dot-xxx does NOT protect children
As the parent of a teenager, an employee of an adult entertainment company, a website owner and most importantly an American citizen to whom the First Amendment is nothing short of sacred, I must register my strenuous objection to the creation of a .xxx top-level domain. There is no compelling need to create a top-level domain in order to "protect children" - that is what parents are for... and if they're too busy, too technically inept or too lazy to monitor their children's surfing habits, there's plenty of existing filtering software that is effective, inexpensive and flexible enough to suit their needs. I find it appalling that any American would champion such restrictions on an entire class of speech protected by the First Amendment, while failing to involve those whose livelihoods depend on said speech in the decision-making process. Moreover, as I understand it, under this proposal even websites that are NOT pornographic, but merely engage in sexually explicit speech will be forced into the "virtual ghetto" of .xxx as well, which will effectively make a site offering information about certain sexual practices and/or health issues as "kid-unfriendly" as a site offering hardcore pornography. I'd agree with the Free Speech Coalition and others who support a "kid-safe" zone such as a .kids TLD. If parents wish to restrict their children's use of the internet to those sites they deem appropriate, .kids is a much better solution... and more respecting of the rights of adults to view, read and write what they choose. THE ADULT ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY WANTS TO PROTECT KIDS TOO, BUT IT DOES *NOT* SUPPORT A .XXX TLD AS A VALID MEANS OF DOING SO. Roxanne Brown Shane's World Studios http://obnoxiousbitch.com |