Yahoo and former child-porn kingpin Mark Bates have been hit with a $10 million lawsuit by a minor whose explicit images – taken and posted without his knowledge by a neighbor, according to court documents – appeared on the Yahoo Groups website of the notorious child-porn ring broken in 2001 as part of a federal sting code-named Candyman.
The boy and his parents sued in federal court in Texas May 9, accusing Yahoo of breaching its duties by letting Bates swap child porn through the company’s servers.
Bates pleaded guilty three years ago to setting up the group for child porn. Yahoo had closed it a year earlier. But the boy and his parents charge Yahoo knew about what went on with Bates’ online operation and took no action to block or pull the images of the complainant or of other children prior to 2001.
Association of Sites for Advocating Child Protection executive director Joan Irvine told AVNOnline.com that Yahoo is very active in the battle against child porn. Yahoo has declined to comment on the case, saying it doesn't comment on pending litigation.
"It is horrific when child is victimized. Then to have that image distributed to others just adds to the damage to this child," Irvine says. "But as with any other Internet service provider or hosting company, Yahoo is active in the battle against child pornography and has a compliance department that receives and reviews reports of suspect illegal activities on their systems. So unless they received such a report, they would have been unaware of this activity. Plus one never knows if the FBI needed this group to remain active during its investigation."
The Communications Decency Act shields websites to a certain extent from responsibility for what their users post, and unless people like the plaintiffs in the Yahoo suit have "very concrete proof," Yahoo may not be held liable, at least according to Center for Democracy and Technology Staff Counsel John Morris.
The plaintiffs' lead attorney, Adam Voyles, told reporters he and his clients believe Yahoo! knew what Bates was doing "and at a minimum didn't exercise reasonable care on their sites."
