Protecting children by trying to differentiate websites ideally is a good idea. However, as mentioned in lecture a lot of different pages that are not suitable for children will not consider themselves to be pornographic. I understand how Playboy would not want to put .XXX at the end of their website. They do not show pornography, but as my boyfriend would say “naked women is art.” Keeping children away from pornographic sites cannot be solely up to the websites that provide these images.
Parents can implement child blocks online. Although they do not block all cleverly named website they will eliminate a majority of the images they want to keep away from their children. Parents should also be monitoring the activities of their young online. This is not only to protect them from seeing pornography, but also to prevent them from becoming victims themselves. Adults prey on children all the time and the Internet is the easiest way to get at young children.
Websites have to have a responsibility to check who is visiting their sites. This is hard, but a way needs to be found to keep their sites only seen to adults. Many sites have warnings of how it is illegal to view their site if you are under a certain age. This warning “protects” them from having liability, but I argue this is not enough action to keep children away from sexual content.
I propose that something more tangible and traceable to check date of births should be implemented. Having to enter a driver’s license number would be something that could be tangible. I understand this violates the rights of the individual being exposed, but by providing a credit card number you are exposing identity. Either way there is no clear cut way to stay anonymous while viewing these sites.
