By Declan McCullagh, 13 March 2003 11:51
NEWS Peer to peer networks are once again under the legal spotlight - though this time it is the exchange of pornography rather than music files which is being investigated by the US Congress. Two government reports scheduled to be released at a hearing later today warn that file-swapping networks are exploding with pornography - much of which is illegal. As part of its investigation, the General Accounting Office searched using keywords such as "preteen", "underage" and "incest" on the KaZaA network and returned a slew of images that qualify as child pornography, according to a 37-page report obtained by silicon.com's parent organisation 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." The two reports will be released at a hearing titled "Stumbling Onto Smut" that will be convened before the Government Reform Committee. The committee staff did not respond to a request for comment on the reports because they had not been released yet. The release of the reports will come at a time when Congress is increasingly focused on the Internet, children and pornography, and could presage more legislation aimed at curbing online indecency.
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1. Brian Reddie
Well, it comes down to access and responsibility. Access in that yes, these filesharing programs (and not jsut kazaa) are open to use by paedophiles to exchange porn, but so is the postal service.
Responsibility in that parents need to keep a closer check on their kids surfing habits. And most filesharing programs allow blocking of key words or phrases. So they have built in 'net nanny' type software. More scaremongering, another phyrric victory for media companies. If you can't shut down filesharing through arresting kids for sharing 12 mp3's just up the ante and scare the bejesus out of everyone. Another scapegoat in the fight against kiddie fiddlers.