Congressional Hearings

More legislation and governmental restrictions are not going to solve this ‘problem’. I still do not see it as a problem. Parents need to monitor their kids internet activity, end of story. Too much trouble — too bad, you have to do what you have to do. You wouldn’t let your kid run around at night in a section of town known for drugs and pedophiles, why in heavens name would you let them run around on the internet by themselves? It’s the same thing. People have to realize that the virtual world does cross into reality right through their living rooms.

I do advocate the education of parents. One of the other blogs mentioned that some parents are clueless when it comes to the computer let alone to know enough to install blockers and filters, I find that very disturbing that kids are more computer literate than their parents. How can you keep someone safe if you’re behind him or her and not in front blocking for him or her? Parents need to educate themselves on the Internet and the use of a computer…knowledge is power.

Throwing more tax dollars and more regulations is not going to alleviate. Since when is the government a babysitter and why should I have to pay for it? All it is going to do is make it more difficult for law-abiding citizens of legal age to view what they want to view in the privacy of their own home.

I also noticed that there was only one person testifying for the industry; of course, that person was conveniently cut because of time constraints. However, there was plenty of time for the dribblings of Dr. James Weaver – communications and psych professor from Virginia Tech who insists that twenty years of research shows an increase in sexual callousness in men — the same results would be shown in viewing slasher films. He also said that kids rely on the Internet as sex educators, again, back to the parents. His testimony added absolutely no value.

My favorite was Tatiana Platt, SVP for AOL. She touted AOL’s parental control programs. She had said something about stopping the transfer of this trash to children, what a hypocrite! According to the text, AOL perfected the art of providing safe havens for pedophiles to exchange their wares in complete privacy. Dr. H.’s monitoring of one of the chat rooms saw them come in list themselves for pics and leave or they would instant message and soon the room would disappear. AOL’s instant messaging and chat rooms were its bread and butter when they first started out as an hourly rate. I’m sure they were shocked to find out that people were using their services in just this way, please, they did the research and they knew exactly what they were going for. The hypocrisy surrounding pornography is so pathetic.

Then there was Tim Lordan, he couldn’t utter a complete coherent sentence, had no idea what he had to say and didn’t much care.