Schwarzenneger Asks Calif. ISPs to Block Child Pornography

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 23, 2008 - 5:08am.

Sacramento, Calif. - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. on Friday asked California's Internet service providers to follow the lead of Verizon, Time Warner Cable and Sprint by "removing child pornography from existing servers and blocking channels" that disseminate the illegal material. Earlier this month, the three ISPs announced an agreement with New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, under which they would eliminate access to child pornography newsgroups on Usenet, and also purge any existing child pornography on their servers.

"We applaud three of the world's largest Internet service providers -- Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and Sprint-for taking steps to block access to child pornography," Schwarzenegger and Brown wrote in a letter to the California Internet Service Provider Association, which represents more than 100 ISPs in California.

"It is not enough, however, for only a few Internet service providers to join the fight against online predators. Child pornography is not protected by the First Amendment, and distributing this material is illegal."

Some groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), caution that eliminating access to all newsgroups -- as Time Warner Cable and AOL have done -- or even some broad swaths of newsgroups, as the other ISPs plan, would likely eliminate access for consumers to many legitimate sites.