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Enterprise Featured Article
July 11, 2008
AT&T and AOL Follow Verizon and Others to Block Child Porn Newsgroups
By Rajani Baburajan TMCnet Contributing Editor
The national Internet service providers, AT&T (News - Alert) and AOL, signed an agreement with state government to eliminate child pornography from the Internet, announced the office of state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, New York, on Thursday.
As part of the agreement signed with Cuomo, the two Internet access providers agreed to work towards eliminating certain newsgroups that distribute child pornography online. A similar agreement was signed with Verizon Communications, Time Warner (News - Alert) Cable, and Sprint Nextel on June 10, 2008.
The decision on making the service providers sign the agreement came after Cuomo’s office identified 88 different newsgroups that contained 11,390 lewd photos of prepubescent children.
“We are attacking this problem by working with Internet service providers to ensure they do not play host to this immoral business," Cuomo had said in a statement released after he made the landmark agreement with Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and Sprint Nextel (News - Alert) in New York. "I call on all Internet service providers to follow their example and help deter the spread of online child porn."
As part of the agreement, AT&T would disable all addresses starting with "alt.binary," a common exchange platform for child pornography, said Marty Richter, AT&T spokesperson, in a statement. However, he added that all such groups do not have child pornography.
AOL (News - Alert), on the other hand, agreed to block all Usenet newsgroups that allow downloads of stolen software and porn. AOL had already stopped giving member access to Usenet groups in 2005 because of some legal issues and poor implementation of the group.
Both companies have agreed to extend their support not just for New York but also for the entire nation. They plan to act against other newsgroups that supply child pornography over Internet.
The five companies agreed to delete porn contents stored in their servers by customers. This was in accordance with the federal law, which criminalizes possession and distribution of pornography. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, along with Cuomo’s office, will soon release a notification of servers or newsgroups that need to be eliminated.
ISPs can't "drag their feet when it comes to protecting our children and instead must quickly purge child porn from their servers," said Cuomo in a statement.
The new Web site http://www.nystopchildporn.com, released by Cuomo’s office, contains the details of Internet service providers that have signed the agreement to tackle child pornography.
Prior to this, Cuomo had adopted measures to stop pornography over Internet by forcing the social networking sites MySpace and Facebook (News - Alert) sign an agreement to protect their users from online sexual predators.
Rajani Baburajan is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Rajani’s articles, please visit her columnist page.
As part of the agreement signed with Cuomo, the two Internet access providers agreed to work towards eliminating certain newsgroups that distribute child pornography online. A similar agreement was signed with Verizon Communications, Time Warner (News - Alert) Cable, and Sprint Nextel on June 10, 2008.
The decision on making the service providers sign the agreement came after Cuomo’s office identified 88 different newsgroups that contained 11,390 lewd photos of prepubescent children.
“We are attacking this problem by working with Internet service providers to ensure they do not play host to this immoral business," Cuomo had said in a statement released after he made the landmark agreement with Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and Sprint Nextel (News - Alert) in New York. "I call on all Internet service providers to follow their example and help deter the spread of online child porn."
As part of the agreement, AT&T would disable all addresses starting with "alt.binary," a common exchange platform for child pornography, said Marty Richter, AT&T spokesperson, in a statement. However, he added that all such groups do not have child pornography.
AOL (News - Alert), on the other hand, agreed to block all Usenet newsgroups that allow downloads of stolen software and porn. AOL had already stopped giving member access to Usenet groups in 2005 because of some legal issues and poor implementation of the group.
Both companies have agreed to extend their support not just for New York but also for the entire nation. They plan to act against other newsgroups that supply child pornography over Internet.
The five companies agreed to delete porn contents stored in their servers by customers. This was in accordance with the federal law, which criminalizes possession and distribution of pornography. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, along with Cuomo’s office, will soon release a notification of servers or newsgroups that need to be eliminated.
ISPs can't "drag their feet when it comes to protecting our children and instead must quickly purge child porn from their servers," said Cuomo in a statement.
The new Web site http://www.nystopchildporn.com, released by Cuomo’s office, contains the details of Internet service providers that have signed the agreement to tackle child pornography.
Prior to this, Cuomo had adopted measures to stop pornography over Internet by forcing the social networking sites MySpace and Facebook (News - Alert) sign an agreement to protect their users from online sexual predators.
Rajani Baburajan is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Rajani’s articles, please visit her columnist page.
