Family-friendly web hosting options

When you purchase budget web hosting, you benefit from sharing the cost of a web server with other accounts. That's what makes it possible to have a full-featured web site of your own for only a few dollars per month.

But what other kinds of pages reside on that server along with yours? There are many people who would feel morally uncomfortable knowing that their web sites share server space with "adult" materials and support the same providers that host pornography. Others might be concerned about the technical issues involved and potential effects on the server.

If you count yourself among one of those groups and would like to make sure that your web pages are located on a family-friendly or non-adult server, I have good news. It's very easy to find a host that prohibits such content. The Terms of Service or Acceptable Use Policy is the logical place to look for this information, and there are plenty of companies with adult content restrictions.

However, you should not assume that a no-adult-content policy necessarily indicates a moral opposition to explicit materials. Sometimes this is indeed the case, and hosting policies are based on the owner's beliefs. The web hosting industry has created opportunities for a multitude of large and small businesses, and some of those entrepreneurs hold religious beliefs and/or moral convictions that influence their operations. But there are also other common and significant reasons for content restrictions.

From a web host's viewpoint, there are important technical considerations, such as the higher bandwidth and resource usage that adult sites typically generate. That means fewer customer accounts per server (leading to lower profits for the host unless these accounts pay higher fees) or else the resource usage can impact server performance. Adult sites may also invite unwelcome opposition from activists, cause servers to be blacklisted, offend other customers, and increase the risk of illegal content. Thus, adult and regular hosting are often viewed as different propositions, and many hosts prefer not to mix them.

This combination of reasons works well for the consumer, leading to plenty of choice for the family-friendly webmaster who wants to build his or her site in a neighborhood free of red-light districts. If you're on the lookout for relatively clean online turf, here are several popular hosts who provide limits on adult content.

(Remember, this list is based on the Terms of Service of the respective web hosts and does not imply a company's position on any moral issue; we're looking only at the practical results of the policies, and not at the reasoning behind them.)

BlueHost prohibits "pornography, nudity, sexual products, programs or services."

HostMonster does not allow pornography or nudity, and provides specific details on this policy: "Women must be wearing a top and bottom (not see through). Men must be wearing clothing on the bottom."

IPower prohibits "adult, obscene or pornographic materials."

Omnis Network states: "Sites containing adult material, links to adult material or adult-oriented merchandise are not permitted."

Pair Networks restricts adult-oriented sites, explaining: "we believe that adult content is not well-suited to shared hosting services."

StartLogic does not permit "adult, obscene or pornographic materials."