Comments on: Blogger Power: Safeguard the Web for Children http://lillieammann.com/2007/06/18/blogger-power-safeguard-the-web-for-children/ A Writer's Words, An Editor's Eye Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:08:48 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Lillie http://lillieammann.com/2007/06/18/blogger-power-safeguard-the-web-for-children/comment-page-1/#comment-780 Lillie Wed, 20 Jun 2007 04:52:51 +0000 http://lillieammann.com/blog/?p=212#comment-780 Kate, Blogger Power is not suggesting that anyone be "forced" to do or not do anything. This is not a censorship movement - it is simply a request for businesspeople who sell content not suitable for children to voluntarily add safeguards to their sites to make it more difficult for children to access the material. Who decides what constitutes adult material? The purveyors themselves - after all, they advertise their material for adults. If they sell material that they themselves advertise as triple X, hard-core, whatever ... they know it isn't appropriate for children. Kate,

Blogger Power is not suggesting that anyone be “forced” to do or not do anything. This is not a censorship movement – it is simply a request for businesspeople who sell content not suitable for children to voluntarily add safeguards to their sites to make it more difficult for children to access the material.

Who decides what constitutes adult material? The purveyors themselves – after all, they advertise their material for adults. If they sell material that they themselves advertise as triple X, hard-core, whatever … they know it isn’t appropriate for children.

]]> By: Kate http://lillieammann.com/2007/06/18/blogger-power-safeguard-the-web-for-children/comment-page-1/#comment-790 Kate Tue, 19 Jun 2007 22:13:27 +0000 http://lillieammann.com/blog/?p=212#comment-790 As a parent, my initial reaction is to applaud this. However, as a blogger I find myself wondering where the limits would be drawn. As Lillie wrote, no doubt intending it to be meant another way, "one small step leads to another... and another." I can't help but wonder if, after sites posting adult images are forced to have password-protected front pages, would sites using occasional adult language be next? And who is to define what constitutes "adult language" if that's the case? As a parent, my initial reaction is to applaud this. However, as a blogger I find myself wondering where the limits would be drawn. As Lillie wrote, no doubt intending it to be meant another way, “one small step leads to another… and another.”

I can’t help but wonder if, after sites posting adult images are forced to have password-protected front pages, would sites using occasional adult language be next? And who is to define what constitutes “adult language” if that’s the case?

]]> By: Lillie http://lillieammann.com/2007/06/18/blogger-power-safeguard-the-web-for-children/comment-page-1/#comment-779 Lillie Tue, 19 Jun 2007 19:48:36 +0000 http://lillieammann.com/blog/?p=212#comment-779 Matt, Thanks for the info. It will be useful to parents who monitor their children's Internet activities. If all parents were as informed and interested as you, there wouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately, there are far too many parents who are uninformed and far too many children who are unsupervised because their parents are too busy, too drunk, or too self-centered. Matt,

Thanks for the info. It will be useful to parents who monitor their children’s Internet activities.

If all parents were as informed and interested as you, there wouldn’t be a problem. Unfortunately, there are far too many parents who are uninformed and far too many children who are unsupervised because their parents are too busy, too drunk, or too self-centered.

]]> By: Matt Keegan http://lillieammann.com/2007/06/18/blogger-power-safeguard-the-web-for-children/comment-page-1/#comment-783 Matt Keegan Tue, 19 Jun 2007 18:35:54 +0000 http://lillieammann.com/blog/?p=212#comment-783 One thing I want to add to the conversation is this: there is an excellent filtering program out there by the name of <a href="http://www.radiance.m6.net/">Naomi</a> that works wonders. It is free and when placed on the computer, it will immediately close the browser when an unseemly site shows up. We have it installed on the computer our children use and I can personally attest to its effectiveness -- believe me I ran it through the paces to ensure that porn could not show up. One thing I want to add to the conversation is this: there is an excellent filtering program out there by the name of Naomi that works wonders. It is free and when placed on the computer, it will immediately close the browser when an unseemly site shows up. We have it installed on the computer our children use and I can personally attest to its effectiveness — believe me I ran it through the paces to ensure that porn could not show up.

]]> By: Lillie http://lillieammann.com/2007/06/18/blogger-power-safeguard-the-web-for-children/comment-page-1/#comment-789 Lillie Mon, 18 Jun 2007 23:45:19 +0000 http://lillieammann.com/blog/?p=212#comment-789 Matt, I suspect you're right that most of the porn sites don't care who they harm. When I first got online, I was so naive that I tried to unsubscribe to spam. :-) Suddenly porn kept popping up in window after window - if I managed to close one down, several more opened up. There was no way to stop it short of shutting down my computer. I don't know if the sites do that anymore because I learned very quickly you don't respond to spam. But it was an awful experience to keep seeing these vile pictures and not being able to stop them. I hate the thought of children being exposed to that. However, Mig said one porn purveyor with a couple or three sites had responded - not much in the overall scheme of things but the Internet is a teensy bit safer for kids as a result. Although I doubt a post on my little ole blog will make a significant difference, it can't hurt. And if helps save one child from being exposed to porn, it's worth it. Matt,

I suspect you’re right that most of the porn sites don’t care who they harm. When I first got online, I was so naive that I tried to unsubscribe to spam. :-) Suddenly porn kept popping up in window after window – if I managed to close one down, several more opened up. There was no way to stop it short of shutting down my computer. I don’t know if the sites do that anymore because I learned very quickly you don’t respond to spam. But it was an awful experience to keep seeing these vile pictures and not being able to stop them. I hate the thought of children being exposed to that.

However, Mig said one porn purveyor with a couple or three sites had responded – not much in the overall scheme of things but the Internet is a teensy bit safer for kids as a result.

Although I doubt a post on my little ole blog will make a significant difference, it can’t hurt. And if helps save one child from being exposed to porn, it’s worth it.

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