No one in the US Congress has said anything about what folks elsewhere 
should or should not do.  Many countries already prevent some types of 
prurient material from entering their networks (PRC, Muslim, Singapor, etc.)
If folks want to debase themselves, I'd say they have a right.  But they 
have no right to aid the underaged in doing so within the US.  

On Fri, 14 Jul 1995 nathan@wantree.com.au wrote:
> 
> Please remember when discussing issues of morality etc that this is an 
> international issue, and while the Exon bill is an American law, that law 
> will have international repercussions.  Further this is an international 
> listserv with participants from countries with different cultures and 
> constructs.  If Mid-western morality codes are to be brought up as evidence 
> for doing or not doing something, please don't state them as if they were 
> codes etched in stone and given by God on the mount.  Everything is a social 
> construct.
> 
> From: Nitin Borwankar - MetaNews 
> Even more ubiquitous than CD-ROM is VHS tape, a significant portion
> of which is adult-oriented. And we seem to have managed to keep the
> adult videos under a reasonable semblance of control.

Yes, and there is no reason similar controls cannot be adapted to 
Internet by different technical means.
 
> People are going to rail against pornographic material no matter what
> medium it occupies, and no matter how well safeguarded it is from
> children. The Internet represents a somewhat unusual situation, in that
> a child can do more UNSUPERVISED online than he can in most other situations.
> Most video store owners aren't going to sell a kid a John Holmes video,
> but that same kid could download GIFs all by himself.

Precisely correct.  It is seen as more threatening to children BECAUSE it 
can reach them in their homes, silently, without raising the parents 
suspicions.  It is a different thing from magazines or VHS tapes.  This 
is a legitimate cause for parental concern (not panic).  

> If "something" needs to be done, it's no more drastic than anything that
> has been done before -- and keep in mind that most pornographic material
> is self-regulated by pornographers, who would rather take the precaution
> than have the government start imposing significant regulation.
> 
Yes, I agree with GRIFTER.  Good solutions exist for everyone, as long as 
the posturing rhetoric gets toned down, and serious effort starts.

------------------------------

End of online-news-digest V1 #243
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