Article 670 of alt.christnet.nudism: Path: matra.meer.net!news.spies.com!news.sgi.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!worldnet.att.net!newsadm From: "W.D. Peckenpaugh" Newsgroups: alt.christnet.nudism Subject: Re: The exploitation of young children Date: Wed, 19 Mar 1997 10:53:34 -0700 Organization: St. Thomas Old Catholic Church Lines: 57 Message-ID: <3330281E.2EA7@priest.com> References: Reply-To: frbill@priest.com NNTP-Posting-Host: 207.147.141.105 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.0b2 (Win95; I) X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Xref: matra.meer.net alt.christnet.nudism:670 nancy funk wrote: > Looking in the newspapers and television, listening to the radio, I find > that the internet is a huge place where sick people exploit helpless young > children. > I find, as a christian that this is wrong, and that people should speak > out. There should be more regulations, and censorship on the net, > especially for these innocent and helpless children who are being > exploited on the internet. > I would like to know how others feel about this. Please respond > to my opinion by responding to the alt.christnet.nudism. > I hope to hear from you soon. > Nestela Funk At first, I thought this was just a troll, but maybe not. "The 'internet' is a huge place where sick people exploit helpless young children." No, the 'net is an interconnection of computers and communications systems. Sick people have been exploiting all sorts of people for thousands of years -- exploitation wasn't invented with the advent of the modem. If someone is going to exploit a child, he or she will do it whether the medium is a computer, telephone, book, magazine, or in person. To paraphrase the familiar NRA slogan, "Computers don't exploit people, people exploit people." Have you also noticed that law enforcement sources state that much of the child pornography that is on the net is simply scanned from 20- to 40-year-old magazines and books? So, although the reproduction of child pornography may continue, it does not mean that each image posted causes "new" exploitation (unless you believe in a "voodoo doll" theory of exploitation by proxy). We must eliminate the cause of the problem, not just the symptoms. "There should be more regulations, and censorship on the net . . ." Who, precisely, will decide the standards for this censorship? You? The government (God forbid!)? Censorship is a non-answer to a miniscule problem on the 'net. For example, there are now over 29,000 known newsgroups, but only several hundred are devoted to sexual images or stories, and only a very few ever contain any images of children being exploited. Are you saying that censoring and regulating all 29,000 newsgroups is the only way to achieve the end of child exploitation? If so, that is a very naive belief. The way to stop exploitation of children is to educate them from birth as to the normalcy and dignity of their bodies (and all of its parts), to instill in them the moral values in which you believe, and [most of all] be an involved & aware parent. How many of the children who actually are exploited do you think come from homes where one or both parents are routinely absent? Or where one or both parents do not know where the kid is, or what he/she id doing, and with whom? How many parents (or other adults) who carp about the "danger of the internet" have actually sat down with their children and watched what they were viewing and downloading? Yes, it would take some time, but that is the job of a parent: to spend time raising your child. Bill+ -- Fr. Bill Peckenpaugh St. Thomas Old Catholic Church frbill@priest.com http://www.wp.com/wdpeck/ /\/UDITY e-zine Editor http://www.nudity-e-zine.com/