Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 10:32:37 +0930 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: mccarty <amccarty@pacbell.net> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: customer dissatisfaction Message-ID: <20000717103237.H57098@wantadilla.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <008501bfef6e$dc126fa0$d1d167d8@pacbell.net> References: <008501bfef6e$dc126fa0$d1d167d8@pacbell.net>
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[Format recovered--see http://www.lemis.com/email/email-format.html] On Sunday, 16 July 2000 at 17:43:20 -0400, mccarty wrote: > I am very disturbed by the growing trend towards institutionalizing > pornography as part of mainstream American culture, and the > increasingly easy access to children of just about anything one can > or can't imagine. Why is Yahoo providing infrastructure to support > this? I can only surmise - for the same reason ATT acquired the > rights to distribute XXX pornographic films over the internet on > Xcite@Home (now I understand why they named it xcite@home?) - pure > profits. > > I'm not trying to take a public stand on whether some or all forms > of pornography should be legal, etc. My main areas of concern are > the following: > > 1) The issue of accessibility is a serious problem. After a few > keystrokes, a 10 year old can click on a button that says he's 18 and > can get free access to thousands of samples of ANY KIND OF > PORNOGRAPHIC MATERIAL. Regardless of whether you think pornography > is good, immoral, or should be illegal, I think most people would > agree that it is not a healthy thing for kids to get drawn into. > Access to physical forms of pornography are restricted (e.g., > magazines, videos, sex clubs), either geographically, or be physical > access restrictions, or both. Access to electronic formats, > including some truly abominable stuff, is virtually unrestricted. > There is a large quantity of EXTREME and potentially even illegal > material available FREE on the internet. It would be an > understatement to say I believe this is having a negative effect on > the emotional development of the world's children. > > 2) Yahoo! is providing a playground for sexual predators. Yahoo > tolerates (encourages?) these sex clubs because they generate > revenue. The sex clubs exist ostensibly to provide a forum for > public discussion of adult topics. In practice, they are just > advertisements and/or links to pornography sites, and watering holes > for child molestors and other sexual predators. And I believe the > easy access and ubiquity helps condition potential victim's to think > of these kinds of sexual activities as "normal", lowers inhibitions, > etc. > > 3) The third big issue I have with all this is the MAINSTREAMING of > this kind of stuff - the idea that Yahoo! and ATT are turning > dissemmination of pornography int an acceptable profit-making > activity for major US corporations, and expect that noone will blink > an eye. No, I'm sorry, but I don't think pornography should be > commercialized and institutionalized. Guess what, if this trend > continues, I bet the kids won't be trading Pokemon cards at the > playground much longer! I am very concerned about a number of issues as well: 1. People purporting to represent minority groups sending off-topic messages to user groups. Spam is bad enough when it's done for advertising purposes. 2. The increasing violence in American entertainment, presumably helped by people like you who see pornography as a bigger problem. 3. The illiteracy of people using Email. I had to spend some time to make your mutilated message readable. > I plan to boycott Yahoo! until something is done to correct this > situation. Companies that partner with Yahoo! or pay to advertise > on Yahoo! should also understand that they are supporting this > infrastructure with their advertising dollars as well. Please > consider your actions carefully. While you're at it, please boycott us as well. Greg Lehey -- When replying to this message, please copy the original recipients. For more information, see http://www.lemis.com/questions.html Finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key See complete headers for address and phone numbers To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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