Child Porn "Discussion Groups" Purged

Internet Service Providers Agree To Remove Lewd Child Images From Servers

(AP)  Two of the largest U.S. Internet providers have eliminated access to discussion groups that featured child pornography, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Thursday.

AT&T, the nation's largest Internet service provider, and AOL, the third largest, also agreed to purge their servers of child porn Web sites.

Cuomo said Internet service providers can't drag their feet in protecting children "and instead must quickly purge child porn from their servers."

He announced similar commitments last month from Verizon, Sprint, and Time Warner Cable.

The agreements target so-called newsgroups, which contain messages posted from many users at different locations.

They came after investigators from Cuomo's office reviewed millions of pictures over several months and found 88 different newsgroups that contained 11,390 lewd photos of prepubescent children.

Cuomo has used similar investigations and the possibility of civil or criminal charges to extract concessions on Internet safety in the past.

Last year, he reached agreements with the social networking sites MySpace and Facebook to toughen protections against online sexual predators.

Cuomo's office also drafted the "Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act," which was signed into law by Gov. David Paterson in May. It restricts certain sex offenders' use of the Internet.

[bptdude]

The newsgroups have long been a source of bizarre graphics and a world of people who live there.

That communication companies would hide behide "hey, the law says we can''t be procecuted", for so many years, when these child porn images are located in newsgroups with names like:
alt.erotic.child.porn.right.here.free

They have no conscience.

[barbaram99]

There is not porn on my pc. check your computer for porn. I don''t want it. I have alway felt those sites should be marked. They are a waste. The sad thing is they are off shore. I don''t allow others on my pc. I guess the sites have replaced the nasty magazines. Yes I realise the kids today will be adults of tommrow. Just as I saw the kids, future adults when I was grown up. Being 53 it scares me .

[jtdev1]

Shouldn''t these ISPs be responsible criminally for having child porn on their servers?

wouldn''t the average joe go straight to jail for it?

[hypnotoad72]

Without $$$, how can people raise their kids?

At least that filth has been taken down.

[jennmarikp]

Why did it take so long for this to happen? It''s amazing how many people are more worried about their $$$ instead of their children. Do people realize the children of today are the adults of tomorrow?