In my Ethics and Computers in Society Class we discussed the dangers of pornography and how it can be easily accessed over the internet. A few of the students in their position statements suggested that an easy way to filter out pornographic sites would be to give them their own top level domain, like .xxx or .sex. This would make filtering websites somewhat easier, but not by much. Filtering will still need to be done at the IP level and not just by the domain name. Even if we could convince all of the current websites to move their domain names over to a new tld there's no system currently in place that could classify all sites on the internet. cp80.net has proposed a solution that has some merit. They suggest that pornographic sites should stay off of port 80 and use other designated ports. It would be easy to have your ISP block those ports or with slight modifications to the frontend of your browser you could tell it which ports you want to have access to. Another possible solution I can think of is when IPv6 comes out in a few years to have a class of IP addresses designated for adult content. It would be a lot easier to implement something like that before the changeover takes place rather than trying to change something that is already set. Currently the best solution is to have a proxy filter between you and your internet connection to block out content that you don't want.
Unfortunately there is usually going to be a way to get around most filtering schemes. In the future it will be even more difficult to filter the internet, because there will be more and more ways to connect, through cell phones, notebooks, pda's, etc. You can have a filtered connection, but a nearby neighbor or the city you live in may have open unfiltered wifi. The real solution is to teach your children what is acceptable and what isn't and then stay involved in what's going on in their lives. Teach them about internet safety and how to stay safe in chat rooms and social networking sites. The Internet Safety Podcast has some valuable resources and is worth taking a look at. Most children will probably learn about pornography from their friends, whose parents don't care what they view on the internet. What it comes down to is that maintaining open communication with your child is the best way to prevent them from being negatively influenced by media.
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2 comments:
Filtering schemes are often flawed.
Have you heard of Covenant Eyes monitoring and filtering programs? It is a unique program on the market because it gives the user flexibility to filter or simply monitor the Internet or both. A good filtering program is very helpful for children and families, but a good monitoring program is great for adults and children alike who want to be accountable to others about where they go online.
Covenant Eyes monitoring program simply tracks (without blocking) everywhere someone goes online. Then each part of each webpage is rated and scored for its content (scores are based on obscene or pornographic material). Users choose 2 or 3 people that they want to receive a detailed "accountability report" of all their online activity (emails to them or available to see online 24/7). What this does is it allows complete freedom to the person using the Internet, but it takes away the anonymity of online activity; people are more likely to exorcise self-control when they know that others will be reviewing their whereabouts online.
Covenant Eyes also has a promotional code you can use to get a free month to try out their accountability service. Go to www.covenanteyes.com and enter promocode 'onefree' to receive a free 30 day trial of the program.
Luke clearly works for CE... to him I say your product isn't that great. I know people that tried it and didn't continue use... I bought a different program (PC Pandora) that was a one-time fee and monitors everything on and offline.
Aside from that, the .xxx domain was proposed and rejected for stupid reasons. The port idea is really good and hopefully, as you said, in a few years there will be some sort of “traffic lane” – if you will – for porn.
Bottom line is it comes down to education and awareness. If parents aren’t aware or educated – they don’t stand a chance against their tech savvy teens.
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