PA Net Porn Law Zapped

Pennsylvania's law mandating Internet service providers to block "illegal" Web materials – a law aimed primarily at stopping child porn – was zapped June 23 as an unconstitutional failure by the Center for Technology & Democracy.

CTD attorney John Morris said Pennsylvania lawmakers were ill-informed about the Internet's workings when they wrote the law, including not knowing that Internet service providers cannot control Web content and using sophisticated Web filters is also problematic.

But senior deputy attorney general John Shellenberger countered that it was indeed possible for ISPs to block content, especially access to illegal Websites, saying it isn't unreasonable to ask the ISPs to do so. He also said the ISPs made "primarily…business decisions" by blocking "thousands of sites" instead of bringing in more advanced blocking systems.

These comments came while a federal judge continues considering whether the 2002 Pennsylvania law should be modified or overturned. Various reports indicate a ruling isn't expected immediately, but Shellenberger is pressing the judge to leave the law alone because other bids to stop "the flood of vile material" online into Pennsylvania didn't succeed.

Morris said ISPs trying to follow the law and obey orders from the state attorney general to block a reported 411 Websites were forced to sever access to millions of legal pages.

In other news on the fight against child porn:

OTTAWA, Ontario - A media investigation has raised questions as to why Quebec military brass waited eight months to call authorities when a soldier was found using Canadian Forces computer to traffic in child porn – luring teen girls to nude photo shoots with promises of modeling contracts as well as distributing child porn – and download over a thousand such images on the job. The soldier, Denis Morriset, has since been sentenced to prison, but why the military kept quiet and kept him on the job as his case hit the courts running – despite a stated zero-tolerance policy – continues to be questioned.

TORONTO - A Canadian newspaper columnist is pressing the point that it isn't the Internet's fault that a child porn fan went out to find, sexually assault, and murder a 10-year-old girl, even after his videotaped confession said as much. "[W]e can't blame the Internet service providers for child porn," wrote Toronto Globe and Mail columnist Jack Kapica, "the same way we cannot blame phone companies for murders plotted over their lines. We can't blame privacy laws for shielding porn swappers, because we can't violate everyone's privacy just for the purpose of weeding out the pedophiles."