Last Updated on: 4th February 2015, 05:54 pm
ISPs agree to block access to child porn sites, newsgroups
Internet service providers Verizon Communications, Sprint Nextel, and Time Warner Cable have agreed to block Internet newsgroups and Web sites nationwide that disseminate child pornography, The New York Times reported Monday.
The move–part of an agreement with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo expected to be announced Tuesday–will affect customers across the country, the newspaper reported. Negotiations are reportedly continuing with other ISPs.
Part of the plan is to shut down access to Usenet newsgroups known to traffic such images, as well as Web sites that host child pornography.
Good job guys. Way to drive the criminals underground. For the life of me I can’t understand how nobody has figured out that any system like this is only going to create problems for the dumbest of the dumb. Anybody who’s serious about his porn and has a couple of brain cells to rub together will figure out how to access it. Routing internet traffic through an
anonymous proxy server
or cruising the town for unsecured wireless connections are 2 ways that spring immediately to mind. the wireless method is particularly worrisome because not only does it help shield the real criminals, but it makes criminals out of people who aren’t.
Another issue to consider is who’s in charge of determining what is and is not child porn. How can we be sure they don’t have an agenda that will do more harm than good to the internet? There’s also the matter of how people’s internet usage is being monitored. How much information is being gathered up and passed around,and where is it going? And if I may go back to the problem of making criminals out of innocent people, what happens if somebody stumbles on to a blocked site by accident? Is he hauled before the courts and forced to defend himself because of a botched Google search?
This is just the latest useless idea in a long line of poorly thought out government initiatives designed to win support from people who don’t know any better. It won’t stop any crime and it won’t save any kids. What it will do is allow the governments of the world to get another step closer to their ultimate goal of monitoring every aspect of our lives. Anybody who expects anything else is living in denial.