Warning: This news release contains graphic
language.
NEWS RELEASE – March 9, 2001 Contact: Jim Metrock, President Obligation,
Inc. 205-612-3376
PRIMEDIA Jumps Into Hardcore Pornography
Birmingham, AL – An Alabama child advocacy and media watchdog organization
has urged PRIMEDIA’s Chairman Tom Rogers to get his company out of the
pornography business.
PRIMEDIA (PRM) is a New York City-based media company (majority-owned
by Kolhberg Kravis and Roberts) that last week entered the hardcore pornography
business with its merger with About.com.
Jim Metrock, president of Obligation, said, “PRIMEDIA should have
insisted on the divestiture of About’s porn sites before the merger.
This is another sad example of the mainstreaming of pornography. PRIMEDIA’s
board of directors, including Henry Kravis, have no business making money
from the traffic in pornographic images and stories.”
PRIMEDIA maintains ten porn sites which include, “Adult Swinging”, “Amateur
Erotica”, “Bondage and Sado-Masochism”, “Straight
Men’s Erotica”, and “Fetishism.” In response to Obligation’s
protests about their porn, About.com instituted an adult verification
system in December. This means a person has to supply a credit card number
in order to obtain a password for the porn sites.
Metrock said, “Until we raised our voices, About.com allowed anybody,
including children, into their pornographic sites. The fact remains that
About.com, now a part of PRIMEDIA, still owns these sites.”
PRIMEDIA’s porn sites feature links to other porn sites but also feature
original content that makes them different from other web portals. Examples
of content created by PRIMEDIA’s About.com division are “An Introduction
to Floggers and Flogging” (“Learn some of the things that make
one flogger ‘sting’ and another ‘thud’) and a first-person narrative
about anal sex written by About.com’s guide to Fetishism (“‘Taking
the Back Door (Mona Gets It!)’ See anal sex from Mona’s perspective!
Find out why she loves to hate it!”)
One section of PRIMEDIA’s “Straight Men’s Erotica is devoted to
nude teenagers and young looking women (“Young Lovelies”).
At that site the list of attractions include “100 Teens”, “All
Nude Teens” and “Allstar Teen Gallery.”
Tom Rogers, PRIMEDIA’s Chairman and CEO, wrote Mr. Metrock on December
14, 2000 in response to Obligation’s concerns over About.com’s pornographic
content. He said, “Although we agree with your viewpoint that About.com
should not own adult sites, we do not as yet own About.com, so we cannot
take any action.”
Metrock said, “No one outside of PRIMEDIA knows how much of their About.com revenue is attributable to pornography. I believe the middle America readers of PRIMEDIA’s American Baby, Healthy Kids, Horse and Rider, Crafts Magazine, and McCall’s Quilting would not appreciate PRIMEDIA profiting one penny from pornography. The merger was completed on February 28. It’s time for PRIMEDIA to say ‘No’ to pornography.”
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Resources:
Tom Rogers, Chairman and CEO, PRIMEDIA, Inc. 745 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10151, Tel: 212.745.0100, Fax: 212.745.0121
Scott Kurnit, Chief Internet Officer, PRIMEDIA Inc., founder of About.com
http://home.about.com/people/adult/index.htm This is the gateway to pornographic sites on About.com. (AdultCheck password needed)
