Bush vs. Pr0n

[Crazy Cooter]

Snappy title huh?
Anyhow, in an effort to combat the accessibility of pr0n sites...

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/13657386.htm

The Bush administration on Wednesday asked a federal judge to order Google to turn over a broad range of material from its closely guarded databases.

...which include a request for 1 million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches from any one-week period.

The government indicated that other, unspecified search engines have agreed to release the information, but not Google.

Here's an idea.  Watch your kids.  If you wouldn't let your kids run around by themselves in a library that has an adult section, don't let them online unattended.  Problem solved.

[Crazy Cooter]

I think the email thing is worse anyhow  .

Much worse:

[PCtech]

Snappy title huh?
Anyhow, in an effort to combat the accessibility of pr0n sites...

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/13657386.htm

The Bush administration on Wednesday asked a federal judge to order Google to turn over a broad range of material from its closely guarded databases.

...which include a request for 1 million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches from any one-week period.

The government indicated that other, unspecified search engines have agreed to release the information, but not Google.

Here's an idea.  Watch your kids.  If you wouldn't let your kids run around by themselves in a library that has an adult section, don't let them online unattended.  Problem solved.

I agree, it's too much for the governmant to try to regulate all media, and I don't know that I trust them to decide what my kids should see and what they shouldn't.....if they can't give us straight answers on other things (Iraq, Phone Tapping, etc), why should we let them try to regulate what they see online (like they could do an effective job)....keep the kids off the PC when adults aren't there to look over thier shoulder.  Anytime my teenager wants to use our PC, when my wife and I aren't available to "babysit" him, we unplug the internet...no exceptions.  Kids hate it, but that's our job 

[Crazy Cooter]

No matter what the US does, there are a billion non-US sites that will do whatever they want anyhow.  US regulations are pretty much worthless on the internet.  I think these people just don't see beyond our borders.

[Crazy_Mack]

I agree.

The best solution is to monitor your kids usage.  Blocking software that's updated monthly, similar to virus protection, is another excellent solution.

I'm not against holding U.S. websites accountable for the way they make content available, but one shouldn't think that passing U.S. laws would resolve the problems abroad - plus with all the legal grey area and the nature of the internet, it will be difficult to construct a law that is both enforcable and legal.

[fredster]

Well it says here's why - "``The production of those materials would be of significant assistance to the government's preparation of its defense of the constitutionality of this important statute,'' government lawyers wrote, noting that Google is the largest search engine."

It's the continuation of a Clinton administration case from 1998 and before.

If you guys think you can monitor kids 24/7, you are like my momma. She though she monitored me too. Sweet woman. I never did tell her how badly she failed. But she tried none-the-less.

[ChadTower]

Yep... basically, my kids have a computer but not an internet connection.  They have never been on the internet.  I plan on keeping them off the net, in their own room anyway, until they're old enough that I figure that a little "sneaked" porn isn't going to show them anything they don't already suspect anyway.  Maybe 10 or 11, about the age when the older kids start to give it to you anyway.

[Dartful Dodger]

but one shouldn't think that passing U.S. laws would resolve the problems abroad - plus with all the legal grey area and the nature of the internet, it will be difficult to construct a law that is both enforcable and legal.

When you think they can't do it, that's when they do it.

When we heard they made a law in Ireland to ban smoking in all enclosed places, everybody in the US said, Ireland is one big ashtray, they'll never be able to enforce that...  now the Irish believe they like the idea.  How hard would it be to convince the Americans that the internet is a source for kiddie p0rn, identity theft, illegal downloading...

It wouldn't be hard at all for the US to cut it's people off from the evil World Wide Web, and create a United States Web.  And other countries would be bending over backwards to comply to the USW laws, just to keep the American consumer.

[USSEnterprise]

The best solution is to monitor your kids usage.  Blocking software that's updated monthly, similar to virus protection, is another excellent solution.

If a kid is knows how to use a computer, and is determined enough to see the nasty, he can get past any blocking software. I have helped a few good friends get past NetNanny and other blocking software in the past. It can be done

[brophog]

I seem to remember a people that fled oppression of others telling them what to think and do.

We called them Americans.

I give a rats ass for all of your fanboyism when it comes to idiot politicians, but dammit, individual freedom is what this country was supposed to be about.

[shmokes]

I'm with Chad on being a smart parent here and I think he's right on the money about how parents should approach filtering the infomation that reaches their kids.  I don't think there's a magic number when a kid should see tits or when he should find out Jesus Santa isn't real, but I think it should generally coincide with when your kid starts to be curious about it.  If your kid is curious about something -- pretty much anything -- he'll learn what he needs to know.  He can learn it with parental guidance or some other way, but he'll learn it.

As for the Government sanitizing the web you guys gotta be ---smurfing--- crazy.  How could anyone ever want that?  If you're a liberal, you should be a 1st Amendment person.  If you're a conservative you should be a "stay the ---fudgesicle--- off my back Government" person.  Let the market decide.  If there's a market for it let the porn stay on the internet.  If there's a market for filtering software, filtering software will (and has) emerge.

People who think that freedom of speech is all well and good except when people are being offensive have never given the bill of rights serious thought.  Speech or expression that the majority of people find agreeable doesn't need protection....it isn't threatened.  The WHOLE point of the 1st Amendment is to protect the your right to express unpopular views, to be offensive, to be disagreeable, without fear of being silenced. 

Anyway....America is a bunch of puritans and it's unhealthy.  We've turned sexuality and the human body into such a crazy taboo that people turn deviant while they think about it and want it and lust after it, but are near forced to pretend otherwise.  We end up with a society that's off the charts with rapists, child molestors, etc.  Lighten up.  It's just a penis and a vagina.

[missioncontrol]

I just plan on suing people to cover my faults in good parenting

[DrewKaree]

I'm with Chad on being a smart parent here and I think he's right on the money about how parents should approach filtering the infomation that reaches their kids.  I don't think there's a magic number when a kid should see tits or when he should find out Jesus Santa isn't real, but I think it should generally coincide with when your kid starts to be curious about it.  If your kid is curious about something -- pretty much anything -- he'll learn what he needs to know.  He can learn it with parental guidance or some other way, but he'll learn it.

As for the Government sanitizing the web you guys gotta be ---smurfing--- crazy.  How could anyone ever want that?  If you're a liberal, you should be a 1st Amendment person.  If you're a conservative you should be a "stay the ---auto-censored--- off my back Government" person.  Let the market decide.  If there's a market for it let the porn stay on the internet.  If there's a market for filtering software, filtering software will (and has) emerge.

People who think that freedom of speech is all well and good except when people are being offensive have never given the bill of rights serious thought.  Speech or expression that the majority of people find agreeable doesn't need protection....it isn't threatened.  The WHOLE point of the 1st Amendment is to protect the your right to express unpopular views, to be offensive, to be disagreeable, without fear of being silenced. 

Anyway....America is a bunch of puritans and it's unhealthy.  We've turned sexuality and the human body into such a crazy taboo that people turn deviant while they think about it and want it and lust after it, but are near forced to pretend otherwise.  We end up with a society that's off the charts with rapists, child molestors, etc.  Lighten up.  It's just a  and a .

[ChadTower]

Anyway....America is a bunch of puritans and it's unhealthy.  We've turned sexuality and the human body into such a crazy taboo that people turn deviant while they think about it and want it and lust after it, but are near forced to pretend otherwise.  We end up with a society that's off the charts with rapists, child molestors, etc.  Lighten up.  It's just a  and a .

Don't chuck that blame on us.  The people who founded America were this way and rather than evolve away from it, we further developed it into what it is today.  They were Puritans before they got here.

[Crazy Cooter]

So the next question would be:

How do we anonymize ourselves on the web?  I already block 99.9% of the cookies, but how do you disabled the IP sniffer, browser sniffer, and OS sniffer?  What other "stuff" can be blocked/read?

[shmokes]

Why in the name of god is pen1s and vag1na autocensored?  Those aren't even offensive words.  It's like autocensoring tongue or rectum or liver or arm.

[PCtech]

Why in the name of god is pen1s and vag1na autocensored?  Those aren't even offensive words.  It's like autocensoring tongue or rectum or liver or arm.

Tounge OR Rectum = ok
Tounge AND Rectum = censored
 

[Dartful Dodger]

If your kid is curious about something -- pretty much anything -- he'll learn what he needs to know.  He can learn it with parental guidance or some other way, but he'll learn it.

After Bush shuts down the website you use to find curious kids, you can move to pedophile freedom friendly France.

[mr.Curmudgeon]

you can move to pedophile freedom friendly France.

He may even consider becoming a Catholic priest.

All I know is, the Gov't can pry my porn from my COLD, DEAD (and sticky) HANDS!!!

mrC

[shmokes]

This has nothing to do with making child pornography illegal or catching internet predators.  Those things are already perfectly illegal.  This is about regulating regular, porn, the kind that made with naked adults and is (and should be) legal for adults to consume. 

[RayB]

In other related news, AOL, MSN, YAHOO and other search companies all caved in and turned over their records.

[Zero_Hour]

You know if it's that important to the current administration to protect the children from porn, maybe they should try and write some legislation that won't be struck down as unconstitutional (I have my doubts that is possible).

From the article:
``The production of those materials would be of significant assistance to the government's preparation of its defense of the constitutionality of this important statute,'' government lawyers wrote, noting that Google is the largest search engine.'

So now it is incumbent for the private sector to do the legwork for the government? Google has sound business reasons for not complying. I bet they can also afford better legal counsel than the feds too. I hope they win this fight.

[elvis]

Thank goodness I don't live in the US.  It's turning into an Orwellian novel over there.

[saint]

Dunno, comes that way by default.

Why in the name of god is pen1s and vag1na autocensored?  Those aren't even offensive words.  It's like autocensoring tongue or rectum or liver or arm.

[USSEnterprise]

are dick and ---auto-censored--- also autocensored?

[shmokes]

hah!  "jane" is autocensored.