Laptop for the masses

..... to install filters.

Steps had to be taken here when computers came into the classrooms, and then parental controls for those in the home.

Angeline
Speakeasy Moderator

give a kid access to the Internet, and he'll find porn. Heck I bet if they gave these laptops to a bunch of Amish boys they'd be staring at some within an hour.

I have to wonder, too, if the computer giveaway in Africa is causing the upsurge in scam emails I've been getting...

All the more reason for .xxx and no others for porn.

In fact, I think Internet porn should be illegal every where as it is so easily available to children. Otherwise kids [will] eventually find a way around filters. Kids are incessantly curious, even about things they already know.

Charlie

Charlie,
It's naive to think you can legislate morality by making internet porn illegal. Take a look at internet gambling, or drugs, or smoking.

Gambling is illegal in some areas, but is still prevalent on the internet and hasn't slowed down gamblers who live in those areas. Alcohol is legal for those of a certain age, while most other drugs have been deemed illegal, but in most cities you can buy pot, cocaine, heroine, methaphetamine, ecstasy, and any other illegal substance you can think of. All gambling or drugs being illegal has done has made it so that instead of doing something others consider harmful, they are now doing something illegal.

Now consider smoking. Still legal, except certain types of cigars due to trade restrictions, etc. In 1948 82% of the adult male population smoked. In 2002 it was down to 20%. The decline in tobacco use is not because it was made illegal, but because it has been identified as being harmful to a person's health, and social stigmas of yellow teeth, bad breath, stinky clothes, and the other 'joys of smoking'.

The only way to get rid of porn, gambling, and other things that you might find harmful to society is to get rid of society's desire to view it or do it.

I think not believing in God or some higher power can be harmful to society, but I wouldn't want to make being an athiest illegal.

We used to live in a world that talked about and thought highly of freedom and now governments at every level have legislated themselves into our homes, our jobs, and every aspect of our lives, rarely with any ryme or reason. Here in Florida, if in a car I have to buckle my seatbelt or I can be fined. But I can ride my motorcycle without a helmet. If my kids ride their bikes without helmets, I as their parent can be fined or arrested. But if they ride skateboards without helmet or pads, well there are no laws against that.

And while our government representatives make laws to regulate, censor, and constrict our rights and freedoms, they go out at night and break any number of laws showing that they don't actually have any respect for the laws they are putting into place. How many senators or representatives have been arrested for breaking a law in the past 5 years? A couple dozen? How many legislators at the state level? A couple hundred? A couple thousand? How many are currently on probation for some offense of breaking the law, while they sit in the legislative sessions making new ones?

Our current president and the previous president have pardoned people who were convicted for perjury. Do you know how hard it is to teach a child that it is wrong to lie, when this is the example being set?

No thank you. I will trust myself to protect my children long before I will trust a politician to not corrupt my children, so you can keep your laws to yourself.