Comments on: Congress takes up online threats to children

Even with an economic crisis to deal with, Congress is finding time to address online threats to children like child pornography and prescription drugs.

[Solaris_User]

Doug Stanhope on Myspace Pedophiles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8APlx9btTn8

So funny but true..

[Astral_projector]

Stephanie Condon, eh? I was wondering what is up with the rather subdued attitude of the SAFE Act passing when first reading this, and then I saw than Declan didn't write this, and that this Ms. Condon has being writing alot in this blog, I guess the iconoblast isn't Declan's alone, but hey, it would be nice for him to weigh in a little on this issue, since especially he hit the panic button and got us all worked up over this bill the first time it passed any part of congress last year, now that it is about to pass it'd be good for McCullagh to remind people about the problems with the SAFE Act, especially for wi-fi. This is actually 2 bills in one, Sen. Coburn tipped Sen Reid's hand and Coburn was allowed to attach the SAFE act to S. 1738, which for the most part is a bill that just funds the DoJ and create new offices, but Coburn, Reid, and the House now will make this once noble bill trash, and liable for some constitutional challenges. I'd like Declan to get ISPs reactions to in about passage, because last time, thet were taken aback at how congress was going to pass something that really effected then with little input or responce.

[Astral_projector]

I also forgot to link to the past artilce Declan had about this when it only passed one chamber:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10052502-38.html#addcomm

If people would like to continue the discussion that was there here, that'd probably be good, because noone questions the nolbe intent of legislation like this, and had this bill passed as intended, rather that get bogged down in Coburn's wranglings, and bascially Reid bent over for Coburn, during an election year of all year, is the the backbone of a Democratic controlled government?

But, anyways, as it was discussed in the previous story about this, now that it is about to become law, how in god's name can they enforce this, it still is, as the House's version, all over the place with definitions, and practically anything that can be deemed "obscene" can be reportted, I'm not sure if you only face fines, or if you face jailtime for not reporting like Schumer wanted, but the fines alone will be enough to drive ISPs to falsely report anything that might be questionable, hell, an adult in pigtails, or whatever the ISPs's state considers "obscene", because in part of the bill it allows for the section 1466A. of USC Title 18 code, the law that designates "obscenity", whether of age or not as being criminal, and because of this, you'll see trials like the Edwin Meese cases of the 80s all over again, only this time it'll be regular joes and ISPs on the hook and not artists... really, this seems to me to be a backdoor ante on the "war on porn", trademarked by Republicans, now followed by Democrats, to pretty mch have a witch hunt payed for by ISPs to take care they don't miss somethin on their networks.

It's like Cuomo's recent shakedowns, but worse, he was just NY AG, he could write legislation and change law on a whim, but these congressional Democrats can.

This bill is scary enough for me to want to take a hiatus from the internet for a while, until I see how these new regs play out and if they go all crazy on this... it doesn't just apply to ISPs, remember, the SAFE Act applies to websites as well, like this one and google, and place on the internet where user-posted content can be found, the hosts of those sites will have to constantly monitor everything, and possibly report things that are not true crimes, in order to feel to fill a quota.

This has bad legislation written all over it, and if we had constitutional courts, it would be thrown out, but seeing as how SCOTUS didn't throw out COPA this last time, or whichever bill it was that said drawing are illegal, I don't hold out much hope this bill will get the proper death it deserves in the court, but if I was an ISP or user-content driven website right now, I'd be drafting up papers with my lawyers for a court challenge.

[Leria]

I swear.... this is more of the federal government wasting their time to persecute people who are of a sexuality that the minority (Yes, the MINORITY) doesn't like. They did it with heterosexuality outside of marriage - it didn't work. They did it for homosexuality - it didn't work. They are now doing it with pedosexuality, and some people out there are stupid enough to think that children can be 'taken advantage of'.

Excuse me, but I was having sex with adults and teenagers as a child, and I could NOT be taken advantage of by anyone. One threat to tell my parents, if I didn't like something that was going on, and those people stopped the things I didn't like. Even then, out of 2000 sexual encounters between 7 and 16, I only had 4 that I really disliked. Two of them.... I'm not even sure that they did happen, I might have been dreaming or having a nightmare actually. The other two...... I was sexually assaulted by a group of black and hispanic boys near where I live who were YOUNGER than me or just a little older than me at 12!

So, adults were not a big 'threat' to me and from talking with other people, children and adults... wasn't a big problem for them.

I feel sorry for the people who are brainwashed into thinking that they were 'taken advantage of' during childhood by someone making love to them. The reality, even with incestual relationships, is that the child in question only 'dislikes' them because they have been brainwashed with religious non-morality.
If they would disregard that non-morality, as I did as early as 4 years old, when I realized that adults were full of BS about sex when I had my first pleasurable sexual encounter with another child..... they wouldn't have ANY harm from the sexual relationships except a more permissive sexual nature, which isn't really a 'bad' thing except in the minds of the religious brainwashed.

People, realize that YOUR CHILDREN HAVE THE SAME RIGHT TO SEX AS YOU DO! If you want to protect them from being forced into sexual relationships against their will, here is how you do it: 1. Legalize pedosexuality, 2. Put massive amounts of dollars into finding cures or vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases, 3. Bring pedosexuality out into the open and allow children from about 2 to be propositioned IN FRONT OF OTHER ADULTS AND CHILDREN, 4. Mandate VERY early sex education, starting from the age of 2, as I did with my cousins and other children with their parents permission (and no, I did not teach them that sex was 'bad' and 'wrong').

Do those 4 things, and a few others I would think of given enough time........ and pedosexuality would be just as safe as heterosexuality is, if not safer than heterosexuality and homosexuality.

[2wired]

wow, you need serious help, and perhaps to chat to some law enforcement people, I'm sure they'd be more than interested in your story.....

[The_Decider]

You are the poster child for this law.

You are so screwed up you can not even see it.

Yes, you were abused and taken advantage of. Seek help.

[The_Truth_about_Us]

Bravo! Bravisimo! It's about time somone sttod up for us. Hello I am Truth and I am proud to say that I am a pedosexual. I have never raped/ abused/ molested anybody nor have I been raped/abused/molested. I know that children are sexual becasue I was when I was young, I just never acted on my desires becasue the world told me it was wrong. I'm happy to say I know better now but I wish I had known back then.
It's time for a change, no longer will we be subject to the hate of the world, it is time we stood up and demaded our freedom, our equility, our justice! I''ve heard people tell me that we (the pedo) are the scum of the earth, that we are a virus in need of a cure, that we should be hunted down and killed in the streets like dogs! Funny part is: the people who say these things are the ones who call us monsters. If you support freedom and that all people have the right to live there lives as they choose, if you support eqaulity and that no one should ever have to suffer becasue their diffrent, if you support Justice and that we all have the unalianable rights of live, liberty and the pursiut of happyness; then you should support us. Our civil rights movment will soon begin.....
Long Live Freedom!
Long Live Equality!
Long Live Justice!
Long Live the Pedosexual!

[humanssssss]

It's interesting how we over the course of the years redefine the meaning of adult. Back in the early 1920's, adult is define as age 14. Before that, adult was defined as age 10. Now there's also a problem with the meaning of age. There's mental age and physical age. According to the law, physical age matters more than mental age. But according to psychological research, mental age matters more. Who is right? The lawmakers who cling to religion or the scientists who study human behavior. I choose the latter.

The influence of the Bible has created laws that are against the natural well being of a human and his needs to reach self-actualization. This fight will continue and the more lawmakers that are hypocrites get lock in jail the better.

[The_Decider]

The problem is that mental age is very subjective and injecting that into the law would be dangerous.

Chronological age is just as flawed but easier to enforce. A 15 year old 150 years ago is different than a 15 year old today. Given that, I think 16 is more fair than 18. It is disgusting that 18 and 19 year olds are in jail because of their 16 year old girlfriend.

[unknown unknown]

They have be careful about enforcing U.S law on the internet. Taking down foreign drug websites because they're illegal in the U.S will likely fan flames for those who want to take control away from the U.S.

[vika_Tae]

I am a little perplexed as to what marking a site as illegal really means.

If a site is hosted in Switzerland, what are the US authorities going to do about it? Fly in with a special ops task force, to force the local populace into submission?

If a site is legal in its home country, there is diddly-squatt the US can do about it. Well, except start censoring the internet in the same fashion as China, cutting IP blocks attached to undesired products off from access to the US at the central net hub level. I personally cannot see them doing that without serious backlash from both commerce and the populace.

[mlccrc]

It appears that many of your readers believe that government protection of children online is somehow an invasion of their privacy. Yet if they were aware of the statistics might think otherwise.
? Child pornography is one of the fastest growing businesses online, and the content is becoming much worse. In 2004, Internet Watch Foundation found 3,433 child abuse domains; in their 2006 annual report, they knew of 10,656 child abuse domains (Internet Watch Foundation. Annual Report, 2006).
Given the numbers above and what happened to Ryan Haight it seems rather clear that we need more protection for our children. Yes, teens are smart and most are internet savvy?however, the internet, while a great resources for children, also has a very dark side.
We need to look at the bigger picture and ensure that ISP?s are responsible for doing all they can to keep predators away from children. We can?t let ISP?s off the hook and not report online child pornography.
Moreover, we need websites such www.guardchild.com that provides parents with the tools they need to protect their children online.