I completely agree that people should watch their children.

Unfortunately, many people do not, and expect the government to do it for them. Even worse, politicians want the votes of those people and thus indeed try to do it for them, thereby limiting adults' access to adult materials. It sucks, but we end up paying for other people's irresponsibility.

I think Germany is doing that now

Correct answer. :thumbsup

I already mentioned that it isn't being done now because there are no filtering methods accurate enough to only filter adult.... they always end up also filtering out medical sites and such.

However, when filtering methods improve, the position of the courts may well change.

Lots of post that blame parents but the parents can't control what children do in public schools and libraries.
Many schools and libraries argue that children have a right to view porn or anything else that is on the internet.

:Graucho



We showed weakness, and the weak are beaten.
Valdimir Putin

Here is the solution, it is so simple, it's almost stupid:

Microsoft do a patch for IE that adds content ratings, just like it has security ratings now. Adult sites add a classification:mature in their meta tags (this could become a law). Then adults that want theiir kids not to see porn just have to turn it on and enter a password that a surfer would need to hit an adult site. Also, IE could block any other browsers on that PC from having access to the internet, if the parent clicks that setting.

Boom, problem solved.

Nope, problem still not solved... that would require worldwide agreements on the required meta tags, and everyone following those. Not gonna happen.

The main problem is that there is no way for governments to protect minors from adult content without severly limiting access to content.

In my opinion, there is no "good" solution, and what is will happen most likely will probably really hurt our industry :2 cents:

AOL and Roadrunner already block chunks of the internet because of adult sites.

I have seen it.

Will it get worse with them yes, that's why they suck it's not their place to filter your internet connection.

Our hope they go belly up like they deserve.

They just need a meta tag rating system ran by the gov fuck everything else.

That would be censorship and agaisn't the freedom of speach (since they could probably block other sites too ... political ones and such) . However, I would agree on this law

No. Very simple:
You cant get a internet connection before you are a adult.
So you allready comfirm you are a adult, then you get your connection.

Good point, but actually, you can get an internet connection as a minor.
Also, requiring that an adult authorizes the "unlocking" of adult content for a certain account can be interpreted as something entirely independant of getting the actual internet access account. Making the two entirely different things could appeal to many people.

I can see it happening as an added option to your standard billing. Parents could use this technology for a set fee per month to protect their children. Mandatory age verification on all accounts will never fly though.

You do realise though that 99.99999% of communication providers such as cable and telephone services require you be of age to even get anything hooked up anyways right?

That's a possibility. I'm amazed at the optimists who will say "that can never happen". Reality is often stranger than fiction and things like this have happend and according to some in this thread are happening elsewhere right now. Lesson to learn, is that just about anything can happen. Just because something seems unlikely or unreasonable, don't bet on it not becoming a reality, even if it's a short-lived reality.

Let's hope it doesn't.

I disagree. It's more like a Shopping Mall offering access to the stores INSIDE of it. Stores that do carry playboy and other magazines are required to store them behind the counter, with a brown wrapper over the cover images. Thats a "good faith" effort on the part of the seller.

It's way past time for parents to stop trying to blame everyone else. Get the computer out of Juniors bedroom, and put it where you sit all day long so you can supervise.

<hit send too soon>

And as a webmaster, use the "good faith" effort of using a clear warning page, without sexually explicit images, until after they click to state that they are over 18. Beyond that use common sense.

In the end if webmasters and parents use the simple common sense ideas right in front of them, they'll feel less threatened, and we can make money from adults which is all we want to do anyway.

I'm not so sure it won't happen. The religious right would probably love it, and there aren't many people willing to fight for the porn industry.

I can see them eventually saying that all ISP's must make filtering software availible ( for a price either per month or one time fee for setup) to all customers that want it.

No filtering software is 100% accurate but it would be better than nothing and if they set it to high and the kid wants to get to a medical site or some site that is okay, but for some reason blocked ( when I was working at a hi-tech company 4 years ago they had a massive filter on the net and I needed to get info on some thermocouples and couldn't get to the site because it had the word hot on it. . . of course it did these things measure temperature :) ) then the kid can go to mom or dad and have them put in the password that lets them into that site