THE PARENTS' CREED FOR THE INTERNET: A Ten-Point Manifesto Repeat after me: 1. I am a parent. 2. I brought a child/children into this world through sexual actions which I freely, willingly and knowingly engaged in. Nobody did this for me. Even if my child is the product of someone else's conception, I have intentionally and with forethought adopted that person's child through the legal process as an alternative to concieving my own biological child. It is not important whether my biological child's conception was intentional or not; I was fully aware that my sexual actions could possibly lead to the creation of life, as well as entitle me to the host of responsibilities, obligations, and consequences that historically come as part of the package deal associated with childbearing.

3. My children are my responsibility, and as such I am responsible to house them, feed them, clothe them, raise them, teach them right from wrong, make sure they get the proper education, and keep them safe from harm. These are the legal and social responsibilities I agreed to take on when I concieved and/or adopted my children. 4. As the parent and/or legal guardian of my children, I understand that their safety is my sole and primary responsibility: My children's safety is not the direct or indirect responsibility of complete strangers who have had no part in their creation, nor any part in the decision to bring them into the world, nor were present with me at the time I engaged in the sexual act that was required to concieve them. My children's safety is not the responsibility of persons I do not hire or entrust, permanently or periodically, to assume my parental obligations when I am unable to fulfill such obligations due to work, vacations, or the occasional evening out with my spouse/significant other. 5. As my children's parent, I understand that it is morally reprehensible and completely irresponsible of me to assume even for one minute that an inanimate device such as a computer can or will take the place of my obligatory supervision responsibilities. I acknowledge that a computer, regardless of what it is connected to, cannot possibly make adequate judgment calls, nor any other type of important decisions about the nature of the content my children may be exposed to; that such an important decision can only be made by myself or another adult human being entrusted by me with that individual responsibility. 6. My personal interest or lack of interest in adult content notwithstanding, my role as a parent starts in the home ~ MY home ~ and I take full responsibility for whatever equipment I may install in my home and allow my children access to, especially when it comes to anything I deem may potentially cause "endangerment" to my children or their well-being. Just as I would take responsibility for bringing other hazardous materials into my home, such as weapons, chemicals, alcohol or tobacco, and the like, so I take responsibility for bringing the internet into my home and allowing my children access to it. 7. As my children's guardian, I assume full liability for allowing them access to any objectionable content on the public institution of the internet, whether it be under my supervision, or at a time when I have abandoned my parental responsibility and have allowed them unsupervised access to the internet on equipment I have provided in my home. 8. I understand that, should my children become exposed to objectionable content, it is a reflection of my inability to supervise my children properly, and not an indictment of the person or persons who created websites with content designed as entertainment for a mature audience. 9. I understand that while I may find certain content to be objectionable and inappropriate for my children, other adults have the right and privilege of enjoying that same content in the privacy of their own homes, and my lack of responsibility toward my child's safety does not give me the right to infringe upon the collective rights of others. 10. As a parent, it is my goal to be as good and watchful of my children as I am capable of being, understanding that I may make mistakes along the way for which I cannot fault others. The responsibility for my children's safety lies completely upon me, until they reach the age of legal adulthood and can make their own autonomous decisions about the nature and type of content they wish to view.

There are many places that are unsuitable for children, and where logically and legally they should not be: playing inside gun cases, hanging out in cocktail lounges and strip joints, operating motor vehicles, etc. Likewise, there are products that children are forbidden by law to purchase: cigarettes, alcoholoc beverages, pornographic magazines, and so on. The internet is just such a place, with the danger of child molestors lurking in chat rooms, explicit adult content embedded in innocuous-looking emails, and information on the making of everything from homemade bombs to methamphetamine available at a few keystrokes. Censorship and red-lining of the internet have been proposed and shot down as both unconstitutional and not effective enough. Internet filtering has proven to be inadequate. The creation of top-level domain extensions (such as .kids or .xxx) has been rejected as too burdensome for those companies that the TLD's are intended for. Perhaps the time has come to consider legislating the internet as an age-restricted entity like cigarettes, booze, dirty magazines, and ammunition. Support of a child-free internet will result in protection of children from the harmful aspects which the internet delivers without bias to the home. Think about it. Act on it. Join the push to make the internet a child-free zone for the safety of all children!