New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced agreements with Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and Sprint to shut down
major sources of online child pornography. Three
of the world's largest Internet Service Providers ("ISPs") have agreed
to block access to child porn from two significant sources: newsgroup and child porn websites
The
companies will eliminate access to child porn Newsgroups, a major
supplier of these illegal images, and will also purge their servers of
child porn websites. The agreements will affect customers not just in New York but throughout the country.
An undercover investigation by the Attorney General's office
uncovered a major source of online child pornography known as
"Newsgroups," an online service not associated with websites. The
Newsgroups act as online public bulletin boards where users can upload
and download files. Users access Newsgroups through their Internet
Service Providers. As part of the agreements, Verizon, Time Warner
Cable, and Sprint will for the first time completely block access to
all child porn Newsgroups.
In addition to eliminating the Newsgroups, the ISPs have also agreed
to purge their servers of all child pornography websites identified by
the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children ("NCMEC").
NCMEC regularly reviews and updates its registry of these illegal sites
to ensure the list reflects the current presence of such websites on
the Internet.
Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and Sprint, as part of the agreements
with Cuomo, will implement a new system to rapidly respond to user
complaints about child pornography. The three companies will also
collectively pay $1.125 million to fund additional efforts by the
Attorney General's office and the National Center for Missing &
Exploited Children to remove child pornography from the Internet.
The
Attorney General's investigation into Internet Service Providers
allowing child pornography to be distributed online remains ongoing. Negotiations are continuing with other service providers.
The New York Times reports, "After the companies ignored the investigators' complaints, the attorney
general's office surfaced, threatening charges of fraud and deceptive
business practices. The companies agreed to cooperate and began weeks
of negotiations."As part of the undercover investigation, the Attorney General's
office developed a new system for identifying online content that
contains child pornography. Every online picture has a unique "Hash
Value" that, once identified and collected, can be used to digitally
match the same image anywhere else it is distributed. By building a
library of the Hash Values for images identified as being child
pornography, the Attorney General's investigators were able to filter
through tens of thousands of online files at a time, speedily
identifying which Internet Service Providers were providing access to
child pornography images.
The Attorney General's investigation reviewed millions of pictures
over several months, uncovering 88 different Newsgroups that contained
a total of 11,390 sexually lewd photos featuring prepubescent children,
and in some cases photos of children being raped and sexual activity
involving animals. Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and Sprint provided
their subscribers with access to many of these Newsgroups.
Attorney General Cuomo said, "I applaud Verizon, Time Warner Cable,
and Sprint for working with my office to address this growing problem.
These companies are leading the industry and instituting new and
innovative ways to stop their service from being used by people looking
to distribute and access child pornography. I call on all Internet
Service Providers to follow their example and help deter the spread of
online child porn."
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Chief Executive
Officer Ernie Allen said, "This is a major step forward in the fight
against child pornography. Attorney General Cuomo has developed a new
and effective system that cuts online child porn off at the source, and
stops it from spreading across the Internet. I applaud the Attorney
General for making the protection of children a priority for his
office."
Verizon Deputy General Counsel Tom Dailey said, "We are committed to
ensuring our users are not exposed to the horror that is child
pornography. By shutting down offending Newsgroups and contributing to
funds that will combat child pornography online, we are working to
remove this content permanently. I want to thank Attorney General
Cuomo for working with us to create a safer online environment for all
of our users."
Time Warner Cable Senior Vice President and Chief Ethics Officer
Jeff Zimmerman said, "Online child pornography represents one of the
worst abuses of the Internet. We stand with Attorney General Cuomo and
the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in our
commitment to helping curb the spread of this abusive content. Among
the steps Time Warner Cable is taking are removing Newsgroups from our
Internet service, partnering with other leading Internet companies on
NCMEC's Technology Coalition, and making a financial commitment to
NCMEC and Attorney General Cuomo's office to actively support critical
child safety programs."
Sprint Senior Public Affairs Manager Matthew Sullivan said,
"Attorney General Cuomo has taken a national leadership role in
eradicating the online distribution of child pornography and he reached
out to Sprint to partner in this important initiative. In response, we
are doing our part to deter the accessibility of such harmful content
through the Internet and we are providing monetary resources that will
go toward the identification and removal of online child pornography.
We embrace this opportunity to build upon our own long-standing
commitment to online child safety."
Protecting children from online predators has been a priority for
Attorney General Cuomo. In May 2007, Cuomo worked with law enforcement
authorities to investigate sex offenders who had been found on MySpace,
a popular social networking site. In October 2007, Cuomo and the
popular online community Facebook announced a new model to enforce
safeguards aimed at protecting its network members, especially children
and adolescents, from sexual predators, obscene content, and
harassment. In January 2008, Attorney General Cuomo sponsored the
nation's most comprehensive legislation to dramatically enhance
protections for New Yorkers, especially children, from sexual predators
on the Internet. The comprehensive Electronic Security and Targeting
of Online Predators Act (e-STOP), was passed unanimously by the New
York State Assembly and Senate, and was signed into law by Governor
Paterson in May 2008. The legislation restricts certain sex offenders'
use of the Internet and updates Megan's Law for the Internet age.
This investigation is being handled by Senior Investigator Michael
McCartney and First Assistant Deputy Attorney General Peri Kadanoff
with additional assistance from Assistant Attorney General Karen
Geduldig and Confidential Analyst Bradley Bartram. The investigation
is being supervised by Special Counsel to the Attorney General
Elizabeth Glazer and Executive Deputy Attorney General for Criminal
Justice Robin Baker.
Verizon and Time Warner Cable are two of the five largest Internet
Service Providers in the world. Verizon has 8.2 million subscribers
and Time Warner Cable's Road Runner has 7.9 million. Sprint is one of
the three largest wireless companies in the United States.