ISPs Make Deal with NY to Fight Child Porn
Jun 10, 2008
Internet service providers (ISPs) Sprint, Verizon and Time Warner Cable are the latest Net companies to respond to pressure from state lawmakers involved in combating child porn. Following a lengthy investigation by his office, New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo announced today that he's reached "landmark agreements" with the three companies to "shut down major sources of online child pornography."
As part of the agreements, the companies will for the first time ban customers' access to all child porn newsgroups. In addition, they will delete known child porn sites from their servers using data provided by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), and they'll increase the speed with which they react to customer complaints about offensive material.
New York's attorney general's office and NCMEC will also receive a total of $1.125 million in funding from the three ISPs. NCMEC chief exec Ernie Allen applauded attorney general Cuomo and credited his office with developing a "new and effective system that cuts online child porn off at the source, and stops it from spreading across the Internet."
As for the Attorney General's investigation, it remains "ongoing." Which means other companies may be making similar moves in the future.
Tags:
Andrew Cuomo, child porn, Internet Regulation, Internet safety, ISPs, Sprint, Time Warner, Verizon
