Tricks Pornographers Play

By Jerry Ropelato

There was a time when tricking a teen into viewing pornography meant that his pals pasted a Playboy centerfold into his locker. On the other hand, if he went looking for it, he could've gotten hold of a magazine or two through an unscrupulous store clerk or a friend?s older brother. But once those few pages had exhausted their appeal, there was no full-scale blitz to deluge him with more.

Times have changed. Not only is pornography today more lewd and provocative, but its peddlers (now part of a multi-billion dollar business) are much more aggressive in their recruitment of new customers. For both sides, the Internet has offered up a crucial ingredient to the burgeoning industry--anonymity. No need to leave one?s home to purchase pornography. Now, a never--ending supply of ever more erotic and interactive pornography can be accessed and experienced in a completely private world. And now, teen boys aren't the sole target. To a pornographer, anyone with a computer is a potential addict.

Just about anyone who has used the Internet-from 7--year-old boys to 80-year-old grandmas--knows that pornography is just a click away. But most Internet users still believe that unless they go looking for porn, it won't find them. What they don't realize, however, is how aggressively pornographers are implementing new strategies in marketing and technology to actually push pornography to unwitting users, without their consent, and often even without their knowledge.

DECEPTION

The most common technique for tricking the Internet user is by sheer deception. When you walk into your neighborhood grocery store, you expect to find groceries on the shelves. But if, instead, you find thousands of explicit pornographic videos, you would be outraged. If the store appeared just as it did yesterday with the same name and same signs, wouldn't any unsuspecting shopper assume it was the same grocery store and not a porn outlet? Sound far-fetched? Not on the Internet!

Porn-Napping

It is a common practice among pornographers to purchase expired domain names when the original owner forgets to renew the current domain name, a strategy known as "porn-napping." After purchasing the expired domain name, they then redirect the expired URL back to their own porn sites. Porn-nappers sometimes offer to resell the domain name back to the original owner for an exorbitant fee that borders on extortion.

Thousands of well-known companies have learned the hard way how critical it is to keep tabs on their domain registrations. Due to an unfortunate clerical error, the accounting firm of Ernst and Young let the registration lapse on their children?s money management site, moneyopolis.org. Quickly purchased by a pornographer, all visitors to the site ended up at euroteensluts.com, obviously a porn site, until Ernst and Young repurchased moneyopolis.

Ernst and Young is not alone. Other big-name porn-napping victims include AOL, the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, the Dutch Government, the United Nations, and even the U.S. Department of Education.

Cyber Squatting

Many pornographers legally purchase domain names for legitimate topics in a switch-up referred to as "cyber squatting." As an example, someone expecting to find information about the President of the United States might type in whitehouse.com and be very confused (or outraged) at finding explicit porn on the site. The official site for the Whitehouse is at whitehouse.gov rather than .com. Other examples of cyber squatting include the innocent-sounding web domain names of civilwarbattles.com, eugenoregon.com, and tourdefrance.com.

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Tricks Pornographers Play

Keeping Our Children Safe

By Brenda Hyde

I wanted to touch base today about keeping our kids safe. I've been seeing all kinds of gadgets and methods to keep track of kids since there has been so much going on in the news with missing children, but NOTHING can compare to talking with our kids and laying down family rules.

Things we may have done in the past simply aren't acceptable any longer. I feel no child should be allowed in a front yard, on the sidewalk, wandering the neighborhood or apartment complex by themselves. This has become far too dangerous. The buddy system should be in effect NO MATTER where they are. Better yet, keep them where you can see them at all times. Yes, this may seem overprotective to some, but if I can see my kids, then I know where they are and what they are doing.

We don't want to frighten our children, but instead slip in some fun activities that revolved around learning to be safe. By keeping it fun you will make an impression without making them afraid of everyone and everything around them.

-Let them dress up in big people clothes and make up situations where they are either friends or strangers stopping to talk.

-Give them boxes they can decorate as cars and act out scenes where they run away and don't talk to strangers, but if it's Grandma they can run up and hug her when she gets out of "the car".

-The trick is to do this as an ongoing learning process, not just once or twice. Draw pictures, talk about about what they feel is "safe" or "good". Listen to them, and answer their questions.

We have to adopt a different mind set nowadays, and think daily about the decisions we make when it comes to our kids and grandkids. Love them, hug them, teach them the best you can and watch over them! Don't assume that your neighborhood is safe and take precautions. It only takes a few extra minutes.

About the Author Brenda Hyde is a wife, mom to three children, freelance writer, gardener and editor/owner of Old Fashioned Living.com.

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