Senate panel warns Internet porn vendors

The U.S. Congress will pass new regulations to keep sexually explicit content on the Internet away from minors if the adult industry doesn’t do more to police itself, several senators warned Thursday.

Senator Ted Stevens, chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, told a lawyer for the adult industry that sexually themed Web sites need to create their own ratings system, much like movies and video games are rated. “Tell your clients, they’d better do it soon, or it’ll be mandated,” Stevens said.

The adult industry is willing to work with Congress, but it needs to become better organized and needs the cooperation of Web filtering software makers, said Paul Cambria, general counsel for the Adult Freedom Foundation, a group of adult entertainment vendors advocating adult materials and freedom of speech. But the adult industry is “ready, willing and able” to discuss a ratings system, he said.

One problem with voluntary industry rules is that the Internet enables porn producers “who operate outside the rules,” added James B. Weaver III, professor of communication and psychology at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Weaver called on the Internet community to better educate parents and children about the dangers of pornography.

The hearing came on the same day that the U.S. Department of Justice asked a California court to force Google Inc. to turn over information about usage of the company’s search engine for finding pornography on the Internet. Google said the U.S. government’s demand for information “overreaches.”

While Stevens and other committee members warned Cambria of congressional action if the adult industry does not find better ways to verify the ages of its customers, Senator Blanche Lincoln, an Arkansas Democrat, called on Congress to pass a bill that would require adult Web sites to use age-screening software.

“Despite filtering and blocking technologies, children are accessing more and more sexually explicit materials at home,” Lincoln said. “They are targeted by the [adult] industry.”

The Internet Safety and Child Protection Act, introduced by Lincoln in July, would also create a 25 percent tax on Internet pornography, with the funds used to investigate child pornographers and to create educational programs targeting pornography for parents and children. The porn tax could raise about US$3 billion a year, Lincoln said.

Lincoln’s bill would also require the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to spot-check adult Web sites for the proper use of age-verification mechanisms.

Only about 8 percent of U.S. parents use Web filtering software, said Tatiana Platt, chief trust officer and senior vice president of America Online Inc. AOL has tried to make filters easier to use with an automated filter that recommends a security level based on the ages of children in households, she said.

One problem is that in many homes, the children are more adept on the computer than the parents, said Stevens, the committee chairman.

While the adult industry is willing to work with lawmakers, Cambria noted that adult material is quite popular. About 34 million U.S. residents visited adult Web sites in August 2003, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, and adult Web sites collectively get more page views a day than the top news sites, he said.

REFERENCES: US government wrestles Google for search records, Jan. 19, 2006