NY Comcast To Block Child Pornography

New York ISP, Comcast, is planning to sign an agreement stating that they will block access to all newsgroups and websites that have been found to distribute child pornography. The agreement was drafted by NY Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo and has been signed by all the big ISP's in the NY area. Comcast was one of the last ones to come on board. According to Mike Sachoff at WPN "...internet service providers including Verizon, Sprint, AOL, AT&T and Time Warner Cable, all signed an agreement to block access to Web sites that distribute child porn."

This is a significant step forward in policing our Internet and keeping it safe. However, the problem that I have with all this is that it's a misguided effort and isn't eliminating the source of the problem. All the sicko criminals have to do is put up a new site and it's business as usual. Evidently the Cuomo camp has done an extensive, undercover, investigation and identified numerous sites and newsgroups. Though these are identified now, this doesn't identify and block the new sites that will crop up. I appreciate all the hard work that everyone went through but it really seems ineffective to me. Again this is not cutting the snakes head off, just a small portion of it's tail.

Here's another thing that I didn't necessarily agree with. Cuomo apparently sent a letter to Comcast saying that they would take legal action if they didn't sign the agreement within 5 days. OK, here's where I have a problem. Comcast is NOT the one distributing the porn yet they were going to seek legal action against them. I DO agree with the blockade but holding an ISP accountable for what is on the Internet is absolutely asinine. It's like holing the Diamond Match Company liable for forest fires or gun manufacturers liable for gun crime (the anti-gun crowd actually tried this).

Now, if a hosting company is knowingly hosting a child porn site, then that is a different story and they SHOULD be held accountable. Granted we do a lot already to police the internet and try and protect our children, but what good did this last bit really do? Yeah, it blocked the other sickos from accessing the porn and potentially re-distributing it but were the dollars spent on the undercover investigation really effective? Did they really accomplish something significant here?

What say you?

 

MySpace Cleans Up Sex Offenders

In July, MySpace decided to to a little house cleaning. MySpace deleted the accounts that had been created by registered sex offenders. Apparently there were over 29,000 registered sex offenders that had created profiles. A figure 4 times more than the original estimate offered by MySpace. This number reflects the sex offenders that signed up using their real names. The number is expected to be higher as individuals may have used fake names or other identies.

A July 24th release from North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper proposes 6 changes in social networking sites to better protect our children from sexual predators. As always, parents are strongly encouraged to police their children's Internet activities but the rules proposed in this new release would require parents to authorize an account before a child would be able to post. It would also allow parents to see what their children are posting.

MySpace does not want to see its younger user base threatened, but also resists such verification measures likely because they could push current and potential users away from MySpace to competing websites. I wonder how they will feel when legal action is brought against them like what happened to the tobacco companies?

For more information on how to keep your kids safe on the Internet, visit some of these sites:

Internetchildsafety.net
ProtectKids.org
SafeKids.com
The FBI's Safe Kids Guidelines
LoveOurChildrenusa.org
CyberPatrol.com
NetNanny.com
CyberAngels.org
Microsoft's Family Internet Safety Guidelines
WiredSafety.org

There are many more available by looking through the Child Safety and Internet Safety for Kids Google Directories.