Leading Catholic cardinal warns parents about buying iPods for Christmas due to porn

“A leading Catholic cardinal is warning Catholic parents to be careful when buying iPods and other wireless devices as Christmas gifts because they could be used by minors to access pornography,” Kevin Eckstrom reports for Religion News Service. “Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore, who co-chairs the Religious Alliance Against Pornography, said iPods, PDAs and video cell phones can easily send and receive pornography, much of it unsolicited.”

“‘The technology itself is not dangerous, in fact technology in itself is good,’ Keeler said. ‘The danger lies in the fact that there are not safeguards or regulations in place to protect children or teens from being exposed to unwanted pornography.’ …The Cincinnati-based Religious Alliance Against Pornography was founded in 1986 by the late Cardinal John O’Connor of New York. It counts more than 50 religious and interfaith organizations as members,” Eckstrom reports.

Full article here.

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102 Comments

  1. Absolutely ridiculous.
    They dont SHIP with porn on them you a-hole.
    Perhaps they should tell parents to watch what their kids put on their computers first of all.

    Unreal.
    Another reason why i cant stand the church.

  2. ‘The danger lies in the fact that there are not safeguards or regulations in place to protect children or teens from being exposed to unwanted pornography.’

    The safeguards are called “Parents”

    Magic Word: along As in along with Parents, Priests should be teaching children right from wrong.

    Don’t blame technology!

  3. Death! Death to America and your churches!!

    Embrace the one true G-D: ALLAH!!!!!!

    We will destroy your decadent way of life. Even your CHURCHES are preverted.

    Join the one true religion — ISLAM –or more of you will die. Including your priests.

    We are serious.

    [high-pitched chirping] Alallalallaaalalalaaalalalaalalalalalllalalalalalaaaaaaaahhhh!
    [/high-pitched chirping]

  4. Being roman catholic myself I learned to be careful with these announcements.

    And as word to Thursdays:

    Leading iPod user warn parents not to send their children to become altar boys because of … priests watching porn on iPods ?

  5. In related news, a leading Catholic cardinal is warning Catholic parents to not teach their children to read, because minors could use the skill to access pornographic books. They also advised against allowing minors access to computers, televisions, book and magazine stores as pornography could also be accessed through those sources as well. For parents who are concerned that they will not be able to prevent every source of pornography from reaching their child, locking them in a cage all day or having their eyes surgically removed were cited as the most effective means of protection.

  6. PCSux,
    As a Catholic, I’m embarrassed that a Cardinal would preach about something he knows very little about. It’s not a lame excuse to bash Catholics, it’s a text-book excuse to bash Catholics.

    Because of him, there are parents who actually believe their kids can get unsolicited porn on their iPods. Incredible.

    Did he mention that iTunes has parental controls that block downloading of explicit songs? NO…he said, “The danger lies in the fact that there are not safeguards or regulations in place to protect children or teens from being exposed to unwanted pornography.”

    On an iPod?!!!!

  7. For those of you who are parents, it would be a good idea to adjust the preferences to exclude materials marked Explicit by Apple within iTunes. Content Blocker and programs like it do not reach the video or audio content available through podcasts. I hope they do at some point, it would make managing the content available to young kids easier. Of course, the comments here that pass for comments don’t seem to give this much thought.
    Beyond that, it is hard to believe some of the postings are permitted regarding the Catholic Church. There are other religions about which these comments just would not be accepted.

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