The number of kids viewing online pornography is increasing, with one in four reporting they’ve at least caught a glimpse of X-rated material on the Internet, and two-thirds of those said the images were uninvited, according to a University of New Hampshire study published Monday. Forty-two percent of Internet users, aged 10 to 17, said they came across some form of online pornography in a recent 12-month span, the study reported. Whether the images were sought out or stumbled upon accidentally, both were related to the use of file-sharing programs to download images.
I always worry about story like these because they only appeal to people who don't use the internet. I use the net on a daily basis and have not accidentally stumbled onto porn in years. Back when porn sites were allowed to create look-alike names, such as whitehouse.com, one could accidentally type in the wrong address and get a surprise. Nowadays, one just about has to intentionally look for porn to find it. The article does gloss over one detail, that the problem is happening because kids are using file-sharing programs to mostly download copyrighted content illegally. I don't do that and that might explain the difference. The article doesn't really delve into that detail because it is one of the primary differences between how adults and kids surf the net. Most adults can afford to buy CDs, but kids have more limited earnings and are more likely to use file-sharing programs to get content that they cannot afford. In most instances, doing so is illegal. The primary problem I have with porn being thrown at me is through spam. The problem is less that of porn spam than spam, period. I spend no more time looking at porn spam than I do spam for viagra, phony degrees, and whatever additional multitude of crap that spammers throw my way. It's that accumulation of unwanted garbage that deluges my mailboxes that I want stopped. I've had to abandon email addresses because the spam drowned out the messages I wanted. Put more teeth into anti-spam laws and porn spam will disappear as quickly as regular spam.
Report: More Kids Exposed to Online Porn
Posted by: Tim Gray February 5, 2007 11:35 AMThe number of kids viewing online pornography is increasing, with one in four reporting they’ve at least caught a glimpse of X-rated material on the Internet, and two-thirds of those said the images were uninvited, according to a University of New Hampshire study published Monday. Forty-two percent of Internet users, aged 10 to 17, said they came across some form of online pornography in a recent 12-month span, the study reported. Whether the images were sought out or stumbled upon accidentally, both were related to the use of file-sharing programs to download images.
The article does gloss over one detail, that the problem is happening because kids are using file-sharing programs to mostly download copyrighted content illegally. I don't do that and that might explain the difference. The article doesn't really delve into that detail because it is one of the primary differences between how adults and kids surf the net. Most adults can afford to buy CDs, but kids have more limited earnings and are more likely to use file-sharing programs to get content that they cannot afford. In most instances, doing so is illegal.
The primary problem I have with porn being thrown at me is through spam. The problem is less that of porn spam than spam, period. I spend no more time looking at porn spam than I do spam for viagra, phony degrees, and whatever additional multitude of crap that spammers throw my way. It's that accumulation of unwanted garbage that deluges my mailboxes that I want stopped. I've had to abandon email addresses because the spam drowned out the messages I wanted. Put more teeth into anti-spam laws and porn spam will disappear as quickly as regular spam.