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Day after the press conference brings candor |
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Thursday, 12 June 2008 19:00 |
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The Buffalo (New York) News was there Tuesday at the news conference of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and representatives from three communications giants who announced a "settlement" they called a "major step forward" in stopping child exploitation.
But after the crowd went home, Wendy Koch of USA Today dug a little deeper, raising obvious questions about the impact of this high-profile effort.
From the Buffalo News:
"Under pressure from the state attorney general, Internet providers Verizon, Time Warner Cable and Sprint are taking steps to block computer access to news groups that disseminate child pornography and to knock down Web sites hosting the illegal material.
...'This is a major step forward. We hope this will become a model for the rest of the industry,' said Ernie Allen, head of the [National Center for Missing and Exploited Children].
State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced the settlement Tuesday after an eight-month investigation by his office into the proliferation of online child pornography.
From USA Today:
A plan to cleanse child pornography from the Internet deals with a very small part of the Web and will do little to solve the problem, say security experts, civil libertarians and companies.
...'We're talking about a very small number' of customers, 'well under 1%' who use newsgroups to post text and files to others with similar interests, says Matt Sullivan, Sprint spokesman.
'This is an area of the Internet that is ignored by most people" because it's antiquated...' says Eric Rabe, Verizon's spokesman. He says Verizon will take down small ones, many of which are inactive or can be accessed in other ways.... 'This is by no means a panacea but it's an easy step for us from a business and risk-management perspective,' he
"This is window-dressing," says John Morris, general counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology, a non-profit civil liberties group."
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