Christian Group Prepares To Mark Wii as 'Porn Portal' 565
Citing the Wii's ability to browse the internet via the Opera browser, a Christian group based out of California is planning on targeting the console with a smear campaign, Kotaku reports. The site has gotten ahold of a leaked press release from the upcoming 'Porn Talk' media event. From the release: "Like many new gaming technologies, the Wii's wireless internet capabilities make it a portal to porno. 'Parents think the computer is the only way for their kids to get porn on the internet. Unfortunately, they are dead wrong,' says Mike Foster, founder of ThePornTalk.com. 'Gaming devices like the Wii and the PSP aren't just for fun games anymore. You're able to surf the net, chat with friends, email, and view porn because of its internet access. Kids know this but parents don't!'"
As if Wiis weren't already hard enough to get... (Score:4, Interesting)
1. This Christian group is planning to provide free advertisement for the Wii. "There's No Such Thing As Bad Publicity"
2. This Christian group is planning to provide free advertisements that inform people that they can use the Wii to look at porn on their bigscreen TV.
Yes, this is reactionary....however... (Score:3, Interesting)
Not to be a prude, but there is some pretty harsh stuff out there (not just porn BTW) that is not exactly "kid-friendly".
While screaming, "but you can get to porn!...THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!" is a tad reactionary, it would be a cool feature to store a "white-list" of acceptable websites on the console. So, that this particular "internet access port" is limited to specific locations - very much like enabling "parental control" on my Satellite TV box.
That would seem reasonable.
does anyone... (Score:4, Interesting)
Christian groups seem to decry basically everything and everyone, and they seem to love dropping the "porn" bombshell left and right, but outside their little communities and fellow zealots, is there really any threat whatsoever from these people? And, as such, is this really newsworthy? I'd really only begin to worry if people in Congress start talking about it.
and, as a slight aside, am I the only one who have noticed that kids who grow up in these perfectly wholesome and innocent Christian-value-centric homes seem to end up being significantly maladjusted and immature in a sense that even though they end up as good adults, they're really completely unprepared to actually live in the world?
*sigh*
Re:Parents Should Be More Concerned... (Score:2, Interesting)
Why are you blaming Nintendo for the quality of non-Nintendo games?
Re:Somehow (Score:2, Interesting)
Yeah, I think you're not going to be alone. I guess if I want a Wii I'd better just order one and wait in the queue, store stock just won't happen now.
Not for porn, though, I've got dozens of ways of showing porn all around the house. Well, 4 or 5 anyway.
The tone is perhaps a bit too strong (Score:4, Interesting)
- A lot of children have relatively unmonitored access to the Wii, perhaps in their own bedroom or play room.
- A lot of parents *don't* know about the Wii's internet capabilities. Many of those that *are* aware, assume that the content is somehow filtered.
- A lot of parents *don't* know about the Wii's child protection features, account controls, etc. - I'm not sure what's required to download the browser, but if no credit card is required and no admin-like privileges are required or set up, then its possible for them to download the browser themselves.
While the tone of the press release is too strong as I said above, I think we can all see that, yes, the Wii can be used to access porn, chat rooms, etc that may be innapropriate for young people. I think we can all agree that, yes, all parents should be aware of this reality and take steps they deem appropriate, but many are simply not aware at this point.This isn't another "Video games are the devil!" argument, no one's calling for a boycott of the Wii, or for Nintendo to be held responsible for the content some children might access... beyond the slightly sensational tone all I see is information that is usefull and pertinent for parents.
No one here would turn their kid loose on the web without proper protection/monitoring in place, or at the very least recognize the risk in doing so. We forum-goers are always calling for parental and personal responsibility, for good reason, and I don't see this press release as doing much else.
Re:As a Christian myself... (Score:4, Interesting)
What's the point in being God if the rules don't follow your whim?
Actually, the law is based on a single promise. The promise of eternal life to Adam and Eve. The problem was that Adam and Eve failed to follow the single law they were given (don't eat from the tree at the center of the garden) and were cast out. But that's not entirely fair to their descendents, so they each had the choice to live their life according to the promise given. The 10 Commandments were a set of laws God gave to the Jewish civilization so that they would know how to conduct themselves in a pure form. If one sinned, they were required to atone for that sin. The most common atonement was to slaughter a lamb as a sacrifice. This was symbolic of the fate that would await the savior. You see, in Judaism, they believed in Christ before he came. Those who continue to practice Judaism believe that he hasn't arrived yet.
The harshest penalty (death) was reserved for only the highest crimes, murder being the most obvious. Even then, you'll note that God was merciful in many sitations, sparing the the life of the individual.
You need to be more specific. Leviticus set up the laws under which the Jewish people lived. They did not differ all that significantly from the laws we live under today. The only thing that's changed is that today's laws are not as hard and fast as those of the old testament. e.g. When you sleep with a virgin woman outside of marriage, it may be "wrong" from a Christian perspective, but the law doesn't require you to marry her and pay the father 100 shekels of silver. Today's law in Christian societies recognizes grace, which the old testament did not. This follows a general societal pattern of placing greater value on life. If you look back in history to the period in which Leviticus was written, the humans of the world did not place a very high value on an individual's right to live.
He didn't "suddenly change his mind". First off, the savior was promised to the Jews long before he arrived. The primary purpose of the Bible is to track his lineage, going all the way back to Adam and Eve. It was important that Jesus be a son of man and not of the Niphilim. The Bible also tells us that Jesus spent time in the place of imprisioned spirits (hell? purgatory? I'll leave that to the scholars) preaching to them [biblegateway.com] so that they might also be saved.
Re:In other news.... (Score:5, Interesting)
As a non-childless Slashdotter, speculating wildly about my obviously meaningless to you life experience as a parent, I find it perfectly easy to play the stuff my daughter plays, and watch the things my daughter watches, and to manage the parental controls accordingly, thereby making sure she won't encounter porn until she wants to encounter porn at least not where I can control it...And don't tell me kids are smarter than me at this particular activity; if there is a way to find porn, I'll have found it long before she will--finding porn is like a male geek superpower.
And for the record: "Porno" is so hilariously 1970's it really gives you a good idea of the level of technology these jokers are comfortable with.
kids 'n pr0n (Score:2, Interesting)
one 14-yr-old kept after me for "real porn sites;" he was tired of salivating over soft-core pornvertising (bra ads, swimsuits, television, Hustler, etc) and wanted the "hard-core" stuff. I told him, "You really don't want to see some of that..."
Eventually he found his way to some nazi-pr0n; donkeys, scat, etc. When I heard from him next time, he said, "Dude! Why didn't you tell me that was GROSS!" I said, "I did." He quit thinking such material was "interesting." I also broke him of the death-pr0n fix he had in common with so many adolescents by sending him to the Cobain autopsy photos...
I was reminded of this by the scene in "South Park - The Movie" - "Dude! WTF is wrong with German people anyway?!??!?!"
The people who watch pr0n the most, in my professional experience, are all the office middle-management types that surf pr0n sites behind their closed office doors while whacking off, and then wonder why their drive is littered with malware, all the while denying what can be easily read in a scan of their cookies/site histories/tracking files.
Hypocrisy rools, d00dz!
Be gone with you SATAN!! (Score:2, Interesting)
Seriously, most game consoles, your cell phone, your home computer, hell even appliances in the home (fridge, microwave, etc) have browsers, so they are all "Portals to Porn". Why are people listening to these quacks who need to "save us all from ourselves"? What is the alternative? Sell everything and crawl back into a cave?
Re:Be gone with you SATAN!! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:In other news.... (Score:2, Interesting)