nickull's Journal: US Senators to set global standard for the web?

A recent story on CNET discusses the US Senate proposal that "Web site operators posting sexually explicit information must slap warning labels on their pages or face prison terms of up to five years." Senator Conrad Burns goes on to declare that "This will protect children from accidentally typing in the wrong address and immediately viewing indecent material,". I find this is once again highly flawed logic. First - without a globally agreed upon consensus on what constitutes "sexually explicit information", there is no metric for such labeling. Will the labels include sites that include educational materials about how human reproductivity works? Is the goal to create a system of mandatory ignorance for the masses resulting in more unwanted pregnancies and STD's? Secondly, how in the world are warning labels going to prevent someone from making typing mistakes? Once again, the government seems to be jumping the gun. Perhaps their time may be better spent educating themselves and parents about watching what their children do on the internet?