Senators propose labels for adult Web sites - BNA Headlines
There is a new bill being proposed that would create a new html tag to websites that the government deems "racy" to prevent minors from accessing this content. This is much like the v-chip that TV manufacturers have been offering for the last decade. One of the main issues I have with this bill is that the idea that those who are opposed on grounds that this is an overstepping of bounds by the government will be treated as though they are in favor of children seeing pornography. If you do not support this legislation, you must want children to lose their innocence. However, obviously a much deeper issue comes to play here. This is censorship. Future web browsers used by kids will not be allowed to access sites that have objectionable material. Two questions arise. The first is, what is "racy" and the second is, who judges this. There are already reports of common use computers, such as in a library, blocking sites that are completely informational and not pornographic at all. Since the dissemination of knowledge is extremely important both for educational purposes and because everyone has a right to access information, this is a problem.
A second issue with this bill is that pornographic sites are supposed to enter into a national registry. This simply makes me uncomfortable. It just makes it that much easier to be tracked down on the internet and have things linked to an individual. Yes, I am all for people catching internet predators and other criminals, however, if someone runs a pornographic website in their spare time while having a real 9-5 job, it is likely that this will be found out and that is unfair to the webmaster.
This article just seems to show that the government is trying to legislate the internet but focusing on the wrong things.
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