Cuomo, ISPs sign child porn accord

8-20-2008 National:

Five Internet service providers, or ISPs, serving New York have signed an agreement by the state Attorney General's office to rid their servers of child pornography Web sites.

The agreement also requires the providers to eliminate access to child porn newsgroups, a type of message board that can supply illegal images. LocalNet, Windstream, Wild Blue, Onestream and WINC Communications have joined America Online, Verizon, Time Warner Cable's RoadRunner, Sprint, Earthlink, United Online and HughesNet in agreeing to purge child pornography from their servers.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomol's office said it sent a letter three weeks ago notifying LocalNet that it was opening itself up to legal action if it didn't sign.

However, LocalNet President Marc Silvestri said because the company has been following federal policies, as well as has its own strict user policy, he "could not admit guilt where there was none."

"Our network has not and has never been alleged to be used for the transmission of sexually abusive images. It's particularly offensive to me to be painted with a broad brush," he said.

Silvestri said he only signed the agreement after the AG's office acknowledged in writing that it was not alleging wrongdoing and removed the threat of litigation.

However, an AG spokesperson said LocalNet signed the exact same agreement that the others signed.

"There is no difference from one agreement to the other," John Milgrim said.

Regardless of the disagreement around admission of guilt, the agreement is designed to make the Internet safer.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which regularly reviews and updates its registry of Web sites posting child porn, has partnered with the AG's office.

"We have seen a recent increase in the number of ISPs that are accessing our database of URLs known to contain child pornography," National Center for Missing & Exploited Children CEO Ernie Allen said in a statement.

A Web site, www.nystopchildporn.com, provides details on which providers have signed agreements and provides information on how to contact those that have not.

The agreement follows 2007 initiatives where Cuomo worked with law enforcement agencies to investigate sex offenders who had been found on MySpace and worked with Facebook to create safeguards protecting its members, especially children from sexual predators, obscene content and harassment.

The Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act (e-STOP), which Cuomo sponsored in January and Gov. David Paterson signed in May, restricts certain sex offenders' use of the Internet and updates Megan's Law for the Internet age.


..News Source.. by Jodi Sokolowski For The Business Review