So COPA has been defeated. Would the industry support an alternative?

[desslock]

When I was just an innocent lad, age eleven walking home from school through the park between Shackelford Junior High and my house, I happened upon several ragged magazines tossed aside on the ground.

Picking them up, they turned out to be a Penthouse magazine and the now long gone skin mag "Oui." (So yes I told my buddies later that I found a copy of "Oy" magazine, but anyways)

Now - as a child, exactly what harm was I afforded by happening upon this kind of material? Are the harms such that the government should regulate or restrict the sale and presentation of such materials?

Would government regulation actually WORK to keep dirty magazines out of the hands of minors? I think we are so used to living in a society with age restrictions for things, we don't even know why they are there. In Germany the drinking age is years younger than in the United States. Does this imply that life for kids in the United States is safer?

One last point - when people here talk about a .xxx domain or a .kids domain - does that mean that there should be a federal law on how you present your website? Let's say that I create a .com website devoted to the movie Carnal Knowledge, and some US Attorney in Johnson County, Texas deems it obscene.

Should someone be convicted and sentenced under federal criminal law for that?

Steve

[gaybucks_chip]

I look at it this way. Some form of regulation is pretty much bound to happen.

If the right wing loonies had their way, they would like to legislate gay people out of existence, and pornography out of existence (not to mention gambling, dancing, sex for other than procreation, playing cards, drinking, and almost anything else fun.)

I do think that *inappropriate* sexualization and/or exposure to sexual things among children and perhaps those under , oh, 14, can lead some some unhealthy views about sexual behaviors that can cause psychological problems.

So... if we as a responsible community propose something that legitimately helps responsible parents keep materials out of their children's hands (similar to requirements many communities have to keep adult magazines on the top shelf of a magazine rack, or obscure what's on the front cover) then everyone wins... webmasters still can advertise their products to those that want them, children and those who don't want to see them have more limited exposure to sexual materials, and our rights to communicate are not trampled in any meaningful way.

[BarebackJack]

The European way of life is always an interesting comparison.

In Europe, the age of consent to marry and/or have sex (for str8 kids) is 16. Television and mainstream print magazines allow nudity in advertising. The drinking age is lower. The attitude towards drugs like heroin and hashish is more relaxed (in Amsterdam you can legally buy hashish in coffee shops). And, of course, in practically every advanced country in the world where English is spoken, gays have the right to marry. All in all, the Europeans are more low-key about all this kind of stuff which Americans get so uptight over.

And surprisingly, you don't hear about all that many weird psychos coming from those countries. They don't seem to have as large a problem with things like sexual predators, teen pregnancies, serial killing, abortion clinic bombings, etc. as we do here.

Could it be that having a culture-wide healthy sexual attitude actually leads to having a healthier culture overall?

I mean, even their currency is stronger than ours.

Sadly, there are too many Americans who are not only so paralyzed by irrational fears about such things as human nudity that they are unwilling to let these fears go despite the examples to the contrary that have been made in other countries, but we Americans are also willing to accept even more irrational fears into our daily lives - the kind that the right wing goofballs keep pumping out ad nauseum through the media.

Anyway... the old adage seems true in this country that the more effort you put in toward prohibiting something the more of a problem you ultimately create with it. Where the prevailing attitude is, "Yeah, so what... a naked body. Big deal," there seem to be fewer social problems than in America where the attitude is "OMG! Nudity! We must protect the children from seeing naked people!"

And to think... the people who founded this country were progressives. Well, the end of the 19th Century sure put a kabosh on all our social progressiveness...