Action Needed By Congress To Protect Youth From Porno Websites Using Retinal Scan Technology
By CHARLES C. SCHULTZ
Published June 30, 2012
Kids can and will say the darndest things. On rare occasion, these things will cause concern. My seven-year-old son had a most alarming question for me while we were eating our vegan bacon last Sunday.
My seven-year-old son said, “Daddy, when people have sex why do they move their hair out of the way.” Of course, he was referring to the practice in pornography films in which partners brush aside the hair from their partner’s face. This practice allows the camera to have an unobstructed view of the sex act and the emotive expressions on the face of the partner.
My son is not alone in terms of underage pornography viewing. Millions of children across the country – inadvertently or not – learn about sex through the internet. The fallout is accelerated puberty and unrealistic expectations of women’s attractiveness. Mobile devices and free porn websites like youporn.com only exacerbate the problem.
Our Congress must enact a uniform law to secure smut websites from the wandering eyes of our youth. The most promising technology to achieve this is retinal scan technology. With existing technology, all websites featuring nudity or sex acts can be prohibited until the computer user is cleared by a retinal scan. Under this plan, the retinal scan would transmit to a database of all U.S. adults over the age of 18. Once the database confirms the age of the viewer, the user can then assess the website. To pay for the costs of the plan, the federal government could levy a one cent tax on all sales of Lubriderm.
My seven-year-old son said, “Daddy, when people have sex why do they move their hair out of the way.”
Retinal scans can and should secure smut from the eyes of our youth. When they reach the age of majority, they will have plenty of time to stroke the keys and reach for the tissue.
Charles C. Schultz is a senior fellow at the Hoover Instituion at Stanford University.