Senators issue Net porn threats

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January 22, 2006 | Sex & Society

Senators issue Net porn threats

If Paul Cambria's Congressional appearance last week is any indication, the porn industry is standing on shaky ground. In conversations with U.S. Senators about the Internet, Congress threw stone after stone at the First Amendment lawyer and the industry he represents. And Cambria just took it.

Cambria, counsel to the Adult Freedom Foundation, which represents companies that offer "lawful adult-oriented entertainment," met with the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Thursday to discuss its concerns about the growing availability of pornography on the Internet. The committee made many demands and, much to the dismay of many industry observers, Cambria made just as many concessions.

Among those concessions was Cambria's promise that the industry would implement a system of voluntary ratings similar to those used by the film and music industries. He neglected, however, to mention that thousands of adult websites (including BananaGuide) have already rated themselves in order to support Internet filtering technologies designed to keep porn out of kids' hands.

According to AVN Online, Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) told the soft-spoken Cambria, "Clean up your act, or we'll do it for you."

Another point on which Cambria faultered was the discussion of a special dot-xxx url for all adult websites, now pending before the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. YNOT's Darklady reports that Cambria failed to adequately explain the benefits of a more easily targeted and regulated dot-kids domain over a dot-xxx domain, adding that he also missed an opportunity to educate Congress on the shortcomings of online age verification methods.

Maybe instead of a lawyer, the industry should have sent a few male models to Capitol Hill. At least we know they have balls!