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June 27, 2005 Pitts,
Davis, Pickering, Souder, and Shadegg cite need to protect kids In their request to GAO last year the Members wrote,
“As Congress continues to debate the proper course of action to address
the alarming trend of pornography over the Internet, we believe it is
important that GAO update its report to provide Congress with the most
up-to-date research on the dangers of pornography over peer-to-peer
networks.” GAO said today that, “According to three popular
file sharing Web sites, as of March 2005, there were 134 P2P programs
available to the public to download. According to organizations that track
the number of users on P2P networks and the number of times P2P programs
have been downloaded, Warez, Kazaa, and Morpheus were among the most popular
as of February 2005.” “The Government
Reform Committee has held two hearings on file-sharing programs and our
oversight demonstrates that these networks have become an increasingly
popular mechanism for the trafficking of very graphic pornography, including
child pornography,” said House Government Reform Chairman Tom
Davis. “This latest GAO report confirms
that many of the tools available to parents to prevent access to pornography
on peer-to-peer networks are ineffective. The current dynamic leaves
parents in an untenable position: either watch over your child’s should
every second he or she is at the computer, or deny them use, or run the risk
of exposure to this disgraceful material. Based on the report’s findings,
the Committee intends to hold more hearings on this issue.” Today’s GAO study found that “pornographic images
are easily shared and accessed on the three PSP programs we tested – Warez,
Kazaa, and Morpheus. Juveniles continue to be at risk of inadvertent
exposure to pornographic images when using P2P programs.” House Republican Policy Committee Chairman John
Shadegg said, “Parents should have the
ability to protect their children from this kind of material. We need
to give parents effective tools to make sure they can do so.” The GAO study found that the effectiveness of filters
intended to block pornography varied. Warez does not provide a filter.
Kazaa’s filter blocks certain words found in the titles or metadata of
files shared with the software, making it effective in blocking images and
files accurately labeled. The Morpheus filter was “largely
ineffective in blocking pornographic content associated with words entered
into the filter.” Additionally, the programs “did not display any
warning indicating that pornography, including child pornography, was
accessible through these programs.” GAO adds that the Distributed
Computing Industry Association has “efforts under way to encourage P2P
program to include warnings about the risks of exposure to pornography.” However, there does not appear to be protections for
kids against adult-oriented advertising. The services advertised on
file-sharing programs “could be easily accessed by juveniles. For example,
three of the four advertised adult-oriented services on Warez (two gambling
and one dating) had age restrictions that could be easily circumvented.” Congressman Mark Souder, Chairman of the House
Government Reform Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human
Resources, said, “The proliferation of
decentralized, peer-to-peer networks has been considerable. As a
result, file sharing programs—which are often used by children—are
subjecting more and more young people to virtually unlimited amounts of
pornography. I shudder at the harmful effect of this trash on our
society. We need to take action.” This problem is not isolated to Peer-to-Peer
file-sharing programs. The GAO said, “the filters for the three
leading Internet search engines—Google, Yahoo, and MSN—also varied in
their effectiveness.” The filters included with Google and Yahoo are
largely ineffective in blocking in pornographic images. Like Kazaa’s
filter, MSN’s filter was effective in blocking these images. Of the report Vice-Chairman of the House Energy and
Commerce Committee Chip Pickering said, "The
private sector must provide a means for parents to guard their children from
the proliferation of online smut and advances by sexual predators. The
search engines and peer-to-peer applications should voluntarily enhance
their products creating "children friendly" versions to allow
parents to better monitor their young children from being exposed to
material already restricted in stores or in movie theaters. If Congress
doesn't see a positive good-faith movement, we will consider regulatory
solutions." In 2003, Congressman Pitts introduced H.R. 2885, the
Protecting Children from Peer-to-Peer Pornography (P4) Act. This
legislation gave parents tools to protect their kids from these threats.
The GAO report will form the basis of new legislation currently being
drafted. It will largely reflect the approach taken by H.R. 2885,
incorporating concerns raised by the GAO report and others that have been
raised since its introduction two years ago. The report does not address the issue of the
deliberate mislabeling of pornographic files in order to deceive children
into viewing pornography and lure them into compromising situations. A
GAO report released in February 2003, reported that searches for
innocuous-sounding terms like “baseball,” “Pokemon,” and “Britney
Spears” yielded hundreds of files containing pornography. This
intentional mislabeling is a tactic used by pedophiles and child predators
to lure children into viewing pornography for the purpose of abducting them
or encouraging them to engage in sexual acts. “I am pleased
with this report. It confirms that there is ample room for Congress to
act to protect kids. We will take this as well as other information we
have gathered over the last two years as we craft our new bill. This
legislation will give parents the tools they need to protect kids when they
use programs like this,” said Congressman Pitts. Click
here to read the GAO report. # # # |
