The Problem With The 'Net: Too Much Porn

Editor's note: This column contains, shall we say, adult concepts.
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A medical editor recently asked me to tell readers how to soothe burned tongues. You know -- like when you wolf down piping hot pizza and get cheese burn.

To find out more about this oral malady, I used my editor's favorite search engine, AllTheWeb.com ("300 million web pages searched in under one half second") and typed in "tongue."

Goodness, gracious! My eyes bugged out and my cheeks flushed. It was instant pornography -- without even clicking onto any of the links. The text descriptions of the sites were embarrassing enough.

Keep in mind, I'm not exactly an anatomically ignorant prude. After 20 years in medicine, I suspect I've about seen it all. But until I made surfing the Web a part of my life, I never had such explicit strings of dirty words projected so blatantly and routinely into my personal space.

Think I'm exaggerating? Last week a publisher gave me the go-ahead to write a book for young adults. Using the same search engine, I typed in, "how to write for young adults." The number one entry knocked me off my stool. Suffice it to say that certain Web pages are glad to associate the words "young" and "adult."

And that was one of the less absurd ones.

Researching a broken foot led me to bigbone.com. Trying to find out which topic teenagers most enjoy reading about sent me to hotteenagers.com. And "young girls" referred me, almost instantly, to naughtynavigator.com.

Enough!

There's always plenty of news coverage about parents who worry about their kids accessing 'Net pornography. But what about us adults? Some of us are getting tired of staring down the belly of graphic, unsolicited sexual content most every time we search the Web.

It's a hyper-accelerated new phase in the debate over restricting pornography that has long raged in this free society.

Some groups propose an extreme solution. The National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families, led by Cincinnati-area Christian political activist Rick Schatz, believes that pornography is harmful to individuals, and like an addictive drug, can damage users' lives. The group would like to see an end to all explicit content, online and otherwise.

And there's no doubt about it -- we're concerned about our kids. CyberAngels focuses on pedophiles who lure children via the Internet. Cyber-pedophiles are also the main concern of The National Obscenity Law Center's Cyber Patrol. Similarly, GetNetWise teaches families how to help kids have safe and educational cyber-experiences.

And the United States government's major legal strike against 'Net porn had children in mind. Part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 -- later struck down as unconstitutional -- attempted to ban interactive computer services from providing minors with obscene or indecent content.

But what about grown-ups?

In the days before cyberspace, one could avoid porn by staying out of the X-rated wings of video rental stores and detouring around the red-light districts en route to work.

Today, smutty Web pages leap out in all the search engines, making it virtually impossible for people with sensibilities like mine to casually and comfortably surf.

There are, in fact, some ways to tell the smut sites to "get a room!"

Blocking 'Em Out

You can start at the property line. The Internet service provider Prodigy vows to exclude sites with "obscene, sexually explicit or illegal material." In a posting on the post-feminist Web site Femme Soul, one anonymous anti-porn advocate challenged all Web users to lobby their ISPs to adopt a "no porn/no obscenity" clause.

Or you can lock your door. For $50, Surf Watch sells software that blocks access to millions of URLs, 5,000 newsgroups, and 200 Internet relay chat channels. They boast 90 to 95 percent success in blocking objectionable sites.

X-stop offers "Plug & Block," which filters all Internet porn, including search engines and e-mail. CNet and Microsoft sell similar software.

Still, it's like an arms race. Just as the good guys come up with new ways to filter out the smut, the bad guys come up with new ways to spread it, like

Separate But Equal

Hey, I'm not out to outlaw sexual content. Keep the raunchy stuff on the Web; it's fine by me. I'm not some weird religious zealot, but c'mon, if I see "huge ---- needs luscious ----" one more time, I'll throw up.

But isn't there a porno-loving techno-geek out there somewhere who could invent a special search engine just for the lecherously inclined? Something like Infosexseek or Yahoohotmama or Lycosletyoufeel? You guys keep your smut over there; I'll search the Web over here.

I want to be able to research my article about tongue injuries without getting bombarded by "Long tongue goes anywhere: Click here."

Agree? Disagree? Send your reactions to dan@ibsys.com: Include your full name, city and state or province if you want your comments posted. To see audience responses to this column, click here.

--Jacqueline Tresl, R.N., a coronary intensive care nurse and nursing supervisor for more than 20 years, freelances for magazines and newspapers from her home in rural Ohio. Her first book, "Whoever Heard of a Horse In The House?" is scheduled for release in March.
--First published Jan. 28, 2000.

Related links

• From the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families: Organizations opposed to pornography
• From CyberAngels: Is the Bad Stuff Legal?
• From Law magazine of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines: Purging Pornography in the Internet
• From Oklahomans for Children and Family: White Paper on Internet Pornography
• From Femme Soul: Removing Illegal Porn from the Internet
• Censorship opponents: Center for Democracy and Technology

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