The Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles, Calif.
Jul 28, 2001
By Edmund Sanders
American teenagers going online to find the latest pop hit by
Britney Spears may be downloading more than just a new tune.
File-swapping programs popularized by Napster Inc. and other
youth- oriented music services are increasingly being used to
exchange pornography, bypassing filters set up by parents to block
children's access to such images, according to a congressional
report released Friday.
Children can be unwittingly subjected to pornographic videos
and photos when they are simply looking for music, the report
found. When searching for Britney Spears videos on the file-swapping
service Aimster, investigators discovered that more than 70% of
the resulting files contained pornography, including images of
underage sex and incest.
Often, however, the search for pornography is intentional. A
survey of file-swapping services using the popular Gnutella technology
found that six of the 10 most commonly used search terms were
related to pornography, including "sex," "preteen"
and "lolita." The word "porn" ranked second
after "divx," a term usually used to locate pirated
movies.
"There's a new technology that's widely available that lets
children download an entire library of X-rated videos into their
home computer," said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles),
who along with Rep. Steve Largent (R-Okla.) had requested that
the House Committee on Government Reform review the technology.
"No credit card is required because it's all free."
In a news conference Friday, Waxman said he couldn't read the
titles of the available pornographic files because they were so
graphic. He noted that the file-sharing services, which are believed
to be most heavily used by those under 18, do not screen users
by age.
"It's a monster let loose on the Internet," Largent
said. He said he had forwarded the study to Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft
and urged the Justice Department to step up prosecution of the
pornography industry, which he said was the source of the problem.
But besides alerting parents to the danger, both lawmakers said
there was little Congress could do to regulate the practice, and
neither offered any legislation. In addition to concerns about
violating the 1st Amendment, the new file-sharing technologies
do not rely on centralized computer servers, and so it is more
difficult to trace users or restrict access.
"We're dealing with a technology that doesn't lend itself
to any sort of intervention that we can think of," said Waxman,
who was alerted to the issue by a father who discovered his son
had been downloading pornographic materials without his knowledge.
"We don't know how to stop it. That's why we need to educate
parents."
Many of the most popular parental-control filtering products,
including Net Nanny, Cyber Patrol and Cyber Snoop, are designed
to target sex-related Web sites and are not effective in blocking
access to pornography on peer-to-peer software programs, the report
found. America Online's parental controls worked only on dial-up
connections, not on high-speed connections such cable or a DSL
line.
Of the seven filtering products tested, only Internet Guard Dog automatically blocked
access to pornographic files, though access to music files also
was prevented, the report found. Two others, Cyber Sitter and Norton Internet Security 2001, also could
be adjusted by parents to prevent file sharing. None could be
set up to block file sharing only of pornography.
"Most of the services out there today are not up to that
task," said Sam Curry, security architect at McAfee Corp.,
whose parent makes Internet Guard Dog.
Representatives of two of the most popular file-sharing services
mentioned in the report, New York-based Aimster and Florida-based
BearShare, did not return phone calls or e-mail Friday.
The government report did not specifically criticize the file-
sharing companies, but Waxman called on them to develop technology
that would prevent children from accessing or swapping pornography.
In grappling with the problem, the government faces the same
obstacles confronting the entertainment industry, which has been
unable to prevent the spread of pirated music and movies over
file- sharing services. Though Napster shut down amid legal woes,
dozens of rival sites have sprouted up to take its place.
"It's pretty well out of their control," said Ric Dube,
analyst at Webnoize, an Internet research firm.
The study is the latest in a recent series of congressional inquiries
into children's exposure to mature material, from explicit music
lyrics to violent video games.
But courts frequently have found that government attempts to
restrict online pornography were unconstitutional. In 1997, the
U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Communications Decency Act,
which attempted to make it illegal to disseminate pornography
on the Internet.
This year, the American Civil Liberties Union challenged another
bill that would require schools and libraries to install Web filters
on their computers.
Copyright, The Times Mirror Company; Los Angeles Times 2001 allRights
reserved.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction
or distribution is prohibited without permission.
For more informantion about programs that can generate porn and
porn popups please see our section Harassed
by Unwanted Porn?
Where to report Child Pornography
http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/ceos/report.htm
Related Information About Porn Sites
Many viewers might have already come across this problem, they
click on a link found on a reputable web site or visit a site
that they have viewed in the past only to discover to their horror
that the site is now pornographic. Many porn companies are now
purchasing large numbers of expired domain names of older reputable
web sites. These porn companies lay in wait for expiring domain
names and than quickly redirect them to their severs. These expired
domain names can include sites that were originally geared toward
children with child safe content.
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/edelman/renewals/
Related News
Acquitted Man Says Virus Put Pornography on Computer
By JOHN SCHWARTZ, New York Times
August 11, 2003
One evening late in 2001, Julian Green's 7-year-old daughter came
upstairs from the computer room of their home in the resort town
of Torquay, in western England, and said, "The home page
has changed, and it's something not very nice." When Mr.
Green checked the machine, he found that the family PC seemed
almost possessed. The Internet home page had somehow been switched
so that the computer displayed a child pornography site when the
browser software started up. Even if he turned the machine off,
it would turn itself back on and dial the Internet on its own.
But Mr. Green's problems were only beginning. Last October, local
police knocked on his door, searched his home and seized his computer.
They found no sign of pornography in his home but discovered 172
images of child pornography on the computer's hard drive. They
arrested Mr. Green.
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
Court to Hear Case on Web Porn
By Charles Lane
Source: Washington Post
Date: October 15, 2003
Law to Protect Children Is Stalled by First Amendment Issues
The Supreme Court announced yesterday that it will decide whether
a 1998 law designed to shield children from Internet pornography
violates the First Amendment, propelling a six-year-old legal
battle over free speech in cyberspace into what might be a conclusive
phase.
The Child Online Protection Act (COPA), passed by Congress and
signed by President Bill Clinton, makes it a crime for a commercial
Web site to put material that is "harmful to minors"
where children younger than 17 can gain access to it, unless the
site has made a good faith effort to screen out all but adult
users.
COPA has never taken effect, however, because
opponents led by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) challenged
it in court, winning judicial orders that blocked its enforcement
on the ground that it would force Web publishers to give up some
of their constitutional rights to communicate adult material to
adults.
http://www.crime-research.org/eng/news/2003/10/Mess1501.html
Did you know that many spyware programs can generate
pornography on your computer?
Click here for more information!
Please Contact your Congressmen
and Senators about protecting your privacy and passing stronger
anti- pornography laws regulations and enforcing COPA regulations
to stop these types of unwanted pornographic spyware & hijacking
proograms!
Pending New Legislations
Spyware Targeted at Congressional Hearing
By John P. Mello Jr.
TechNewsWorld
November 20, 2003
A bill to take the "spy" out of spyware got a public
hearing before a Congressional subcommittee Wednesday.
"You're starting to see some very sophisticated capabilities
built into these things," Ken Sokol, senior product manager
at Clearswift, told TechNewsWorld. "Some spyware will sit
there and monitor what you're doing at your computer or steal
sensitive information about you or your customers."
Until now, spyware has been seen as primarily a consumer problem,
but Clearswift issued a white paper on the eve of the Congressional
hearing suggesting the malware will create serious trouble for
businesses, too.
"[Programs that] have been marketed and sold as corporate
security devices and parental control software for kids are finding
their way into the hands of hackers and criminals [who aim to]
remotely [take] control of a victim's PC to facilitate industrial
espionage," Clearswift Threatlab manager Pete Simpson said
in a statement.
http://www.technewsworld.com/perl/story/32206.html
Please contact your representative
to support this new legislation
Bono Introduces Spyware Legislation
July 30, 2003
By Roy Mark
U.S. Rep. Mary Bono (R.-Calif.) has introduced legislation requiring
companies using "spyware" to inform computer users of
their intent to install the invasive software and to obtain permission
before loading it onto a computer. Spyware allows companies and
individuals to monitor Internet activities and sometimes makes
it possible to gather personally identifiable information.
Bono said H.R. 2929, the Safeguard Against Privacy Invasions Act
(SPI), makes users aware of the technology before they install
it on their computers. "The SPI Act helps consumers make
more informed decisions about the types of tracking devices they
are loading onto their PCs," Bono said. The bill is co-sponsored
by Representative Edolphus Towns (D-10-NY), who said this legislation
has important implications for the privacy of Internet users.
http://dc.internet.com/news/article.php/2242311
Please contact your representative
to support this new legislation
http://www.marybono.com/Feedback/Feedback.cfm :: Mary Bono
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/CA/bios/H/413.html
:: Edolphus Towns
P2P companies may face new scrutiny
Last modified: July 25, 2003, 3:44 PM PDT
By Lisa M. Bowman
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
A bill introduced Thursday in Congress would require file-swapping
companies to get parental permission before allowing minors to
use their services.
The bill, called the Protecting Children from Peer-to-Peer Pornography
(P4) Act and sponsored by Reps. Joe Pitts, R-Pa., and Chris John,
D-La., would require the Federal Trade Commission to regulate
peer-to-peer networks and take steps to ensure that children aren't
accidentally coming across porn.
The bill's sponsors said as many as 40 percent of all files traded
on the networks are porn.
"Our legislation gives parents the tools they need to protect
their children from pornography and threats to privacy posed by
peer-to-peer file-trading networks," Pitts said in a statement.
"By working together to protect children, we are building
a broad and bipartisan coalition."
http://news.com.com/2100-1025-5055426.html?tag=nl
Please contact your representative
to support this new legislation
Congress cracks down on P2P porn
Last modified: March 12, 2003, 5:30 PM PST
By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
The U.S. Congress is targeting peer-to-peer networks again--and
this time politicians aren't fretting over music and software
piracy. Searching for words such as "preteen," "underage"
and "incest" on the Kazaa network resulted in a slew
of images that qualify as child pornography, the General Accounting
Office said in a 37-page report, one of two obtained by CNET News.com.
The second report, prepared by staff from the House Government
Reform Committee, concluded that current blocking technology has
"no, or limited, ability to block access to pornography via
file-sharing programs."
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-992371.html?tag=st_rn
Special
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