Putting the xxx back into porn sites
INTERNET: Students to lobby Congress to change addresses for explicit Web sites.By A.J. GARDNER/Staff Writer
APPLE VALLEY — At first glance, the Web site address www.whitehouse.com sounds like a place for political information.
But point your browser there and you'll quickly discover it's a pornographic site. So is www.pray.com. And if you misspell a popular Web site address like www.angelfire.com, you'll likely be taken on a ride into the world of Internet porn.
When you try to click out of that site, additional screens from other porn sites will pop up. And when you click out of those, even more will flood your computer screen.
Dodging and eliminating this abyss of porn is tough for even an adult, but imagine the shock a child gets when they misspell the name of their favorite cartoon's Web site.
High school seniors at Apple Valley's Academy of Academic Excellence say it's a tricky way for porn sites to prey on children, but they claim they have the solution.
And they are taking that solution to Congress.
The students propose that a law be passed to require all Internet porn sites to carry an .xxx suffix at the end of the site's address.
They say deceptively-named Web sites infringe on a child's First Amendment rights. So a crafty sounding address like www.whitehouse.com would change to www.whitehouse.xxx. "We wanted to do it because we've stumbled upon it (pornography) and we don't want it," senior Julie Beckett said. "Right now we could be part of history."
The students have started a petition and are gathering names in high schools and at Victor Valley Community College.
They plan to meet with an aid from the office of Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, to discuss additional steps in the lawmaking process. Then they will lobby in Washington before the end of the school year.
"We are just a group of students concerned with what's going on in our schools, and we've got to convince Congress it's a good idea," Beckett said.
The high school seniors present this case: The reclassification of the .xxx suffix protects children from stumbling across the adult sites because only those who specifically want to see porn would think to type the triple X at the end of the address.
Anyone who wishes to eliminate porn sites from their Internet usage could very simply program their computers to avoid all sites with the .xxx prefix.
The students believe this method would work better than parental control software like Net Nanny and Mayberry because those programs need to be updated more frequently and also block non-porn Web sites, such as medical sites, by default.
The students say they aren't out to exterminate Internet porn, because they believe the First Amendment gives porn sites the right to be on the Internet.
"We don't care about that. We want people to have the option to not have to look at it," Beckett said.
Because other groups like schools and governmental sites are required to register under suffixes like .edu, .gov and .org, the students think adding .xxx as the porn community's official suffix would avoid addressing the First Amendment argument while protecting kids.
"There is a difference between having the freedom to market something and disguising it when you market it," senior Chris Davis said.
While Davis is a student at Apple Valley High School, he said he found petitions at VVC and began gathering signatures independently.
Beckett said anyone can pick up a petition sheet from the academy or VVC to help in the cause.
Teacher and academy Principal Rick Piercy originally gave the idea to his senior government students in August after hearing the idea from a friend.
The students have collected 1,600 signatures since and plan to have a Web site up by January of 2001 to gather signatures from across the country.
They hope to show Congress as many as 1 million signatures if the idea gathers momentum. "They took this on," Piercy said. "They are really concerned and these students are of integrity and I am really proud of that."
Beginning in January, those interested in signing the petition can go to the academy's Web site at www.avstc.org.
Used with persmission by Daily Press, Freedom Communication, 2000