Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2000 17:43:20 -0400 From: mccarty <amccarty@pacbell.net> To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: customer dissatisfaction Message-ID: <008501bfef6e$dc126fa0$d1d167d8@pacbell.net>
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[-- Attachment #1 --] Dear Sirs: I am very disturbed by the growing trend towards institutionalizing pornography as part of mainstream American culture, and the increasingly easy access to children of just about anything one can or can't imagine. Why is Yahoo providing infrastructure to support this? I can only surmise - for the same reason ATT acquired the rights to distribute XXX pornographic films over the internet on Xcite@Home (now I understand why they named it xcite@home?) - pure profits. I'm not trying to take a public stand on whether some or all forms of pornography should be legal, etc. My main areas of concern are the following: 1) The issue of accessibility is a serious problem. After a few keystrokes, a 10 year old can click on a button that says he's 18 and can get free access to thousands of samples of ANY KIND OF PORNOGRAPHIC MATERIAL. Regardless of whether you think pornography is good, immoral, or should be illegal, I think most people would agree that it is not a healthy thing for kids to get drawn into. Access to physical forms of pornography are restricted (e.g., magazines, videos, sex clubs), either geographically, or be physical access restrictions, or both. Access to electronic formats, including some truly abominable stuff, is virtually unrestricted. There is a large quantity of EXTREME and potentially even illegal material available FREE on the internet. It would be an understatement to say I believe this is having a negative effect on the emotional development of the world's children. 2) Yahoo! is providing a playground for sexual predators. Yahoo tolerates (encourages?) these sex clubs because they generate revenue. The sex clubs exist ostensibly to provide a forum for public discussion of adult topics. In practice, they are just advertisements and/or links to pornography sites, and watering holes for child molestors and other sexual predators. And I believe the easy access and ubiquity helps condition potential victim's to think of these kinds of sexual activities as "normal", lowers inhibitions, etc. 3) The third big issue I have with all this is the MAINSTREAMING of this kind of stuff - the idea that Yahoo! and ATT are turning dissemmination of pornography int an acceptable profit-making activity for major US corporations, and expect that noone will blink an eye. No, I'm sorry, but I don't think pornography should be commercialized and institutionalized. Guess what, if this trend continues, I bet the kids won't be trading Pokemon cards at the playground much longer! I plan to boycott Yahoo! until something is done to correct this situation. Companies that partner with Yahoo! or pay to advertise on Yahoo! should also understand that they are supporting this infrastructure with their advertising dollars as well. Please consider your actions carefully. Sincerely, John McCarty [-- Attachment #2 --] <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 5.50.4134.600" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> <P class=MsoSalutation style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.5in">Dear Sirs:</P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.5in"> <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></P> <P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.5in">I am very disturbed by the growing trend towards institutionalizing pornography as part of mainstream American culture, and the increasingly easy access to children of just about anything one can or can't imagine. <B>Why is Yahoo providing infrastructure to support this?</B> I can only surmise - for the same reason ATT acquired the rights to distribute XXX pornographic films over the internet on <A href="mailto:Xcite@Home">Xcite@Home</A> (now I understand why they named it <A href="mailto:xcite@home">xcite@home</A>?) - pure profits.<BR><BR>I'm not trying to take a public stand on whether some or all forms of pornography should be legal, etc. My main areas of concern are the following:<BR><BR>1) The issue of accessibility is a serious problem.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>After a few keystrokes, a 10 year old can <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>click on a button that says he's 18 and can get free access to thousands of samples of ANY KIND OF PORNOGRAPHIC MATERIAL.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Regardless of whether you think pornography is good, immoral, or should be illegal, I think most people would agree that it is not a healthy thing for kids to get drawn into. Access to physical forms of pornography are restricted (e.g., magazines, videos, sex clubs), either geographically, or be physical access restrictions, or both. Access to electronic formats, including some truly abominable stuff, is virtually unrestricted. There is a large quantity of EXTREME and potentially even illegal material available FREE on the internet.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It would be an understatement to say I believe this is having a negative effect on the emotional development of the world's children.<BR><BR>2) Yahoo! is providing a playground for sexual predators. Yahoo tolerates (encourages?) these sex clubs because they generate revenue. The sex clubs exist ostensibly to provide a forum for public discussion of adult topics. In practice, they are just advertisements and/or links to pornography sites, and watering holes for child molestors and other sexual predators. And I believe the easy access and ubiquity helps condition potential victim's to think of these kinds of sexual activities as "normal", lowers inhibitions, etc.<BR><BR>3) The third big issue I have with all this is the MAINSTREAMING of this kind of stuff - the idea that Yahoo! and ATT are turning dissemmination of pornography int an acceptable profit-making activity for major US corporations, and expect that noone will blink an eye. No, I’m sorry, but I don't think pornography should be commercialized and institutionalized. Guess what, if this trend continues, I bet the kids won't be trading Pokemon cards at the playground much longer!<BR><BR>I plan to boycott Yahoo! <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>until something is done to correct this situation.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Companies that partner with Yahoo! or pay to advertise on Yahoo! <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>should also understand that they are supporting this infrastructure with their advertising dollars as well.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Please consider your actions carefully.</P> <P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.5in"> <o:p></o:p></P> <P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.5in">Sincerely,</P> <P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.5in"> <o:p></o:p></P> <P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.5in">John McCarty</P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>
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