ISPs, Webmasters Targeted by DoJ Anti-Child Porn Plan

The Administration proposal would up penalties against network operators failing to report the presence of child porn on pipelines, tripling today’s fines. First-time violations would trigger a $150,000 fine, with $300,000 levied for each subsequent violation, DoJ said. The proposal also would guard Web users from inadvertently surfing onto porn sites by making all sites run primarily for commercial purposes have labels on every page containing sexually explicit material. Homepages would be barred from displaying adult images or videos without a click-through by the viewer. DoJ also wants to ban the practice of hiding innocuous terms in site code so Web searches for common terms yield links to salacious sites.

The proposal drew fire from adult entertainment industry advocates, who called it an unfair, deceptive tack on fighting child porn because it would add burdens to sexually explicit content protected by law. Gonzales’s effort “tries to mix the issue of child porn and child protection with that of adult pornography -- a common tactic with this Administration,” said attorney Larry Walters. The 2 are entirely different -- one is “illegal and despicable,” the other upheld by the First Amendment -- he told us. The Gonzales move is a blatant “overstepping of congressional boundaries into the realm of constitutionally protected speech,” Walters said.

DoJ’s reference to mandating disclosures and disclaimers on adult sites is “overly broad” and, when paired with recent legislative efforts, is “an overreaction by the government in its attempts to protect children from predators,” he said. Walters, who represents the adult industry, online gaming and age verification services, said he worries about curbs DoJ is urging for Web search terms. Bars on words that could lead to materials wrong for children would be “difficult to interpret and enforce,” he said, noting that “playtime,” “toys,” “candy” and so on can have erotic overtones when combined with other words in a search. “I can’t imagine that the courts would uphold something like that -- if it gets that far,” he said.

Guarding kids from seeing adult material online is a matter the adult entertainment industry takes very seriously, Walters said: “It’s not appropriate for children to view adult sites and our industry has attempted to voluntarily regulate that.” Sites use various forms of age verification, voluntary warning pages, filtering and ratings systems, but protection starts at home, he said: “It’s not a job for government to try to regulate and enforce standards on protected speech. It’s the job of the parent to shield the child from exposure to inappropriate images.” On the other hand, guarding kids from online predators is “incredibly important” and authorities should be devoting “lots of time, energy and resources” to enhancing penalties for sex offenders and fighting sexual exploitation of children, he said.

At NCMEC, Gonzales described some of the graphic criminal evidence federal investigators have seized. The content is “shocking” and “makes my stomach turn” but many people still don’t appreciate the phenomenon’s scope, nature and import and its threat to youth, he said. Gonzales alluded to one study that said one child in 5 is solicited online, citing an NBC Dateline estimate that, at any given time, 50,000 predators are prowling the Web for children. The Internet has created “a vicious cycle” in which child porn is more widespread, more graphic and more sadistic, using ever younger kids, he said.

Pre-Internet, pedophiles were isolated and unwelcome -- even in most adult bookstores, Gonzales said. But on the Web, they've made a community, he said: “Offenders can bond with each other, and the Internet acts as a tool for legitimizing and validating their behavior in their minds. It emboldens them.” Images of children engaged in sex acts have become “a currency,” a commodity traded to get more images, Gonzales said. Pedophiles also often use images of children as a tool to silence or blackmail victims into submitting to more abuse, pornographic poses, and even prostitution, he said.

DoJ is working more cases than ever in its Child Exploitation & Obscenity Section, the FBI Innocent Images Unit and in U.S. Attorney’s Offices, Gonzales said. The agency funds the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) network, for which funding more than doubled to more than $14 million in fiscal 2006, he said. In Feb., the Administration unveiled Project Safe Childhood, aimed at combating online exploitation of children, with details to come in May. Gonzales will reach out personally to leading ISPs, and to other industry leaders, to solicit their input and assistance, he said.

A vocal participant in the recent child porn hearings, Rep. Ferguson (R-N.J.), lauded the Gonzales announcement. “The dangers that come with child pornography are very real and very serious,” he said, calling DoJ’s action “an important first step.” Rep. Stupak (D-Mich.) said DoJ “finally seems to be taking action to hold communications providers accountable for child pornography over the Internet.” He'll keep pursuing a broad legislative approach to the problem, including pushing his telecom bill amendment that would require the FCC to clamp down on ISPs, while holding DoJ’s “feet to the fire,” ensuring they deliver as promised, he said.

U.S. Internet Service Provider Assn. Dir. Kate Dean is “encouraged to see a renewed focus by DoJ on issues of child pornography and child endangerment,” she said. She couldn’t speak on the new proposal since she hadn’t seen details, she said. Comments by Gonzales at NCMEC about upping ISP data retention requirements were “unclear,” Dean said. “Mandatory data retention could have significant consumer privacy implications without significant benefit to law enforcement,” she said.

Gonzales’s remarks were “historic” and his visit to the center “an extraordinary national statement” on the severity of the child porn problem, said NCMEC Pres. Ernie Allen. The group backs the effort to pursue it via ISP data retention. “ISPs can be very helpful in providing information that assists investigators on these types of cases,” Allen said. NCMEC has worked with industry leaders from AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo, but only 215 ISPs report to the center. “We feel many more need to be held accountable,” said Allen, voicing worry that, absent a coordinated national effort, smaller ISPs could become “safe havens” for child porn.