Agency help sought to ID child porn sites

The COPA Commission home page

A federally appointed panel wants state and federal law enforcement agencies

to compile a master list of newsgroups, Web sites and IP addresses found

to contain child pornography, or whose owners have been convicted of having

or disseminating obscene materials.

That recommendation was one of 12 included in a report turned over to

Congress Oct. 20 by the Commission on Online Child Protection, a government/industry

group organized under the 1998 Child Online Protection Act (COPA).

The commission concluded that no single technology or means exists to

fully protect children from online material considered harmful to them.

"The most effective approach still relies on cooperation between government,

law enforcement and the private sector," said Michael Horowitz, chief of

staff of the Justice Department's criminal division and an ex-officio member

of the commission.

The commission's proposal for a national list falls into that category.

Donald Telage, commission chairman, said the commission did not recommend

who would be responsible for managing the list.

"The compilation would be a law enforcement function, and the materials

would be distributed only to legitimate [Internet service providers]," said

Telage, who is also the executive adviser on Global Internet Strategy for

Network Solutions Inc.

Telage said the ISP "could choose to use the list or not" when considering

whether to pull a site.

Telage doubts anything will come of the commission's recommendations

until the next Congress convenes after the November election.