Auto Submitters

One thing that I think is really worth looking at again, and something that's a controversial issue with adult webmasters is the warning page. In an ideal world, this is the very first page of your porn website, where visitors come to in order to come inside your site. Here, there is a page which explains to them that you must be over 18 (or 21) to enter, and that there's material here which some viewers might find offensive. Traditionally, they are then presented with the choice to enter, or to leave. The warning page is an important part of any website, and something that some time should be spent on.

The warning text

You'll see warnings out there on the web, on the home pages of the tens of thousands of adult sites out there with varying lengths of text on them. They will likely all look very different from each other. And while there's no single set formula for the warning page text, there are some common things that you'll find there.

About the most important part is to make sure that the viewer is over 18. I know, I know - it's about as much use as a chocolate fire-guard and it won't take a hacker genius to figure out that they can still click ENTER if they're NOT 18! But this is all about doing your best to run a straight up honest adult business. Adult webmasters have a little more responsibility for their content than other kinds of sites because of it's adult nature.

Other common areas of the warning text could be:

• A warning that pornography might not be legal in your area.
• A warning that you could be breaking local laws by lying about your age.
• That by pressing ENTER - you're electronically 'signing' the agreement.
• A statement that all models are over 18.
• That you will not show the material to anyone under 18.
• That you will not redistribute the material.

A great way to get the warning text out of the way is to put it in a scrolling 'box' like the one on this page: http://www.topniche.com/newbie-booster/resources/warning.html - this can be used even if you do not directly program the HTML code. It's a very good way to get the warning over and out of the way, without being too dominant.

Don't let your warning text dominate your index page. While it's important, it's more important that you make enough money to live! Work out a balance of this page selling AND including all the usual legal requirements.

The usual disclaimer...

As I mentioned, the warning text is a bit useless when it comes to keeping minors out of your websites (something that most governments are very concerned about). I wonder how many 15 year old boys see a warning text, and say to themselves, "damn - I'll have to come back in 3 years". It's not a shield against prosecution, and if the content you've got on your site is deemed obscene - you've still got problems. The adult web is still kind of the wild wild west right now. Not only hardcore content, but what might be considered downright EXTREME content is available readily on sites with nothing more than this warning text. Just keep in mind it won't keep you out of jail - it just helps ... a little.

Another problem, if that's the right word for it, is that search engines respect this warning as little as most horny 15 year olds. They bypass the warning and will crawl to the pages they find beyond, offering your content up directly from their index. Not sure what the answer on that one is!

Compliance with 18 USC 2257

Most adults sites forget or neglect this all-important bit of text that should go on their homepages. It is a declaration that says that all the models are over 18, and that the site is complying with legal requirements. Read this explanation, from an adult Chamber article, which does a better job than I can here:

"Compliance with 18 USC 2257 is a good defense to allegations of child pornography. If you comply, you will have statutorily required identification and thorough records to show police should you ever need to. By failing to comply, you are not only in violation of this statute which outlines the procedures, but more importantly, you are risking serious criminal charges. Without the records set forth in 18 USC 2257, it will be difficult to prove that the models in the content were, in fact, over 18 at the time of creation of the images.

Finally, 18 USC 2257 is very well known in the adult business community and your failure to have proper notices on your website and/or products, quickly identifies you to law enforcement authorities as a business that may be failing to comply with the law. The lack of notices flags these authorities and can result in much more serious investigations."

I'd definitely recommend reading the rest of the article in full too:

Compliance with 18 USC 2257 and Model Releases
Reducing Risk to Your Adult Business
http://adultchamber.com/members/legal.htm

And make sure that you have something similar to this on ALL of your homepages:

"18 U.S.C. '2257 and 28 CFR 75 compliance notice:
Records required by Section 18 U.S.C. '2257 and the regulations of Section 75 C.F.R. 75 are maintained by the custodian of records listed below. All images on this site adhere to the requirements of 18 U.S.C. Section 2257 and Section 75 C.F.R. 75. All persons depicted herein were at least 18 years of age at the time of the photography.
Producer: Name of producer
Product Name: Name of product
Date of First Production: Date
Custodian of Records:
Name of individual in company, Title
Company Name
Street Address
City, State Zip (or Country)"

Registering the site with a filter...

http://www.icra.org/ - the place where you can register your content (and hopefully stop some kids getting in) is free to use and is gaining ground in the number of people it can filter out. The problem here is that you have to put code on EVERY one of your pages. This is something that I found out today. It appears that it's no longer possible to register an entire domain name with the service - the code would need to go on EVERY single page you make.

"In order to label a site effectively, each and every page on the site needs to carry a label..."

This seems like a huge step backwards, and makes the whole thing totally unusable for adult webmasters, who produce hundreds of pages on each domain. In all honesty - I'm not sure what the answer there is but you might want to consider registering your main sites and projects there anyways.

Let me know if there's anything that's got you stumped legally!!!

Have a great Wednesday gang.

TOM ^"^

ICQ 12616560
Email tom@tomsnewbiebooster.com

Enter TOM'S NEWBIE BOOSTER

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