids are doing online - the computer and television are the great babysitters of our age. Look at the average waist size of our kids if you want proof! And if you don’t have time to monitor their usage might I respectfully suggest that you not make a computer available when you’re not around? Here’s an idea - unplug the power cord from the computer and monitor and take them to work with you! They fold up nice even in the smallest purse… no power for the computer = no nasty internets sneaking up and mugging your kids when you’re not looking (or too busy to be bothered).
Second, good gravy, how effective would a Federal “pr0n database” BE? Let’s review a recent example of our government’s databases in action… how about no-fly lists? Yeah THOSE have been a rousing success. Updated snappily and oh, no one EVER gets listed on them incorrectly.
*rolls eyes*
And dragging ICANN into it? You might as well admit that you don’t think the legislation will pass and it’s only reason for existence is to grab you some fast votes in the fall (”I was tough on pr0n!”) because ICANN has already made it perfectly clear they have no interest in policing the internet (hence the defeat of the proposed .xxx domain) Who exactly is going to sit down and open every page on the internet and then submit it to a database?
Oh yeah, that’s right. Nobody. Because manually it would take literally HUNDREDS of years to do, even if we weren’t generating millions of pages per day. And any automated solution would #1 make mistakes, and #2 ALSO take a long time to run. Good grief it takes Google WEEKS just to update THE NEW STUFF.
Well, now that this is out of my system, I’ll get to the point. This proposed legislation is a bald-faced attempt at vote grabbing this autumn and nothing more. No one with an ounce of sense would really think it would get voted through, not even the honorable gentlemen who proposed it. And THAT sort of ‘politics as usual’ is why the country is in the state it is today - politicians are busier figuring out how to win their next election than (gasp) actually trying to DO anything TANGIBLE for their constituents. Maybe after this one doesn’t go through they’ll have time to propose a “no flag burning” law before they head to the polls.
Sheesh. I think I need an aspirin.
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