Lipstick on a Pig
There was a lot of talk in the media a few weeks back about how if you put lipstick on a pig it’s still a pig. On the Internet there are a lot of pigs with lipstick. Many websites like to try to disguise themselves in the hopes of tricking our kids into going to places that may seem innocent on the outside (the lipstick part) but are rotten on the inside (the pig part). Porn sites are famous for this. They have used innocent sounding websites names to trick kids into visiting them. Some past examples of this have been websites like KidsLearn2Read.com, CivilWarBattles.com and even Hanukkah.com. Fortunately these 3 website no longer contain porn. Another “Lip Stick on a Pig” trick that porn sites have used is to have websites names that are misspelled versions of popular websites. So your kid is doing some research for school and mistypes a letter in the website they’re trying to go to and they get a porn site instead. There are many other “Lipstick on a Pig” tricks that porn sites use but you get the idea.
Why do the porn sites play this “Lipstick on a Pig” game? Because they know that there is a good chance they can hook people on porn if they can get them to see it. It's sort of like the drug dealer who gives out some free samples because once you’re hooked then it’s time to pay. And the younger they hook them the better - it could be a life long customer they’ve just landed.
Parents be careful about this “Lipstick on a Pig” trap. It’s all over the Internet. Keep a close eye on your child’s surfing and encourage open dialog. Ask your children if they’ve ever run into a “Lipstick on a Pig” trap. Let them know it’s ok to tell you about it. Some children are scared to tell their parents that they’ve accidentally come across porn on the Internet. Let them know that they won’t get in trouble for telling you when this happens. Because if they don’t feel they can talk to you about it they just might end up liking the pig.
If you have a "Lipstick on a Pig" story please post a comment about it. It may help others avoid the trap.
I think it's not so much the paying subscriber they hope to catch as the casual wanderer who may look around a bit and see some advertising. Advertising views mean money. Clicks mean even more. People who stumble onto sites accidentially are very unlikely to become paying customers, but more likely to provide ad revenue.
This is certinly true on any of the sites with addresses that seem to lure in minors... people who can't possibly provide a subscription revenue, because they don't have a credit card. The only possible income they can provide is advertising.
Not that I'm an expert. Ask Ron, he should know something about how the porn business works :>
There isn't anything that can be done about it. Regulation is out of the question - even if banned in one country, there are hundreds of others the servers could be relocated to. Filters reduce the chance, but cannot eliminate it - espicially as the sites change so fast. It's just something that must be accepted: Use the internet, and sooner or later you *will* see porn. That's just the nature of the internet at this time. Unchangeable.
Even if you block the lipstick-on-a-pig sites, many social communities will see the occasional porn pic posted, google image search can be a bit iffy, p2p is just full of it, and all over the seedier side of the internet there are ad-banners showing teaser images.
In my view, far more effective than any type of blocking system would be for users to simply learn to resist the curiosity or temptation and close the site down. An accidential glimpse isn't going to hurt anyone. Click the X, problem solved.
There is no escape from the porn, so the only option is to learn to live with it. See it, ignore it, close the window - don't get worked up into an outrage or go overboard with ineffective countermeasures.
