So why are people trying to use the internet as a baby-sitting service? There are a lot of places where it isn't safe to leave unsupervised kids. The TV isn't a babysitter, the pub isn't a creche, and the internet isn't a safe place where innocent and naive people can be allowed to operate unsupervised either. Why are we trying to pretend it can be?

You can't let children roam the streets on their own; so why are we trying to be scandalised by the discovery that the net can't be sanitised?

The lesson is one that doesn't need a sermon about this week's MySpace scandal to drive home. The world is a dangerous place, and if you want your children to be safe you have to keep an eye on them.

What we know from studying security systems for large corporations is that a perimeter protection doesn't work. As soon as you have a stone wall you find yourself believing that everybody inside that stone wall is on your side.

El Register hits the nail on the head with this article. The internet is just like the real world. They are parts that are slummy and full of misinformation and crazies. Once you stop believing that the Internet can be controlled and made "safe" you see that things like the .xxx domain, COPA, banning IRC chatrooms, traffic filtering, and the like are backwards and counterproductive.