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ACTION ALERT: Help Stop the “.XXX” Internet Domain

TAKE ACTION:

To stop the .XXX domain, comments may be emailed to [email protected] by May 10.

Kill the .XXX Domain – – Start a War on Pornography Instead

[Washington, DC – 5/6/10] – “The [proposal to establish the] .XXX domain should be killed and a stake driven through its heart so it never rises again,” said Patrick Trueman, former U.S. Department of Justice pornography prosecutor. For more than ten years, the promoter of this new porn domain for the Internet has tried to get the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the Internet governing agency, to establish an additional place on the Internet for access to pornography, Trueman noted. “Not one sound argument has been put forward for why the world needs more Internet pornography.”

Trueman said, “What is needed instead of a .XXX domain is a war on pornography.” The public should call a halt to widespread distribution of pornography because of the terrible harm such material is causing. “There are four major harms from pornography; harm to children, violence against women, addiction to men women and children, and increased sex trafficking.” He outlined these harms:

  1. It is causing great harm to children who have easy access to hardcore porn as soon as they are on computers. Also, men looking at porn are deviating to harder and harder material to get a sexual high and many are turning to child porn and child molestation.
  2. Violence against women is now a feature in most hardcore films and this is developing violent attitudes towards women and girls, according to research.
  3. Addiction to pornography is now an untreated pandemic. The brain science research on pornography demonstrates that men are never satisfied with what they see in porn and thus are driven to consume more and more until addiction develops.
  4. Finally, pornography leads many to act out what they see and that’s leading to an increase in prostitution. A significant amount of prostitution today involves sexually trafficked women and girls. The research on children involved in commercial sex is staggering with studies indicating that approximately 250,000 juveniles are involved in trafficking. Large numbers of foreign and domestic adult women are also trafficked to meet the demand for prostitution.

Trueman also noted that countless marriages are breaking up because of pornography, and sexual promiscuity among the young is growing. He cited the new cell phone trend called “sexting” as evidence of promiscuity. “Sexting is primarily a matter of children producing and distributing child pornography,” an exceedingly alarming development in America. Trueman said he believes that kids involved in sexting are steeped in Internet pornography for years before they begin producing and distributing it. Their normal inhibitions have been destroyed, he said.

Trueman is leading a nationwide effort called “The War on Illegal Pornography,” designed to get the U.S. Department of Justice to enforce federal laws against illegal pornography. The Department is not enforcing federal laws prohibiting distribution of hardcore pornography on the Internet, on [television] and in retail stores. The War on Illegal Pornography is a coalition effort lead by Morality in Media and has more than 50 concerned organizations involved so far. A new website called Pornography Harms has been developed to provide accurate, peer-reviewed research on the harmful effects resulting from pornography. “Education on the devastating harm from pornography is critical to our efforts to get Federal laws enforced, Trueman said.

Trueman is the former chief of the U.S. Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. He can be reached at (703) 938-1776.

TAKE ACTION:

To stop the .XXX domain, comments may be emailed to [email protected] by May 10.