US ISPs Announce Anti-Child-Porn Agreement

An anonymous reader writes "It seems that ISPs have gathered together with 45 attorney generals and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to form an agreement to crush child pornography. What does that mean? Probably the same as it meant for RoadRunner, Sprint, AT&T and Verizon customers — the end of the newsgroups." Here's the back-patting press-release from the various parties who signed on (the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and the National Association of Attorneys General), though the actual text of the agreement does not seem to have been made public.

Re:attorney generals?

[Anonymous Coward]

They could be generals with law degrees.

Usenet is dead.

[Hamster Lover]

Well that's that. Usenet is dead. I am glad that child predators won't have any [giganews.com] other [usenet.com] way [usenet.net] to access the cesspool of child pornography that is Usenet.

Re:attorney generals?

[QuantumG]

Or just non-specific attorneys.

There's your problem....

[Hamster Lover]

I've been reading usenet for 15 years, I've never seen any child porn. Do I just not frequent the right groups?

Well, there's your problem.

Finally somebody is thinking of the children!

[MaulerOfEmotards]

I think that somebody must think of the children. No, not the pedophiles, though I guess they do think of the children. Some OTHER body must think of the children. And luckily we have the corporate body! From TFA:

CableNCTA's agreement with NCMEC is the latest milestone in cable's efforts to ensure online safety and promote Internet literacy for all families and Internet users.

There is no more precious resource in this country than our children. They depend on us, their parents, to protect and guide them. A childâ(TM)s cry for help must not be ignored and at the same time, an adult that preys upon children on the Internet MUST be caught and contained.

The cable operators that have agreed to execute the MOU within 30 days include Time Warner

I can only assume that "MOU" means "molester of children", and I for one am glad that our media overlords finally live up to their responsibility and execute all suspected molesters! Finally somebody thinks of the children and are not afraid to say so! When Time Warner death squadrons rake hot lead into the last paedophile and burns his body with acid will be a great day not only for America but for all of Earth! (queue crying eagles)

Re:Common carrier

[brunokummel]

Why are people hanging onto this myth? ISPs do not, and have never had, common carrier status.

humm...I'm gonna write it as sugestion to the mythbusters...
Do ISPS have common carrier status?
I hope there's explosions envolved .... =)

Re:Usenet is dead.

[Anonymous Coward]

Check out the alt.binaries.pictures.erotica hierarchy sometime -- there are some groups with very suspicious-looking names.

(alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.child? Gee, I wonder what that could contain?)

Erotic pictures of Julia Child [wikipedia.org] perhaps?

Re:Here's betting it doesn't work

[davester666]

They just aren't banning enough things. They also should ban:

-drapes, because they are used to prevent others from looking in windows and seeing the child being abused
          -also, rooms without windows must be banned, including washroom stalls and confessionals
-camera's [both digital and analog, video and still] as they are used to capture the images
-vehicles of all kinds and sizes, as they are typically used to transport the children. This has the side benefit of also helping to prevent child abductions as well as thousands of deaths/injuries due to collisions.
-postal service for anything sealed, as it might contain pictures of child porn. Alternately, just open all letters/parcels and search them.

Re:attorney generals?

[brianf711]

I disagree. I think they need to increase their efforts to stop the online distribution of child pornography. There are many sites that have been claimed by some to contain at least some child pornography - rapidshare, myspace, facebook, photobucket, etc; and these should be blocked as well. But even that isn't doing enough if they were to look at the larger ways of distribution. Email, FTP and HTTP have all been used in to distribute child pornography, and if the ISPs were committed to blocking child pornography, they would block those as well. That would only leave a few other things that would need to be blocked to stop child pornography - instant messaging, telnet and a few others. You say they are taking away legitimate purposes of newsgroups, but they are still leaving so many ways of getting child pornography -- so clearly you are a glass is half full and not half empty type of person, and in cases like this, that makes it seem like you are in favor of an internet part full of child pornography.

Re:Usenet is dead.

[SL Baur]

alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.child? Gee, I wonder what that could contain?

That's an easy one. Thousands upon thousands of SPAM messages.

Re:Common carrier

[Daimanta]

They will probably coat a fibreglass bundle with dynamite and then blow it up. Is it educational or informative in any kind?

No, but it's a big explosion ;)

Re:Here's betting it doesn't work

[unfunnyguy]

"I hate to say it, but the string-and-tin-can has outlived it's usefulness anyway. Any idiot can create a string-and-tin-can, Any idiot can post anonymously and any idiot can freely distribute kiddie porn as a result. Let's face it, the string-and-tin-can is an outdated system that is primarily abused. Anything accomplished with the string-and-tin-can can be done elsewhere faster, cheaper and better. Sure, the pedo crowd can still find ways to trade, but the string-and-tin-can makes it too easy to hook up. Killing the string-and-tin-can won't kill kiddie porn, but it makes it more difficult. Does anyone really give a crap if the string-and-tin-can disappears? Seriously?"

Re:to be honest, child porn really is on there

[zapakh]

if you disagree with me, make a proposal to filter out child porn submissions on all of the alt.binaries. not volunteering, huh? no idea how to do it, huh? don't deny it doesn't exist. don't deny there is a lot of child porn posted there. don't deny it is wrong and must be fought. don't deny shutting down the distribution channels is a valid means of fighting it.

I say we take off and nuke the entire 'Net from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Re:Possible solution...

[DJNephilim]

Yeah, but then you have the fucking fuckers fucking every-fucking-body and nobody fucking likes it.
No one should figuratively be fucking anyone, only literally fucking them.
Of course, then you get fuckers trying to replace figuratively fucking with literally fucking, and the fucking gets REALLY fucking wierd.

Re:There's your problem....

[Odin's Raven]

I've been reading usenet for 15 years, I've never seen any child porn. Do I just not frequent the right groups?

Well, there's your problem.

<Cypher>...there's way too much information to decode the Usenet. You get used to it, though. Your brain does the translating. I don't even see the code. All I see is blonde, brunette, double-penetration MILF, redhead ...</Cypher>

Re:Here's betting it doesn't work

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, at work my boss is really good at telling when I'm only pretending to do work!

Re:Common carrier

[exi1ed0ne]

I spent about 30 seconds and I couldn't find a source, but rest assured they aren't.

Well that solves that then! Back to P0r. . . er, PBS!

Seriously, when did we turn into a society that paces in front of the microwave?

Re:attorney generals?

[geminidomino]

Better idea.

Leave the internet alone. Nuke the children from orbit. That'll fuck up the government's collective head (already firmly jammed in it's collective colon)

Re:attorney generals?

[Venik]

And I say, enough pussyfooting around the problem. The ISPs should strike at the heart of the issue: TCP/IP. That's what needs to be blocked!

Re:attorney generals?

[negRo_slim]

But what of the massive involvement of the United States Postal Service prior to the internet revolution?

Re:attorney generals?

[Hal_Porter]

methinks you meant attorneys general.

You're the sort of person who orders two Whoppers Junior at Burger King aren't you?

Re:attornies vs an attorney-general.

[hostyle]

Don't join the dots, use an ellipsis.

Brought to you by the Better Typography and Grammar Society - it's better than sects!

Re:Something similar happened here next week

[Phroggy]

That's funny, the name of your ISP is the same as my password...

Re:attorney generals?

[nospam007]

>..Well, first of all, Individual.NEt is in Germany, and second of all, it doesn't care binary newsgroups...

You _do_ know that you can post child porn to newsgroups not having 'binaries' in their _name_?

Re:attorney generals?

[Walkingshark]

Ah, you're quoting the oft-overlooked direct to video sequel, "Alien vs Child Predator." A great flick, that one.

Re:attorney generals?

[Bob of Dole]

What about all the child porn distributed by udp, sir?

Re:attorney generals?

[computational super]

Sir, you're being sensible, rational and logical. On this topic that is not allowed. Please report to the nearest re-education camp at once.

wow that was a bad omission....

[Shakrai]

you can't blow someone for spray painting

Obviously the word "away" was supposed to be in there somewhere ;)