A top official in the British government said there is less child pornography on the Internet thanks to a voluntary effort of Internet service providers. \n Barbara Roche (www.bbc.co.uk/election97/candidates/746.htm), minister for industry, said evidence of the success in the fight against child porn can be found in the first annual report of the Internet Watch Foundation (www.internetwatch.org.uk), which is sponsored by Internet service providers. The report (www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19980303S0006) said more than 2,000 items have been removed from United Kingdom servers as a result of complaints to the foundation's hotline (www.easynet.co.uk/easynet/announcements/iwf961204.html). \n In addition, complaints about web sites outside Great Britain have been referred to authorities in other countries. Of these, 61 percent were about U.S. web sites and 19 percent were about sites in Japan. \n Fully 85 percent of the complaints logged by the foundation concerned child pornography. All reported material has been removed, said David Kerr (www2.echo.lu/bonn/kerr.html), chief executive of the foundation. "Service providers cannot effectively monitor the vast amount of material generated by organizations and individuals so the foundation is keen to publicize its hotline more widely and harness the energy of the Net-using public against abuse of the medium," he said. \n Roche told a conference in London that more progress needs to be made and that the report will help direct future efforts. "The Internet offers unrivaled opportunities to individuals and businesses and we must ensure they are not compromised by an unprincipled minority," she said. \n The government has hired consultants to review questionable Internet material and to report on findings this fall. The review is to look at how much progress has been made so far on removing illegal material and the amount of time it has taken. Also to be studied is the awareness of Internet users and Internet service providers about the existence of the foundation and about other tools, such as filters, for self-protection. \n The consultants also may recommend that the foundation expand its mission into other areas, such as racist material and adult pornography. \n Another goal of the Internet Watch Foundation is to set up an international rating system for legal material so that users could avoid seeing--or letting their children see--anything they might find offensive.
All models were at least 18 years old at the time of their performance. 18 U.S.C. 2257 Record-Keeping Requirements Compliance Statement.
