The Internet revolutionized how people exchange information, allowing for instant transference of knowledge (and ignorance) across the planet.  It also allowed for the greatest proliferation of pornography, or "porn," in mankind's history.  By 2003, 12% of all sites on the Internet were pornographic, earning 57 billion dollars worldwide, 12 billion in the United States alone.  This is not, in my opinion, the problem.  How people wish to legally destroy their lives, marriages, and families is of no concern to anyone but themselves.  The problem is when people view pornography unwillingly, illegally, or on time and resources that are not theirs.
                There are a number of simple solutions to this problem without ever delving into the issues of free speech, denigration of women, social deterioration, or morality.  If there were a simple and easy way of identifying pornographic material, consumers of pornographic material could go on feeding their desires (or urges, or addictions, or vices, or...).  This would let the morality camp ignore the issue, secure in the knowledge that they and their children would never have to encounter it, and that those engaging in it did so of their own volition, and were destroying their own lives.
                There are a number of feasible methods by which the Internet could be organized and made safe.  One is to create a board of concerned members of the overall population, to rate Internet sites, much like motion pictures are rated by the MPAA.  This group could be governmentally imposed, like the ICANN, or industry imposed, like the aforementioned MPAA.  Rated sites would receive a link-code to place on the main page of their site, creating a rating image with their rating and unique ID number, which could be checked on the boards' website.  They would also receive an additional code, to place on every other page of their site, which would not appear on the page when viewed, but would inform an accessing computer of their rating and ID, allowing a filter to block it before it could load.
                Another possibility, although admittedly less plausible, would be to create a new Internet suffix, or set of suffixes, such as .porn or .xxx or .mat (mature).  There would be no reason for pornography purveyors to create non-.porn/.xxx/.mat sites, because pornography is a business.  Trying to trick people into visiting a pornographic site would be a waste of resources, because someone not wanting to view pornography would not be willing to pay for it, either, ensuring that more visitors to their sites would be potential consumers.

By Ed Boone, B.O.D. Chairman

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