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Protecting Minors from Porn
There’s a new Michigan state register (at
https://www.protectmichild.com/) in the works to create a
database of e-mail addresses that cannot (under penalty of the
law) be spammed with content that could be deemed objectionable
to children, most notably porn. The database will extend to
include pager and cell phone numbers sometime in the future.
Right now, it’s sort of like the national DO NOT CALL registry,
but for electronic mail.
What happens is that parents and guardians write or phone in the
addresses that their children and wards have access to. The
project is in the registry phase right now, i.e e-mail addresses
are still being compiled (as of July 1). The actual DO NOT EMAIL
statute takes effect on August 1.
E-mail advertisers must, from here on in, crosscheck this state
list before sending out their e-mail newsletter or advertising
to ensure that they’re not sending mail to an address that kids
under 18 have access to. The penalties for infringement are
reasonably stiff, not too much so. They’re certainly stiffer
than the ones for the DO NOT CALL register (I checked because
I’m on that one).
Someone needs to send this to Capitol Hill so that our national
legislators can see what a child-protection law looks like; for
the next time they try to come up with a statute as half-hearted
- supposedly well-intentioned, but flawed in design - as Title
18 U.S.C. §2257.
I believe that a noble, decent, and well-intended law/statute -
at it’s basic core - should do three things: 1. Lay down
boundaries for proper conduct; 2. Seek to punish those who cross
those boundaries; and in so doing 3. Do everything within its
reasonable power to prevent transgressions in the future.
Everybody and their brother in the adult industry knows that the
new 2257 statute regulations that just kicked in are a joke. The
spirit of 2257, as it is expounded upon in the entire 110th
chapter of that section of the US code, is to prevent the abuse
of children, sexually and otherwise. Now it’s one thing to
require that porn content producers ascertain and maintain proof
of identity and age for prospective adult performers. It would
be irresponsible on the part of government and the adult
industry not to keep up on such record-keeping.
As a matter of fact, long before the biggest underage actress
hoopla came along, in the guise of Traci Lords, porn studios
were checking IDs. (For those who don’t know, Lords was an
underage porn actress that “snuck” into the business and
appeared in many videos. When the studios that produced her
videos got wind of her actual age at the time of her
performances, they pulled her content from store shelves.)
But this notion that a consistently enforced 2257 (like that
which is imposed at the present) would have prevented the Lords
incident is mistakable. 2257 would not have made her
authentic-looking proof of age look any more fake. A lot of
people may not believe this but the adult industry does a pretty
good job of policing itself. The only way a minor could enter
the industry is if he or she made a conscious decision to apply
to be a pornstar, and took certain premeditated steps to make
the dream a reality (in terms of obtaining said Ids). Where is
the punishment for minors who knowingly attempt to enter the
industry while underage?
I’m sure some manner of punishment, in terms of juvenile
detention, would deter future mid-teens from trying to pass off
some fake IDs. Isn’t that what correctional facilities are for?
The primary purpose of a prison or a detention facility should
be (if a detainee can be salvaged or rehabbed) to prevent
mal-behavior in the future, primary to punishment of said
offenders.
The jailing of unwitting and honest porn execs (and I do know
there are a lot of shady people in the business) for a crime
perpetrated by an unethical minor seems highly unfair. It would
be like punishing the makers of a completely legitimate
pharmaceutical or hospital drug like opium because there are
illicit dealers who dispense their products on the street. Are
not only the offenders (the drug dealers) in this case punished?
Granted, under the Michigan law, giving admitted or intended
pedophiles (who pose as electronic spammers) access to
children’s phone numbers and e-mail addresses is almost like
putting a leash on a wolf and walking him right up to the
sheep’s pen. But you would be mistaken if you thought a
pedophile determined to strike again would otherwise have no
other means to re-commit his heinous crimes.
The Michigan statute just serves to lay down boundaries and
define precise, justifiable repercussions for crossing such
boundaries. In the end, the law does what it’s supposed to do:
protect the children and see to it (within reasonable
expectation) that pedophile crimes don’t happen again - by
putting away and/or deterring would be molesters. On the other
hand, 2257 as it stands does little to protect or serve anyone.
Finally, a child-welfare law (The Michigan Children’s Protection
Registry) that actually serves its purpose. If President Bush,
Attorney General Gonzales, and the Department of Justice were
not so hell-bent on ridding the US - or maybe the universe for
that matter - of pornography in all shapes and forms, they would
see that 2257 just doesn’t do what they believe it will do. Or
maybe they already knew that, and their mind set is bye-bye,
see-ya to porn anyway?
And that heavy hand on the adult industry is about to get
heavier now that the semi-liberal, semi-conservative Justice
O’Connor just retired. But that‘s a story for another day…
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