Children and the Internet - Online Pornography

Children's ever-increasing Net access, much of it unsupervised, has generated concerns beyond those about target marketing. Many parents worry about children's exposure to inappropriate Web site content, such as excessive violence and pornography. Suggested methods for combating this problem include creating special domain names, such as.xxx to indicate sexually explicit sites, and others to specify content acceptable for children—similar to the rating system used for movies. However, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has rejected this option because of the inability to adequately enforce such an arrangement.

In addition to accessing online pornography, children also may serve as its subjects. Sites featuring illegal child pornography prompted the creation of Condemned.org, an activist group dedicated to eradicating such sites, whether by hacking into child pornography servers or prosecuting them through standard legal channels. Internet users can report U.S. child pornography sites and the servers carrying them via an online template, and the information is then forwarded to the FBI. The FBI and U.S. Customs Service cooperate with foreign governments on international investigations of child pornography sites. However, servers located in countries that lack treaties with the U.S. are often difficult to shut down.