Contact: Natalie Bell, Concerned Women for America, 202-488-7000 ext. 126, 202-255-1959 after hours
WASHINGTON, May 7 /Christian Newswire/ -- It would be a tall order, but parents around the world may want to make every effort to keep their kids away from Wikipedia.com, the enormously popular, user-generated online encyclopedia. While doing homework, research for term papers, or for just plain fun, millions of kids visit Wikipedia every day. That's why parents may be alarmed to learn that, as recently exposed by WorldNetDaily.com, Wikipedia features hundreds, if not thousands, of hardcore pornographic images and online sex videos, making them easily accessible to children.
Matt Barber, Policy Director for Cultural Issues with Concerned Women for America (CWA), said, "Perhaps Wikipedia should change its name to Pornopedia. Providing clinical images that may assist people in research is one thing, but many of the images and videos featured by Wikipedia are gratuitous and obscene. They're entirely unnecessary and amount to hardcore pornography, plain and simple.
"These actions by Wiki founder Jimmy Wales and other executives with Wikipedia are reprehensible. By disseminating this obscene material, their misbehavior is no better than that of the sleazy smut peddler at the XXX bookstore down the street. They should be ashamed of themselves. In fact, the Department of Justice (DOJ) should look into whether Wikipedia may be in violation of federal obscenity laws.
"For this reason, we're calling on Wikipedia to either pull the pornography from its Web page, or, as do many other porn sites, place a prominent warning on the home page indicating that it features pornography, and requiring visitors to affirm that they are at least 18 years of age or older before entering," said Barber.
"People may notice that while searching a term using the Google search engine, a Wikipedia link is often the first to pop up. This makes Wikipedia one of the most visited websites on the Internet. With great power comes great responsibility. To willingly, if not intentionally, make pornography a mouse click away for kids is contemptibly low and represents the height of irresponsibility.
"Unfortunately, the federal government's reticence to prosecute violations of federal obscenity laws has created a climate where disseminating hardcore pornography, even to children, is considered 'no big deal.' Perhaps now, knowing that millions of children are being readily exposed to obscenity on Wikipedia.com, the DOJ will finally step up its efforts," concluded Barber.
Concerned Women for America is the nation's largest public policy women's organization.
