www.nasa.com

[Thomas W. Perrin]

Well said, Sheryl.  

For the searcher and the selector, this points out the necessity of
being careful what you type.  There are significant differences between:

http://www.nsa.gov
http://www.nsa.org
http://www.nasa.com
http://www.nasa.gov

That's an education problem, not a censorship issue.

Thomas W. Perrin




Sheryl Dwinell wrote:
> 
> At 01:24 PM 7/1/97 -0700, you wrote:
> >Has everyone heard about www.nasa.com?
> >A filtering vendor told me about it.  WWW.NASA.GOV is *the* most popular
> >site for children.  WWW.NASA.COM contains PORN ADS!!
> >This is the best example yet of Internet "porn pushing" to minors.
> 
> Oooh, too bad the CDA didn't pass, we could find their ISP and lock them
> all in jail for 2 years! Geez! Get a grip.  First, how do you know that
> NASA is THE most popular site for children? What demographic data supports
> this assertion?  Second, aside from the ad banner at the top for a porn
> site, the rest of the site looks pretty innocuous. Third, how many kids sit
> down at a terminal and type in www.reallycoolplace.whatever.  Fourth, when
> you link to NASA from any resource like Infoseek, Excite or Yahoo you'll
> get the 'real' NASA.  Fifth, how is this an example of porn pushing to
> minors?  Considering that you have to be a 'member' to really see the
> 'goods', it seems they're pushing to adults, the ones who have the credit
> cards. Emblazoned all over the nasty site are warnings that this is for
> adults only.  Legally, the providers of this site have done everything they
> need to do.
> 
> For every example like this there are a thousand more wonderful,
> educational, and fun sites that kids can access.
> 
> If we keep yammering incessantly about porn on the Net, don't you think it
> will just make kids more and more intrigued?  Why do you think there is so
> much porn on the Net, anyway? Because it is profitable. In fact, it is one
> of the most profitable markets online. Who do you think is paying for it?
> 10 year olds? Of course not. It's adults. Were these adults exposed to
> massive amounts of porn on the Net when they were growing up...oops, no
> there wasn't a Net was there. People have always been fascinated with porn
> and always will.
> 
> If you want to keep kids away from the possiblity of even stumbling across
> this stuff, then propose a remedy for your own library.  Not every library
> has a problem or a crisis with kids accessing porn, so let's not blow this
> issue even more out of proportion than it already has become.
> 
> Sheryl Dwinell
> Cataloger/Database Management Librarian
> Memorial Library * Marquette University
> P.O. Box 3141 * Milwaukee, WI 53201-3141
> 414-288-3542 * dwinells at vms.csd.mu.edu