Today, you do not hear as much hype from the media, but the problem still exists.  Go to any web search engine and type in a common word like dog, and you could be assaulted by images better left out of everyday conversation.  E-mail servers are constantly barraged, and consumers are flashed so much, it is becoming a common topic for comedians.

the Problem

Everyone knows that the information available on the Internet is a very large monster that is impossible to control.  And freedom of speech means that for consenting adults, that information should be available.  

From MY religious view, free will means that you get to choose individually.  No one has the right to limit choices.  If someone wants to peddle porn, that is their choice.  But when their choice interferes with mine, well that's the rub.  Now we must use common sense.  Living in a society means we must have rules.

From a monetary view, Libraries, schools, government agencies, and corporations large and small are struggling to make policies that control access to this information and still not violate the First Amendment.  Proxy software and blocking software only go so far, and the Porn industry is getting very good at still getting their information in your face, so to speak.  Any cost must be passed along to the consumer and taxpayers. One estimate from the net says that millions are currently spent by libraries and governments just to try and filter pornographic information.

Now to play devil's advocate;  where a lot of filtering and blocking software fails is that it is not smart.  It cannot determine if a search for certain words should be allowed.  Legitimate access to sites for research and study, such as Breast Cancer for example, must be allowed.   E-mails for pills to enlarge any part of the human anatomy should be blocked UNLESS you have subscribed.

the Solution

Legislate that all sexually explicit sites that are in the business of selling adult oriented materials and products, or any site that promotes of displays sexually explicit materials of any type, have their domain names changed and .sex be placed at the end.  

This is not wholly my idea, matter of fact it was passed along to me by a good friend from the University of Florida.  It seems that his department is constantly bombarded with unwanted information and pictures.

The solution is a simple one, and it makes it easy to categorize the information out there so that is can be easily identified.  This solution does not violate the First Amendment in anyway, shape or form, and it is an easy way to "filter" those pages, e-mail and advertisements from the casual observer.

With .sex at the end of a domain name, search engines, browsers and proxy servers can easily eliminate that information for a query.  Libraries, schools, and corporations will be able to simply police access to the Internet without extra cost.

Write your local legislator and ask them to support this idea.  I have.

Those are my thoughts.  What are yours...email me at mred@hometc.com and let me know.

Ed Baldridge