The US Congress passed a law on how links to adult material can be displayed. Basically, the law states that using misleading domain names or anchor text to a domain that has sexually explicit material is now illegal. This is an attempt to stop child predators on the internet. You can view the bill here.
The excerpt below was taken from Cornell Law School listed in the above link.
- Whoever knowingly uses a misleading domain name on the Internet with the intent to deceive a person into viewing material constituting obscenity shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both.
- Whoever knowingly uses a misleading domain name on the Internet with the intent to deceive a minor into viewing material that is harmful to minors on the Internet shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 4 years, or both.
- For the purposes of this section, a domain name that includes a word or words to indicate the sexual content of the site, such as “sex” or “porn”, is not misleading.
- For the purposes of this section, the term “material that is harmful to minors” means any communication, consisting of nudity, sex, or excretion, that, taken as a whole and with reference to its context—
- predominantly appeals to a prurient interest of minors;
- is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable material for minors; and
- lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.
- For the purposes of subsection (d), the term “sex” means acts of masturbation, sexual intercourse, or physcial [1] contact with a person’s genitals, or the condition of human male or female genitals when in a state of sexual stimulation or arousal.
This law was passed to help protect children from child predators, which is a good thing. I just wonder how this will effect webmasters and particular individuals that own directories.
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Until next time,
Link Queen
# posted by LinkMaster @ 7:06 AM
