One of the Hottest Gifts This Christmas May Be Too Hot for Kids

People of all ages carry iPods to listen to their favorite music. There are several hugely popular websites on the Internet where iPod users can pay to download mp3 files to load onto their units, so they can listen to their tunes wherever they may be. You can find iPods tethered to ears of any age, but the majority of iPod users are kids and teenagers under 21 years of age. That’s all well and good when you’re just talking about music files.

But the newest version of the iPod is one of the hottest Christmas presents to come along in a while, because the video iPod allows you to download more than just music. The video iPod lets users download pictures and videos—including pornography. It’s easy to do, and some businesses in the adult entertainment industry are taking advantage of the technology to specifically make files for the video iPod. One such site is Playboy.com, which already makes X-rated videos for PlayStation Portables. Another site, Suicide Girls, reported that within a week of the video iPod’s debut, their site had sold over 1 million downloads of nude models.

It’s incredibly easy for anyone of any age to download pornography to an iPod. All it takes is the click of a mouse button, and that’s all the age verification such sites need, whether or not it’s true. Anyone who knows how to browse the Internet can download X-rated files to their computer and then load them on the video iPod. Most pornography sites offer free video previews, short video clips, and sample photos, in the hopes that giving site visitors a small taste will reel them in to paying for a membership. But these free samples may be luring in the most eager and interested audience of iPod users—underage kids.

Phil Burress, president of Citizens for Community Values, said that the video iPod presents a special set of problems for parents in an already permissive society where kids are harder than ever to protect. Even parents who do their best to monitor their children’s usage of the Internet may not be able to prevent them from downloading inappropriate material. "These kids know more about this stuff than we do," Burress said. "They are really on top of technology. If somebody really wants to get to hardcore pornography or get to a site they're not supposed to get to, trust me, these kids know how to do it."

What makes it even more difficult for parents to monitor their kids is the fact that they may have access to inappropriate content when they’re not at home. "They can have them at the playground, they can have them where they want to, and they will share the information," Burress said. Nearly two dozen states have laws that apply to public schools or libraries requiring them to filter downloaded material, but Internet filters at home are up to parents. Some of the latest download filter sites, such as Cybersitter.com, are studying ways to specifically block pornography targeted to iPod downloads.

No matter what safety procedures are attempted to prevent kids from accessing and downloading pornography, the bottom line has been the same for decades before the Internet ever existed. It’s up to parents to teach their kids what’s appropriate and what’s not appropriate.