Opinion: XXX marks the spot kids (and politicians) should avoid
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On any sane politician’s don’t-do list, being photographed with a porn star ranks right up there with crossing state lines for a rendezvous with a high-priced prostitute.
So with former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s career-ending sexcapade fresh in everyone’s memory, it was no surprise that there wasn’t a member of Congress to be found when adult-film performer Stormy Daniels (at right, photographed at the Grammy Awards earlier this year) appeared in Washington on Thursday.
Although she came to the nation’s capital to highlight the adult entertainment industry’s efforts to protect children from inappropriate online content (e.g., the stuff the industry produces), and lawmakers love to tout anything that helps keep kids safe when surfing the Internet, appearing with Daniels at the National Press Club was rated NC-17, as in: No Chance a politician would get within 17 miles of it.
Daniels was showing off, as it were, two new public service announcements for the industry’s Restricted to Adults website label. Unveiled last year by the Assn. of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP) -- a group largely funded by the adult entertainment industry -- the label tags sites as inappropriate for anyone under 18 years old, allowing them to be blocked by filtering software.
‘I do not want children viewing my site or adult-only content,’’ said Daniels, who for this occasion was dressed like a politician ...
... in a black business suit and French blue shirt.
‘We neither want nor need their business,’ said Daniels, a performer, writer and director with Wicked Pictures who displays the Restricted to Adults tag on her website, as does the Canoga Park, Calif., company.
That’s her message in the public service announcements. They’re available on YouTube, and ASACP is paring them down to 30 seconds in hopes of getting cable networks to run them, said Joan Irvine, ASACP’s chief executive.
The small L.A.-based organization, founded in 1996, works on children’s issues, including running an online hotline where people can report child pornography. Irvine noted that studies have found a third of children under 18 have reported viewing inappropriate sexual material online. The Restricted to Adults tag is designed to help stop that, with more than 4 million Web pages displaying it, she said.
The group has received awards for its work, including certificates of recognition from the California State Assembly and the City of Los Angeles. Irvine said she’s met with staffers for about 30 members of Congress and they’ve been supportive.
‘We’re all on the same page,’ she said.
Even though the Senate passed a resolution last week declaring June ‘National Internet Safety Month,’ Irvine admitted that she didn’t ask any lawmakers to attend Thursday’s event. They may be on the same page when it comes to protecting kids, but politics makes it dicey to be in the same place at the same time.
-- Jim Puzzanghera
