Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!labrea!rutgers!apple!voder!kontron!optilink!cramer From: cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) Newsgroups: news.admin Subject: Re: Net.Porn ? Keywords: porn, underage, lawsuit Message-ID: <509@optilink.UUCP> Date: 27 Sep 88 23:14:10 GMT References: <1278@cbnews.ATT.COM> Distribution: na Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA Lines: 36 In article <1278@cbnews.ATT.COM>, wbt@cbnews.ATT.COM (William B. Thacker) writes: > Given recent court action in matters such as Dial-a-Porn, and a > growing "moralist" objection to mature subject matter, I feel that > unless some measures are taken, the net stands at risk of becoming > a future target of "anti-porn" crusaders. All it would take would be > one closed-minded fundamentalist finding out that 12-year-olds with > computers and modems can get access to alt.sex, soc.motss, soc.women, > and other "adult theme" groups. I doubt it would take a "closed-minded fundamentalist" -- it could be almost any parent concerned that a 12-year-old lacks the maturity and understanding to make rational sense of sexually explicit materials. I speak from my own experiences, getting my personality warped around by reading such materials as a teenager. (Of course, everything is normal now. :-)) > Is this a serious potential problem, or am I paranoid ? > Bill Thacker cbosgd!cbema!wbt The potential problem is serious, and it would be a darn good idea for the public access sites to make sure that they aren't exposing themselves to potential legal liability (consider the various lawsuits pending against some of the 976 sexphone services) and opening the net to annoying problems from organized boycotts. One solution: verify the ages of your subscribers, and make sure that potentially suit-generating groups (alt.sex, soc.women, soc.motss) aren't available to the under-18 set. No, I'm not saying that these groups should be unavailable to adults -- but minors are in an entirely different category legally, and I'm inclined to agree with the general reasoning of why, though not necessarily all the details. -- Clayton E. Cramer ..!ames!pyramid!kontron!optilin!cramer