One step closer to mandatory labeling...
 

Web site operators posting sexually explicit information must slap warning labels on their pages or face prison terms of up to five years, according to a proposal adopted by a U.S. Senate committee on Tuesday.

http://news.com.com/Senators+adopt+W...l?tag=nefd.top

During a day of debate on a wide-ranging communications bill, the Senate Commerce Committee approved an amendment backed by the Bush administration that proponents claim would help clean up the Internet and protect children online.

It says that commercial Web sites must not place "sexually explicit material" on their home pages upon pain of felony prosecution--and, in addition, they must rate "each page or screen of the website that does contain sexually explicit material" with a system to be devised by the Federal Trade Commission.

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So, the senate committe has ploaced a mandatory labeling provision in the latest communications bill.

It has yet to be voted into law, but I think it probably will.

So, we US webmasters are going to have a job of work to do, once the FTC has decided on what label we gotta use.

And it looks like we will have to put the keywords "sexually explicit material" on pretty much every page we have up.

I don't see how rating, ranking and identifying adult sites protect children from people who want to feed their "sickness".

Those sick people, who are out to harm children, won't be running commercial websites but would lurk around the young teenager sites and forums.

They should be concentrating on educating parents about lurkers and not feeding them propaganda about adult sites. I remember reading somewhere that viewing porn doesn't turn people into sex offenders.

I've read the text, and it leaves it to the FTC and the AG to "develop a system"....

Here we go with another round of BS...

looks like I'm heading towards a new webair server in the Netherlands :/

Wasn't it just exactly a year ago that the sky started falling again, and nothing changed? One day it's going to land right on my head cuz I won't be paying attention...

I think The law will pass, wonder what galleries will have, a waring page before the content is what I would think....

and this law if only for US webmasters would be how effective??

I think the SE's would have to get into it and say we will only index pages with the tags to get the other NON US webmasters to comply, as the US GOV would put pressure on them to only index adult pages with the tags....

maybe something good will come out of this??? like less hobby people, less new commers, and a lot of adult pages dropping off the serps and our pages moving up and in...

This is a continuation of last year's attack - the same people are testing legal strategies to limit our business, with the goal of appealling to their voters.

This is all part of a combined strategy - the obscenity arrests against extreme content around the country, the recent use of RICO in the fla arrests, linking CP to the adult industry, a number of bills and bill proposals slowly making their way thru committees.

A group of politicians have it in for us, and there is no reason for them to stop trying to find a way to make the news by attacking us.

well the way bill put it
I dont see a problem with gallerys as long as they have the proper tags

it says they wuill not put porn on their home page
so I guess they mean the root index page has to be clean

who knows on that one, you know they make the rules up as they go and have it so vague we wont know if we are doing something wrong till they knock on our door....

looks like when this passes they will be a lot of busy webmasters adding tages to pages and wondering if the pages comply

I'm down with whatever they decide, I just wish they would make up their minds and stick to it.

CONTACT:
Joan Irvine, ASACP
Tel: 323 965 1400
E-mail: joan@asacp.org
Website: www.asacp.org

ASACP Invites Discussion of Self-Labeling by Adult Sites

Los Angeles, CA (June 26, 2006) – The Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP) has activated an “Online Town Hall” located at www.asacp.org/townhall to open up the topic of self-labeling by adult sites for broad discussion, and to get feedback from all adult companies on this increasingly urgent topic.

At least two recently introduced Senate Bills (S3499 - the Internet Safety Act, and S3432 - the Project Safe Childhood Act) would require adult websites to label all pages featuring adult content or face stiff prison terms. The bills may face political and legal hurdles, and mandatory self-labeling by adult sites may or may not become federal law. However, according to ASACP’s Executive Director Joan Irvine, “No matter what happens, broad voluntary acceptance of self-labeling could help protect children online – and demonstrate the adult industry’s practical commitment to preventing children from viewing adult content.”

The ASACP Online Town Hall site features information about site labeling, plus a discussion forum where professionals throughout the adult industry can begin discussing the topic.

“ASACP represents the combined efforts of many adult companies when it comes to protecting children from adult material,” noted Irvine. “ASACP has stepped up on this issue, and will facilitate an industry-wide discussion. We’ve also been approached by both adult and mainstream companies about possibly helping to establish a new 18+ label, so we definitely want to hear back from the industry that has supported us for so long before proceeding in that direction.”

In addition to the Online Town Hall site, ASACP will help organize and participate in discussions related to self-labeling at upcoming adult industry conferences, including a panel at the XBiz Summer Forum and a session at Internext Summer.

Founded in 1996, the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP) is a non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating child pornography from the Internet. ASACP battles child pornography through its CP reporting hotline, and by organizing the efforts of the online adult industry to combat the heinous crime of child sexual abuse.

Yep, here we go again. More election year theatrics. These guys have gotten to be like a bunch of stubborn little kids. They are gonna keep trying to twist and turn laws thinking they will come up with something that works for them. All it ends up doing is costing taxpayers money being tied up in the court system. |bullshit|

I'm all for labels, but jail? WTF is wrong with a virtual ticket? |huh

Amen! Praise |buddy|

Greenie: your post was quite helpful in keeping the blood pressure nice and level. Good to know someone has the potential to guide this legal issue into a mutually beneficial direction. |thumb

Thanks for the heads up Greenie.

PS. I'll check out your programs as you suggested, cheers.

so if I should comply with US laws, I suppose you will comply with Norwegian law aswell?

Depends... you guys got any oil?

|jester|

Norway is the world's second biggest exporter of oil so we got a few barrels left :)

Yes, I know. :)

And in the coming years you can look forward to the USA either doing some interesting deals with your leaders, or destabilizing your government, or invading your country to protect you.

Lucky for you we're too busy with this mandatory labeling and trying to crush the adult business stuff right now. ;)

I blogged about this and its worth the read iMHO.

http://www.boogie-blog.com/mandatory-web-labeling.htm

enjoy that.

I'm all for labeling but I have some serious concerns. I label my pages now and I'll continue if it's possible.

1. Mandatory jail time for a typo when pedophiles are put under house arrest.
2. How complex will the labeling system be? I'm sure they'll make it a proprietary system that someone will patent and almost impossible to use.
3. No sexually explicit material on the home page? What does that mean? I think free speech will shut that down.
4. Why not label violent sites? I think violence is far more damaging then sex.

We all know that this will do nothing to protect children and simply lead us further away from democracy and closer to the fascist theocracy that the far right wants..

I know it's a stretch to actually ask politicians to use their brains, but a thorough review of all the scientific evidence alludes to the fact that there has not been a peer reviewed study demonstrating pornography increasing the incidence of sex crimes in any nation yet studied, in fact all the data points to the contrary, that sexual crime has been reduced when pornography has increased. here's a paper on it.


http://www.hawaii.edu/PCSS/online_ar...y_rape_jp.html


in the last paragraph they say this...

In sum, the concern that countries allowing pornography would show increased sex crime rates due to modeling or that adolescents in particular would be negatively vulnerable to and receptive to such models or the society would be otherwise adversely effected has not been vindicated. It is certainly clear from our data and analysis that a massive increase in available pornography in Japan has been correlated with a dramatic decrease in sexual crimes and most so among youngsters as perpetrators or victims. We have mentioned some possible influential factors.

Here's what the fuck wits are busy doing.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060629/...ress_guns_dc_1

Let's make guns more available and more dangerous. Of course porn is the real killer.

Side note, how much longer do you folks have to put up with Bush and co, out'a courosity?

-N

Very useful link. Sometimes it will make you laugh. Other times it will make you cry.
http://www.backwardsbush.com/
Sort of a glass half full/empty thing depending on one's mood.