ISPs to Create Database to Combat Child Porn 595
BlueCup writes to tell us that several media companies are banding together to create a database of child pornography images to help law enforcement officials combat distribution of questionable material. In addition to the database several tools and new technologies are also planned but most notable is what some perceive as a willingness to cooperate which critics say has been lacking in the past. From the article: "Each company will set its own procedures on how it uses the database, but executives say the partnership will let companies exchange their best ideas — ultimately developing tools for preventing child-porn distribution instead of simply catching violations."
Re:Devil's Advocate (Score:4, Informative)
"create a unique mathematical signature for each one based on a common formula"
"If child porn is detected, AOL would refer the case to the missing-children's center for further investigation, as service providers are required to do under federal law."
Kinda covers most of your post, no?
Re:Everything about this seems... (Score:4, Informative)
Why imagine? People already have been condenmed [blogspot.com] for taking pictures of their kids at bathtime. [bbc.co.uk]
Bathtime has become a taboo activity, best undergone alone, one child at a time, and if a supervisor must be present, only the child's mother is allowed. Possibly an aunt, but that's pushing it. No fathers allowed. Eyes only. IR goggles preferred.
God Bless The News Of The World.
Re:Hashing? (Score:3, Informative)
I set up my own "porn" server one time by using MD5 hashes. I used a program called suck to, err, suck down all new pics from certain alt.binaries groups, stored the md5s in an MySQL database, and if the md5 existed, I just deleted the picture, then put the pics up on a website. Sorry, it wasn't kiddie porn though.
What I want to know, is how prevalent is kid porn or what the hell it is? To me, I'm only interested in girls once they get signs of being able to breed. You know those things like boobies and hips. To me kiddie porn happens all the time on diaper commercials. How common, and what exactly is the fascination with pre-pubescent kids? I just don't get it. I don't think they are "hot", I don't think most teenage girls are hot, but I certainly have been guilty of "premeditating" statutory rape, but I just don't get the obsession by the "criminals" or those trying to stop them of doing whatever they do with kiddie porn.
Simply makes animal sex seem normal to me.
Is this a required step? (Score:2, Informative)
Do they have the right to log IPs and such? I really don't think so.
Re:Hashing? (Score:5, Informative)
Then again, our filters are made mostly to protect the innocent from being subjected to CP by accident (and yes, it'll stop a few from ever getting into the stuff), not so much prevent someone who really wants it from getting it - they'll always find a way...
I'd worry more about Usenet (Score:2, Informative)
More of it gets done via secret FTP sites, and the big daddy of them all, Usenet.
Besides which, until there is a global hard point to call something "child pornography", what does it matter? As long as some countries have a more liberal viewpoint, such as saying 16 is old enough to be photographed nude, how can we hold a international thing like the internet to a U.S. or some other country's standard? Someone will just move their servers to a country where they laws make it legal, and go from there.
Anyone that goes to Usenet binary groups that has pictures knows that sooner or later some child porn-like photos are going to end up on their system. Some spammer is throwing them up. And that makes the decision to report the poster(s) more hazardous. Reporting to may places (like the FBI), they want *YOUR* info, as well. I don't want some FBI agent coming to my house to talk to me about child porn, knowing that there is the small chance some photo that is on my system could fit the criteria for some draconian anti-child porn law that got passed in some whacky place.
Most of what gets found, from a business that actively produces child porn, is coming out of Russia and former Soviet block nations. Nothing happens to those, as the Mafia is too hard to crack. But those mom and pop shops are harder to track.
Re:Wouldn't it make more sense ..... (Score:5, Informative)
Oh, but arresting people for thought-crimes and future-crimes is so much more fun. Easier too!
Seriously though, what's scary to me is how little discretion the cops/prosecutors use when arresting people for CP-related crimes. They arrest underage teens for sending out nude pictures of themselves!
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlif
People always assume that everyone arrested for CP is a 50-year-old guy in a trenchcoat looking at pictures of babies being raped. Not so. There are so many cops working on these cases that they bust everyone they can find.
Re:Computer-generated images will win out (Score:3, Informative)
In the UK computer generated porn is classified in law exactly the same way as regular digital / wet photography. AFAIK the same is true of drawings and paints as well.
Re:So this is like... (Score:2, Informative)
You might be interested in reading on the Naastenliefde, Vrijheid & Diversiteit, [wikipedia.org] a Dutch political party which is currently generating lots of steam and death threats for the party members here in the Netherlands.
Personally, I find this a very difficult subject. I found another comment [slashdot.org] in this thread that quite accurately summarizes the problems involved.
Re:It's a really delicate subject (Score:3, Informative)
Then you or your therapist did not do a thorough job in covering the details of confidentiality. If you (or someone who has a concern about getting treatment for pedophilia) ask, the therapist should tell you that there must be 1. an identifiable victim and 2. clear and imminent danger, in order to break confidentiality. There are people who specialize in the treatment of those with pedophillic interests, and help is available. And an honest, no-denial, no-BS, dialogue is necessary, and can be accomplished, without breaking those rules of confidentiality. When the confidentiality is broken, it is with good reason.
Re:This can be a problem (Score:3, Informative)
So it's not that the ISPs are not listening, it's that:
1. They didn't decide to block
2. And the people who did haven't been contacted yet.