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Bebeto Matthews/AP
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, front, joined by Matthew Sullivan, far left, Sprint
senior public affairs manager; Jeff Zimmerman, second from right, Time Warner Cable
senior vice president and chief ethics officer; and Tom Daly, far right, Verizon deputy
general counsel, during a press conference in New York, Tuesday June 10, 2008 (AP).
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, front, joined by Matthew Sullivan, far left, Sprint
senior public affairs manager; Jeff Zimmerman, second from right, Time Warner Cable
senior vice president and chief ethics officer; and Tom Daly, far right, Verizon deputy
general counsel, during a press conference in New York, Tuesday June 10, 2008 (AP).
Internet Providers Agree to Block Child Porn
June 11, 2008 01:08 PM
Three major Internet service providers have reached an agreement with New York state to block newsgroups and Web sites containing child pornography.
30-Second Summary
Verizon, Sprint and Time Warner will be held responsible for regulating the spread of child pornography through their networks.
The deal is the result of an eight-month investigation conducted by the office of N.Y. Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo. Undercover agents reported instances of child pornography to the ISPs, who are required to alert the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
When the ISPs took no action, Cuomo threatened lawsuits for fraud and deceptive business practices. The ISPs were forced to make the deal, which also calls for $1 million to be paid to anti-child pornography efforts.
“When it comes to child pornography, there is no excuse this office will tolerate,” Cuomo said.
The agreement has raised concerns over First Amendment rights. Though there is near unanimous agreement that freedom of speech does not apply to child pornography, there is a fear that ISPs will begin to block other objectionable content, such as legal pornography or pirated material.
Others have questioned whether the agreement will actually prevent the spread of child pornography. A 2002 Pennsylvania law that required ISPs to block child pornography ended up blocking unobjectionable sites while allowing child porn through the automated censors.
The deal is the result of an eight-month investigation conducted by the office of N.Y. Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo. Undercover agents reported instances of child pornography to the ISPs, who are required to alert the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
When the ISPs took no action, Cuomo threatened lawsuits for fraud and deceptive business practices. The ISPs were forced to make the deal, which also calls for $1 million to be paid to anti-child pornography efforts.
“When it comes to child pornography, there is no excuse this office will tolerate,” Cuomo said.
The agreement has raised concerns over First Amendment rights. Though there is near unanimous agreement that freedom of speech does not apply to child pornography, there is a fear that ISPs will begin to block other objectionable content, such as legal pornography or pirated material.
Others have questioned whether the agreement will actually prevent the spread of child pornography. A 2002 Pennsylvania law that required ISPs to block child pornography ended up blocking unobjectionable sites while allowing child porn through the automated censors.
Headline Link: ISPs agree to regulate child pornography
Cuomo and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children celebrated the agreement, but John Morris of the Center for Democracy and Technology expressed concerns. “No matter how bad this content is, efforts to regulate or stop this content still have to comply with our Constitution,” he said, adding that many child pornographers will find a way around the ban.
Source: The Washington Post
In 2002, Pennsylvania passed a law that required ISPs to blocked child pornography sites identified by the state attorney general’s office. However, the ban extended to many innocent sites and the list compiled by the AG’s office was often out of date and failed to block many child porn sites. In 2004, ruling on a lawsuit brought by the Center for Democracy and Technology and the ACLU, a federal court struck down the law as unconstitutional.
Source: Center for Democracy and Technology
ISPs have been reluctant to accept responsibility for policing the Internet, claiming that it is too difficult to do. “You end up blocking a site, and they move to a different address,” said David McClure of the U.S. Internet Industry Association. “It’s like chasing fog. Let’s put more resources into law enforcement.” McClure and others have also been concerned that guidelines established by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children may violate First Amendment laws. He says, “We just don’t want to do things that aren’t legal because a private organization says we should.”
Source: Buffalo New
In May, the Supreme Court upheld a 2003 law that forbids the “pandering” of child pornography. Under the law, it is illegal for people to claim that they are in possession of child pornography, even if it is a lie.
Source: findingDulcinea
Opinion & Analysis: Will the agreement work as intended?
The Austin American-Statesman applauds the agreement, believing that it will be more effective than targeting child pornographers. “We encourage all Internet service providers to do their part by agreeing to measures to block this access,” it writes. “While bottom-up strategies—targeting one or two pedophiles at a time—do serve justice, they are not very effective at stemming the proliferation, or the production, of this material.”
Source: Austin American-Statesman
Wired’s David Kravets believes the agreement is noble, but worries that it will lead to censorship of other content. “It’s possible that Sprint’s, Verizon’s and Time Warner’s move against kiddie porn is a salvo to head off congressional action that might lead to even broader censorship,” he writes. “We all know that bad facts make bad law, and there’s nothing worse than producing and distributing child porn. But the Cuomo deal is an indication that the dynamic that’s kept the Internet largely free of government intrusion is beginning to crack.”
Source: Wired
Related Topics: MySpace and Facebook predators
For Cuomo, the agreement comes on the heels on anti-child predator deals he brokered between social networking sites MySpace and Facebook in 49 states.
Source: Los Angeles Times
Reference: The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children explains what child pornography is, what laws apply to it and why it is so dangerous.
Source: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
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