Internet PORN, ICANN, and Families: A Call to Action

摘要

The Internet can be a terrifying place. Child pornography is more plentiful and profitable than ever. The average child "with a computer, modem and search engine can find violent, degrading images within minutes, a search that could have taken a lifetime, just fifteen years ago." In 1998, there were only 14 million identified pages of pornography. As of August 2005, the Internet contained more than 15 billion pages of adult content, a 107,042 percent increase. Since then, the amount of Internet pornography has not only increased but has also become easier to access, more difficult to escape, and, with advancing technology, the images are more intense and vivid than ever. Who is advocating for children and families as the governance patterns for the Internet are being formed? Over the last decade, the US government has been transferring control of the operation and maintenance of the Internet to a private corporation, the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). ICANN is currently the most powerful force in global Internet governance. Although ICANN technically does not regulate Internet content, its day-to-day decisions consistently impact not only the structure of the Internet, but content as well. ICANN regularly makes policies fundamental to any potential for protecting children online now or in the future, to stopping the flow of child pornography and hardcore obscenity, to thwarting predators and sex traffickers, and to controlling under-age access to harmful materials.