The United States Government is determined to protect children and others from harmful online content, but free-speech and privacy groups say the legislation is going too far. \n The Child Protection and Sexual Predator Punishment Act passed the Senate on Oct. 9 and the House Oct. 12. It now awaits President Clinton's signature. Most of the press has been focused on how the bill will require sites to verify the age of visitors before allowing them to see adult content. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) of Washington D.C. is trying to bring lesser known sections of the bill into the public's eye. These provisions could force ISP's to turn over information about their subscribers without requiring law-enforcement agencies to obtain search warrants. According to the bill, whenever an ISP "obtains knowledge of facts or circumstances" of a child pornography law violation, it must report the information to a law-enforcement agency. ISP's that do not report violations face fines up to $50,000 for the first infraction and $100,000 for each additional infraction. \n According to EPIC, there are a number of problems with this provision of the bill. The severity of fines will encourage ISP's to simply turn over information on all subscribers, even those not being investigated. The law does not limit the type of information ISP's may turn over to law enforcement, nor provide legal assistance for subscribers whose information is improperly disclosed. Law enforcement agencies currently have the power to subpoena ISP's for subscriber information. EPIC fears that law enforcement is likely to use this new law in cases where they are unable to obtain a warrant. This is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment protections against improper search and seizure. \n "As a free-speech lawyer, I see problems with unlawful search and seizure here," stated Parry Aftab, a cyberspace attorney and director of the CyberAngels, a group that monitors child pornography. CyberAngels is a group that searches the WWW and chat rooms seeking users that sell or obtain child pornography or sexual predators trying to contact children via the internet. The group gives the names of people they find to authorities, along with any evidence. "Legislative action is needed. CyberAngels has faced cases where ISP's refused to cooperate even when one of their subscribers was known to be involved in the trafficking of child pornography," said Aftab. She furthered, "But the law should not put the onus of investigation on ISP's themselves. CyberAngels are trained to use legal methods to gather evidence, most ISP employees aren't. The law makes no provision for training them. The likely result will be ISP's turning over an abundance of information about people who are engaged in legal activity."
All models were at least 18 years old at the time of their performance. 18 U.S.C. 2257 Record-Keeping Requirements Compliance Statement.
