EDITORIALS
Stay tough on child porn
Cuomo continues aggressive push to block access to abusive filth
Updated: 08/05/08 6:47 AM
The objections by a local Internet company to the demands of the state attorney general may be completely legitimate, but we’re glad the attorney general is pounding his fist anyway. When the subject is child pornography, responsible aggression is appropriate.
Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, who began a crackdown on Web-based child porn shortly after a Buffalo News series on the topic, is demanding that a Williamsville-based provider, LocalNet, follow the lead of other providers and block access to child pornography images.
The president of that company, Marc P. Silvestri, says he has declined to sign an agreement with Cuomo’s office because, in his view, it implies unwarranted guilt on LocalNet’s part, and because his site provides no access to child porn, which he called repugnant. These issues should be easily resolved, but with the explosion of child pornography and exploitation on the Internet, we are glad that Cuomo continues to hammer away at this issue.
Many other Internet services have already agreed to the attorney general’s code of conduct, which requires them to block child porn Web sites and news groups from using their networks. With many of the large providers already on board, Cuomo says he now wants to focus on regional ones.
Policing the Internet can be tricky, because free speech issues frequently arise regarding objectionable content. But as Cuomo pointed out, child pornography isn’t merely objectionable, it’s illegal. It has no First Amendment protection, and its production makes victims of thousands of children — lifelong victims, in many cases.
Because of the availability and anonymity of the Internet, child pornography has become an epidemic. As last year’s Buffalo News series pointed out, online child porn is produced in foreign countries — Russia is a primary source — but mainly for an American market.
That makes it our responsibility to shut off the spigot. Cuomo is right to pursue this matter aggressively, requiring Internet providers to block access to material that is not only revolting, but abusive and illegal.
