AT&T and AOL agree to block child porn

[Grainne Dhu]

AOL has agreed to drop usenet altogether. That's all.

Keep in mind that Cuomo's office found child porn on 88 usenet groups--out of over 100,000 groups! That works out to fewer than 0.08% (if I have done my math correctly). As a long time usenet reader and poster, I think usenet is one of the very few places where free speech truly reigns. Most of what is posted to usenet is pure fluff but, particularly for people suffering under repressive governments, it's one of the few places they can receive information that is not approved by their state.

I think this is more a grandstanding ploy than any sort of real action against child porn. But like so many grandstanding ploys, it hurts most those who are already hurting and does nothing to really stop a bad guy (how many jets have been taken down in the last seven years by someone wielding fingernail clippers?).

Policing chat rooms and instant messaging (IMs) is probably impossible; the only practical way to prevent sexually related content would be to eliminate chat rooms and IMs would be to drop them entirely. Even if they could filter the hundreds of thousands of messages they carry per second, it's too easy for people to develop codes.

Personally, I think dropping chat rooms and IM services would be a mistake. That would be like shutting down telephone services because bad guys sometimes use telephones to make plans.

Just how much freedom are people willing to give up for security?

 

[southcitymom]

AOL has agreed to drop usenet altogether. That's all.

Keep in mind that Cuomo's office found child porn on 88 usenet groups--out of over 100,000 groups! That works out to fewer than 0.08% (if I have done my math correctly). As a long time usenet reader and poster, I think usenet is one of the very few places where free speech truly reigns. Most of what is posted to usenet is pure fluff but, particularly for people suffering under repressive governments, it's one of the few places they can receive information that is not approved by their state.

I think this is more a grandstanding ploy than any sort of real action against child porn. But like so many grandstanding ploys, it hurts most those who are already hurting and does nothing to really stop a bad guy (how many jets have been taken down in the last seven years by someone wielding fingernail clippers?).

Policing chat rooms and instant messaging (IMs) is probably impossible; the only practical way to prevent sexually related content would be to eliminate chat rooms and IMs would be to drop them entirely. Even if they could filter the hundreds of thousands of messages they carry per second, it's too easy for people to develop codes.

Personally, I think dropping chat rooms and IM services would be a mistake. That would be like shutting down telephone services because bad guys sometimes use telephones to make plans.

Just how much freedom are people willing to give up for security?

Thanks for this perspective. I am a freedom junkie too and usually loathe the idea of giving up freedoms in order to stop some individual's bad behavior. If all AOL is doing is dropping usenet, as you describe, then that's just silly posturing and is not going to help much. Also, I'm highly against getting rid of chat and IM.

That's why I asked - how is this going to be done? Generating a headline that makes your company look good is one thing - actually addressing a problem is quite another.

Unless there is something that can ferret out and gobble up the actual child porn as it changes hands electronically (and I just don't think there is) then nothing helpful can really be done. If we get rid of the most common ways in which it changes hands, people who are into it will find other ways.

 

[Taximom]

Agreeing to drop usenet (if that's all it is) should have been the headline, but they want the publicity for doing something that we know is very difficult to accomplish. That's why I'm having such a tough time "applauding" them! Oh well. If it helps, then I'm all for it.

 

[southcitymom]

Agreeing to drop usenet (if that's all it is) should have been the headline, but they want the publicity for doing something that we know is very difficult to accomplish. That's why I'm having such a tough time "applauding" them! Oh well. If it helps, then I'm all for it.

Yep - I had hope last night that this might be a "real" thing but I woke up this morning convinced it was PR.

 

[liltigress]

I am also holding my applause for now. Child porn is such a huge market and these companies will have a tough time blocking it. Pedophiles will and have found ways around these types of filters, not to mention the underground networks of this filth. If they want it, they will find it. Sad but true.

I wish there was an instant fix or an "off" button for this garbage but there really isn't.

But, every effort to stop it, is still a good effort.

 

[southcitymom]

I am also holding my applause for now. Child porn is such a huge market and these companies will have a tough time blocking it. Pedophiles will and have found ways around these types of filters, not to mention the underground networks of this filth. If they want it, they will find it. Sad but true.

I wish there was an instant fix or an "off" button for this garbage but there really isn't.

But, every effort to stop it, is still a good effort.

I believe with all my heart that if we were miraculously able to eradicate all the actual child porn using living children, a market would spring up for created (drawn, painted, etc...) child porn - I'm sure such a market exists even now just like it does with adult porn.

It's much like the drug war - as long as someone wants it, a way will be found to provide it.

The internet has simply made it easier for like minds to find one another. Pre-internet, pedophiles were relatively isolated from each other and had to work much harder to acquire fantasy material. That's simply not the case anymore.

 

[CyberLaw]

I read an article yesterday, Simon Fraser University(British Columbia, a province, like a state) is receiving a grant from the Federal Government of 350K. The purpose of this grant, if i remember the article, is to develop a computer lab with the "intent" of developing or have developed a "good virus" that can be unleashed on the net to "search" out specific images and gobble them up like Pac man. That means when they come across images, they will be destroyed.

Hundreds of thousands of these images are on the net, new ones everyday and behind each image is the abuse and suffering of children.

Can't wait until it is unleashed on the net, those images will just go away and never come back.....lets hope at least.

 

[liltigress]

I believe with all my heart that if we were miraculously able to eradicate all the actual child porn using living children, a market would spring up for created (drawn, painted, etc...) child porn - I'm sure such a market exists even now just like it does with adult porn.

It's much like the drug war - as long as someone wants it, a way will be found to provide it.

The internet has simply made it easier for like minds to find one another. Pre-internet, pedophiles were relatively isolated from each other and had to work much harder to acquire fantasy material. That's simply not the case anymore.

You are correct in your thinking. There already is digitalized/animated child porn and pedophilia outlets on the internet, including an animated game I saw recently online for a ped to stalk and abuse a child on the playground... All animated and not real, yet very dangerous. From what I've seen, they are networking together now and not just keeping their fantasies as their own dirty little secret... It has become a market and that terrifies me.

 

[Taximom]

I read an article yesterday, Simon Fraser University(British Columbia, a province, like a state) is receiving a grant from the Federal Government of 350K. The purpose of this grant, if i remember the article, is to develop a computer lab with the "intent" of developing or have developed a "good virus" that can be unleashed on the net to "search" out specific images and gobble them up like Pac man. That means when they come across images, they will be destroyed.

Hundreds of thousands of these images are on the net, new ones everyday and behind each image is the abuse and suffering of children.

Can't wait until it is unleashed on the net, those images will just go away and never come back.....lets hope at least.

That's interesting, CyberLaw.

I've read where many child porn pics are duplicates sent over and over to people/groups. During the Disney World Girl investigation I read that in order to join certain pedo/porn groups, one had to submit "new" child porn pics as proof they weren't LE. (I don't know how LE got around that.)

My point is that if there was some type of technology out there that could lock in on the zillions of "like" pics out there being traded or sold, I would think a good portion of them could be discovered. Although I'm sure there's some way pedo's have discovered to change those files somehow to keep that from happening.

Ugh, it's such a disgusting situation.

 

[southcitymom]

I read an article yesterday, Simon Fraser University(British Columbia, a province, like a state) is receiving a grant from the Federal Government of 350K. The purpose of this grant, if i remember the article, is to develop a computer lab with the "intent" of developing or have developed a "good virus" that can be unleashed on the net to "search" out specific images and gobble them up like Pac man. That means when they come across images, they will be destroyed.

Hundreds of thousands of these images are on the net, new ones everyday and behind each image is the abuse and suffering of children.

Can't wait until it is unleashed on the net, those images will just go away and never come back.....lets hope at least.

Interesting - yes, that is what I had in mind though I have no idea how to accomplish such a thing!

 

[Ciara]

Interesting - yes, that is what I had in mind though I have no idea how to accomplish such a thing!

Would it be awesome if they could find a way to come up with such a thing!
The Paedos Pacman

 

[sillygoose]

I'm another, "I'll believe it when I see it". AT&T has enough problems just getting their own internet out to their own customers. There is also zero customer service. When AT&T bought BellSouth out, it set BellSouth back considerably. My dh says it was the Flinstones buying out the Jetsons. AT&T needs to get some serious act together before they can take on a task like this. I don't have faith they can do it. Sorry AT&T.:shakehead:

 

[southcitymom]

Would it be awesome if they could find a way to come up with such a thing!
The Paedos Pacman

It really would.