Youth, Pornography, and the Internet (2002) / Chapter Skim
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13. Technology-Based Tools Available to Non-End Users
13. Technology-Based Tools Available to Non-End Users
Pages 327-354
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From page 327... ...
would be reserved for those entities providing adult-oriented, sexually explicit material.] For example, www.
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From page 328... ...
option of selecting a domain known for providing sexually name with a .xxx suffix explicit material to self identify, thus making inad vertent access to such sites less likely .kids domain .kids domain names reserved Provides high assurance that for site with content material from .kids Web sites is appropriate for children appropriate for children Age verification Seeks to ensure that someone Places a major obstacle in the technologies seeking to access adult-oriented path of minors seeking adult sexually explicit content is oriented sexually explicit actually an adult content from commercial sites Tools for Provides tools for content Reduces dissemination of protecting owners to help control illegally copied sexually intellectual dissemination of images they explicit images, which property own constitute a significant amount of the adult-oriented material available online be voluntary or mandatory. If use were mandatory, all providers of adultoriented content would be required to place such content on a Web page with the .xxx TED, and penalties would be established for not doing so.
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From page 329... ...
The institution authorized to establish new top-level domains is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) , a nonprofit corporation that was formed in October 1998 to assume responsibility for the IP address space allocation, protocol parameter assignment, domain name system management, and root server system management functions previously performed under U.S.
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From page 330... ...
By definition, a .xxx domain name is reserved for sexually explicit material and is thus irrelevant for any other material that is non-sexual in nature. It is likely that certain parties will have some incentives to place their content in such a domain.2 After all, they wish their content to be found, and segregating it into an adult-oriented TLD helps to make it found.
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From page 331... ...
Mandatory use of a .xxx domain for sexually explicit material would imply creating a body whose role was to decide what content must be placed into a .xxx domain, and thus would affect all domain name owners, not just those associated with adult-oriented content. However, because "harmful to minors" laws are community-specific, a single body might be tempted to use a "lowest common denominator" approach to such decisions.
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From page 332... ...
For .xxx domain names, the adjudicating body must make decisions about every Web page that is posted on the Internet, because it must decide if such material belongs in a .xxx domain name. Such a task is daunting, and it is virtually impossible that an adjudicating body could do so.
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From page 333... ...
Web pages for such content will by assumption reside underneath the .edu domain of the university. Under a .xxx domain name, another separate category in the domain name service tree must be maintained by the university.
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From page 334... ...
A .xxx domain that is selected voluntarily may have some appeal for enterprises that are involved primarily in providing access to sexually explicit material intended to arouse desire (i.e., what is often known as "pornography") and that use a distribution channel requiring the use of domain names.
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From page 335... ...
As in the case of a .xxx domain, product vendors would have to build software that would provide users with the option of accepting only domain names ending in .kids. Parents, schools, teachers, and other concerned adults would then have to be willing to exercise the options enabled in the software.
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From page 336... ...
One such mechanism is an adjudicating body that decides what organizations would be eligible for a .kids domain name (so that .kids domain names would not be as freely available as today's .com or .net names)
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From page 337... ...
In the presence of an adjudicating body, the body makes decisions about what should and should not be placed in each domain, thus raising the question of what standards should be used by the adjudicating body and how they would be determined. An undetermined aspect of a .kids domain would be the developmental or age level that should govern placement.
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From page 338... ...
Content deemed inappropriate by someone that is found in a .kids domain is likely to lead to lawsuits about false and deceptive advertising; if an adjudicating body is involved, it is likely to be named as well. Also, while the intent of a .kids TED is to make certain material easy to find for children, the existence of a .kids TED makes it easy to restrict children's access only to Web sites in a .kids domain, even though much other material might be both useful and appropriate for them.
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From page 339... ...
13.3 AGE VERIFICATION TECHNOLOGIES Because much of the political debate centers on the access of children to inappropriate sexually explicit material on the Internet, it is natural to examine online methods that can be used to differentiate between adults and children. Age verification technologies seek to distinguish adults from children and to grant access privileges only to adults.
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From page 340... ...
Clicking the "enter" button is taken to be the user's assurance that he or she agrees with the conditions of use, which include stipulations about age. As the structure of the canonical adult Web site indicates, the simplest age verification technology is a Web script that asks the user's age, and in many cases, such a request suffices.
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From page 341... ...
13.3.2 How Well Do Age Verification Technologies Work? In general, AVTs protect against deliberate access to sexually explicit material that is being sold.
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From page 342... ...
The effectiveness of AVTs is mixed, though they clearly do eliminate some significant percentage of children who would otherwise gain access to sexually explicit material. Factors that reduce the effectiveness of credit cards as AVTs include the placement of highly explicit material before credit card numbers must be submitted, possession of credit cards by children (but see Box 13.2)
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From page 343... ...
Because it is the Web site owner that makes the decision to use AVTs, many sites containing what some people consider inappropriate material would not see any need for age verification (e.g., Victoria's Secret)
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From page 344... ...
More rigorous age verification procedures often, but not always, increase the "hassle factor" that users face. For example, the highest degree of reliability is available when public records can be checked and an access code sent to the postal address associated with those records.
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From page 345... ...
does not require personal identification the AVTs specified in the legislation are intended as a way to screen out most minor children, not to obtain the identity of users. However, the transaction between site operator and credit card company inevitably entails some expense for the credit card company, and so the credit card company is not likely to be willing to process such requests if no revenue results from ittherefore, the site operator will submit only transactions that are associated with an actual purchase, rather than a simple age verification request, and purchases are necessarily connected with personal identity.
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From page 346... ...
If, for other reasons, such technologies become common on personal computers and other devices that can be used to access the Internet, those offering adult-only products or services would be able to require a smart card-enabled age verification as a condition of access. Even today, one firm seeks to offer "smart" library cards on which parents can indicate their preference for their children to have filtered or unfiltered Internet access in the library.
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From page 347... ...
Today's credit cards do not distinguish between minor and adult owners. But it is technically feasible for credit cards issued to youth to be tagged with an entry in the credit card company's database saying "do not authorize payment for sexually explicit material." The downside of such an approach is the processing burden that it imposes on the credit card company's systems.
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From page 348... ...
13.3.8 Findings on Age Verification Technologies One approach to protecting children from inappropriate sexually explicit material on the Internet is based on being able to differentiate between children and adults in an online environment, and AVTs are a tool available for doing that.
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From page 349... ...
4. AVTs based on credit cards do provide some significant obstacles to children seeking deliberate access to inappropriate sexually explicit material.
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From page 350... ...
There is some reason to believe that these smaller firms and operating entities are also the parties that are least responsible about keeping children away from their adult-oriented contently To the extent that this is true, drying up the supply of new content for these firms will increase the likelihood of a shakeout in the industry that will increase the prominence of the more established firms at the expense of these smaller ones. 17For example, the smaller ones are likely to derive some considerable fraction of income from raw traffic, thus giving them little incentive to screen out children.
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From page 351... ...
Approaches based on tools to protect intellectual property of the adult entertainment industry are relevant only to content originating there, and have no applicability to content for which no intellectual property rights can be legally asserted. A second benefit of tools that detect possible thefts of intellectual property is in the prosecution of child pornography.
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From page 352... ...
Alternatively, the content providers in the adult industry could develop their own rights management system and require that their content be displayed through it. An essential element of infrastructure for the use of tools to protect intellectual property is an enforcement mechanism.
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From page 353... ...
Purloined content accounts for a significant fraction of sexually explicit material on the Internet, though reliable data on this point is hard to obtain. Tools for protecting such content as the intellectual property of its creators thus have some potential to limit the number of Web sites and channels through which such content might be obtained.
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From page 354... ...
_ Technology-based Tools Labeling material so that Help guide children to parents and others can easily appropriate sites and help to ascertain the appropriateness prevent access to of that material for their inappropriate sites, consistent children with parental values and preferences Public Policy Shape the environment by Provide support for social and reducing educational strategies (e.g., deceptive practices (e.g., new standards of reaming for mouse/rapping, spam, K-12, outreach to parents to capturing of educate them about the misspelled web sites) Intemet)
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