Battle waged over .xxx domain

I applaud any effort to limit or screen pornography from our young people. Right now, the most innocent web search can show them images of very pornographic material before they even go to a site. I don't know how much this will really help, but it would make filtering material easier.
Listen, pornography is a terrible vice and addiction. All of us are bombarded by the "sex sells" mentality all day long, no matter what media we are using. It is nice to see that some people are at least trying to limit the content our youth can stumble across.

Though two senators believe a bill they've recently introduced will help protect children from pornographic websites, some anti-porn activists see the proposed .xxx Internet domain name as just another place for smut peddlers to sell their product.
Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Mark Pryor, D-Ark., have introduced S. 2426, which would require the U.S. Department of Commerce to work closely with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to establish a special domain for Internet pornographers. The plan calls for pornographers to move their websites from the traditional .com domains to a so-called "red light district" or .xxx domain on the Internet.
Wording has been added to the Cyber Safety for Kids Act that allow the Commerce Department to impose stiff fines to those who do not comply with the legislation.
Pryor told WND: "Children are accessing Internet pornography at alarming rates. … While addressing this matter will take a multifaceted approach, corralling indecent websites into a specially designated domain is a positive first step."
Former Department of Justice consultant Dr. Judith A. Reisman thinks that while Baucus and Pryor may have good intentions, their legislation is naïve in it's approach. Reisman says it is a mistake to think the influence pornography on our culture can be limited by "trying to relocate it."
Opening up a special .xxx domain "will give pornographers another legitimate source of income and access," Reisman told WND. Reisman is the author of the soon to be released WND Books title "Kinsey's Attic: How One Man's Pathology Changed the World."

Concerned Women for America spokesman Bob Knight also opposes the bill.
"The backers of the .xxx domain know that (pornographers) can tie (their bill) up in the courts for years," Knight said. If the bill becomes law, "Internet pornographers will double the number of sites for porn, and the benefit from having a special designation for porn addicts. It would be a win-win for the smut industry, and a lose-lose for families in America."
Pryor disagreed with those who claim that this measure will be stalled in the courts.
Said Pryor: "Instead of issuing a blanket ban on explicit material, our bill simply provides parents with an effective tool in restricting their children's access to indecent material."
Former DOJ prosecutor Patrick Truman says the .xxx domain proposal "offers nothing but false hope. … Pornographers will not move out of the .com domain – it is their cash cow. They don't obey obscenity law now, so they won't obey a new law that attempts to move them from (their) .com sites."
Pryor's staff contends that fines built into the legislation will counter the porn industry's reluctance to move from their present Web addresses to a new xxx domain.
"This approach is similar to laws requiring pornographic magazine to be placed behind convenience store counters," Pryor noted.
Crawford Broadcasting radio talk show host Paul McGuire contends that "the pornography industry has billions to spend and will drag out the legal process for years. Until Americans and the Department of Justice develop the will to fight what is clearly destroying our civilization through aggressive prosecution, fines and arrests, pseudo solutions like the triple-x domain will have no affect."
Concluded McGuire: "We need to start understanding that pornography is moral and spiritual terrorism. … How many rapes, molestations, sexual slavery incidents and divorces does it take to wake us up!"