The majority of Americans are moral people. As such, they believe in free speech - but do not condone nor support the pornography that has invaded our country and most recently the Internet.

Pornography sold in the stores is kept separate, in brown wrappers and behind the counter, unless you visit an adult bookstore [and I question the term - adult]. However, on the Internet if you stumble across a porn site, the sleeze is in your face [literally]. Often, there is no introductory screen that says "you are about to enter a porn site, hit your back button to return to your previous page." There is no warning of what is to come - it is already there! They willingly give you a free "sample" to entice you to go further. Even if you arrived there in error, even if you do not intend to go any further, you have already been exposed to porn - its pictures and its language are unmistakeable. And you didn't even ask for it. So, now whose rights have been violated?

Whenever Americans try to abolish or even restrict pornography from the Internet, they encounter the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union] and the Supreme Court. Now, I don't intend on getting into a debate on what "Free Speech" actually means since I have previously written on that subject. But I think if we try hard we can come up with a compromise that will somewhat satisfy both sides of this important issue.

When a company or person selects a domain name for their website; [i.e., ComPortOne] they also select the extension. The extension can be .com [commerical]; .edu [education]; .gov [government]; .net [network]; .mil [military]; .org [organization]; and there are others - biz, ws, name, etc. However, the one they don't have available, but should, is .sex or .xxx. Why? Not because I support or favor porn sites [I don't], but because the porn sites would be easier to identify and regulate. They would be easier to screen. Those who don't want to access porn sites could just set up their computers to not allow any .sex or .xxx sites. How simple. How easy.

The porn sites would still be allowed to run their businesses. They would still be able to peddle their sleeze. However, instead of tricking people into visiting their sites, their content would be obvious since their domain name [and their URL] would show the .sex or .xxx extension.

How do porn sites trick the unsuspecting into visiting their sites? They take a popular domain site's name, change the extension and present it as a porn site [for instance the whitehouse site]. As .gov it is the government site - as a .com it is a porn site. Or a person may mistakenly click on a site only to discover they are in a porn site. They may also get entrapped in that porn site. When they try to get out of the site, by clicking on the browser's back button, they are taken into another porn site or another window with porn opens up. Newbies on the Internet are flustered and may not know how to get out of the porn site. Children trapped inside a porn site may be frightened, both because of the site's content and their fear of being punished.

Another common trick of porn sites is to purchase names similar to the popular domain names. People who think that they are visiting a site they have often visited and happen to mistype the URL [Internet address] may end up at a porn site instead. Why would a porn peddler do that? Trickery... plain and simple. It is commonly known that men and children misspell words significantly more than women. And who are the porn sites targeting? - men and children.

Porn peddlers can get your email or ICQ address. They act as though they know you or you share a mutual friend and send you a personal invitation to visit their interesting site. They have the link pre-coded so all you have to do is to click on it and you will be taken to that very interesting website. While sending unsolicited emails is known as SPAM and is considered unethical and illegal; they continue to send them.

Why should we require all porn sites to use the .sex extension? It would be easier to identify and regulate the porn sites and make sure they are not violating any laws [such as child porn]. Those who do not want to be exposed to porn and want to prevent their children and employees from being exposed to it, would have a fighting chance because porn sites would be easily identifiable.

The porn peddlers will cry foul and say its too expensive. They would complain that their right to free speech is being violated. However, its simply not true. When a business phone number is changed [due to an area code change], a business must incur the expense. If a business changes location, there is a related expense. It is the cost of doing business. And porn sites often bring in incredible amounts of money. The cost of a new domain name is often less than $50-$100 for a two-year period - a miniscule amount of money. If needed, they could have three months of a referral site; which would be their old site redirecting their visitors to their new site. After that, it is over. Their free speech is not being violated since they are allowed to be on the Internet. They would just be in a Internet world of their own; easily accessed by those who want to see them and easily avoided by those who choose not to visit their sites. It appears to be a win-win situation. Countries that refuse to require .sex domains for their porn sites could also be banned from your computer. Since foreign businesses would not accept that possibility, they too would put pressure on their government to agree to the .sex domains.

True, it isn't my idea of the perfect answer to creating a moral society. In a moral society, no porn sites would exist. But we have to face facts, we are not a truely moral society. We will never be a clean and moral society as long as groups such as the ACLU and the Supreme Court misuse their power and misinterpret the laws and the constitution. But take heart, we can, and should, require regulation, while we continue to pray for the day our leaders and the moral majority have the moral guts to really make a difference.

Connie Eccles, CEO of ComPortOne

Articles by Connie Eccles, CPO Editor
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