Senate Approves Web Labeling
 

It still has a way to go before it becomes law, but this bill proposes mandatory web labeling.

This topic will be covered at the XBIZ '06 Summer Forum. On July 13 @ 11:30 a.m. "Uncle Sam is Watching You," and at 2 p.m. "Protect Your Business," expect XBIZ seminar panelists to discuss this issue.

What do you all think?


Senate Approves Web Labeling; Bill Faces House Battle
By Steve Javors
Wednesday, June 28, 2006

http://www.xbiz.com/news_piece.php?id=15739

WASHINGTON ? The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, with the backing of the Bush administration, approved an amendment to a wide-ranging telecommunications bill that would require mandatory website labeling on pages that contain explicit sexual images.

The entire communications bill still has a way to go before it can be signed into law, however. It must receive a final vote from the commerce committee and then the full Senate. The bill also would have to be reconciled with a House of Representatives version, championed by John Kyl, R-Ariz., which does not contain a mandatory labeling provision.

Both proposals were prompted by a speech from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in April, who called on Congress to act quickly to ?prevent people from inadvertently stumbling across pornographic images on the Internet.?

According to CNET News, which has seen a copy of the bill, websites must not place sexually graphic images on their homepage, and they must rate ?each page or screen of the website that does contain sexually explicit material,? according to a system to be determined by the Federal Trade Commission.

Webmasters who fail to properly label their sites would face up to five years in prison, according to the proposal.

?This will protect children from accidentally typing in the wrong address and immediately viewing indecent material,? Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., said. ?[Politicians] have to take a bold step in this world of danger to our kids, and there are some people out there who prey on young children and they use the Internet and other methods to feed their sickness.?

First Amendment Attorney Lawrence G. Walters offers a different point of view.

?Forcing speech on a publisher is problematic,? Walters told XBIZ. ?I?m not against voluntary labeling. In fact, we need to do that to ward off government regulation. Many adult sites label their content with warning pages, but it might not have been widespread enough. I think the government will find that voluntary labeling is pervasive among adult sites, but we don?t have a uniform system. Most adult sites already comply.?

Walters mentioned the video game, music and movie industries as examples of the effective use of self-labeling.

?Unfortunately, web content has been fractured and inconsistent with labeling because of how unwieldy the international web is,? Walters said, citing the Internet?s tremendous worldwide scope and operations. ?Depending on the final wording ? and it still has a long way to go yet ? I think this [bill] would technically be hard to enforce given how much content is out there. It?s unfortunate the adult industry couldn?t do enough to head off this type of legislation.

:(:(

and that helps kids not be exposed to porn how?

seems to me they are going in the wrong direction.


:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

perhaps software can prevent browsers from landing on pages that are rated

Yes I'm sure the Hun is working on his warning page and labels right now. Politicians are so stupid. America doesn't own the Internet. When are they going to get that?

"The bill also would have to be reconciled with a House of Representatives version, championed by John Kyl, R-Ariz., which does not contain a mandatory labeling provision."


I don't get this... does it mean Kyl is for or against the labeling??

:thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup

making things harder on usa adult when other country wm's and corps wont follow the same rules pushes adult out of the usa eventually, and with it goes the tax money the gov makes.

idiots.

biting off the hand that feeds them while shooting themselves in the foot in the pursuit of stopping kids from seeing porn.

but it looks good on paper though, so i guess thats whats im sure they care about.

The bill makes no mention of preventing kids from accessing these pages; just that they be labeled properly, according to a ratings system devised by the Federal Trade Commission.

How big will the warning labels have to be, and how prominently will they be featured on each page? What about sites hosted overseas?

i'm gonna stop now.

i got too much to do to be pissed off at an inept govt today.

:)

If you don't do for yourself, others will do for you -- :2 cents:

2hp

Well, it's fine on the face of it. We need to know the labels, we need to know the exact 100% precise instructions. "every page or screen" implies even a raw .jpg, so break out the ole php or perl dynamic label gun for images, lol.

Its like clockwork every 3 months some other bullshit law to deal with :(

Nothing will happen as usual.

Not when non-American webmasters don't have to comply. How about when ISPs are require to block access to sites with certain lables?

Well, nothing we can do about non-american webmasters, as usual.. so I guess if they make us do it, we'll do it or risk some punishment.

I only have links to content on other peoples domains because of 2257. I sure wish they'd spell that one out in black and white still.. Else who knows whats applicable content anyway

I will definitely use some sort of server automation though to slap whatever warning I may need to without any effort of manual labor, I can tell you that much, lol.

Isn't PimpRoll based out of Canada? So your site wouldn't necessarily have to comply with these laws.

Right, well I'm in the US and I was referring to my own personal stuff, I should have made that clear.

What would be the point? They'd only be able to arrest U.S. webmasters who didn't comply...

got to love those republicians lol

this thread needs more upskirt
http://fubarwebmasters.com/current/dmoney/z0127.jpg

:)

ahhhh

well better this than .xxx

btw ICANN is holding another meeting now, the .xxx guys said there will be present, but I hope that their "reconsideration request" will be denied

well if there's a law at least there'll be a uniform way of warning/labeling, right now i'm unsure if i'm in compliance.

its far from becoming a law also you have to remember this is election time and the republicans are in trouble so they are pulling all the stops. Gay marriage, flag burning and fighting porn, its all a smoke screen lots of activity and nothing will get done.

true....


Mr. Romance

I love labels

This already exists - Net Nanny, Cyber Patrol, CYBERsitter, SafeSurf ...