Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 22, 1995 TAG: 9501230076
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: VIENNA LENGTH: Medium
The network, Vienna-based America Online, gave the FBI the names of those who had e-mailed the pornography. And on Jan. 6 the company sent an electronic letter to its more than 1.5 million users that illustrates the problems of policing cyberspace.
- With the push of a button, computer users can send suggestive words or illegal photos, movies or recordings to one another or onto networks used by children and adults alike.
``While we recognize that any community around the United States with more than 1.5 million citizens will have its share of illegal activity, we were nonetheless disheartened to find that some members are abusing the communications features of AOL in this way,'' America Online's letter said.
In the case of child pornography, which is illegal to produce or distribute, law-enforcement agencies and computer bulletin board operators can go after the senders.
But much of the graphic or potentially offensive material is considered protected speech and cannot be banned outright. And electronic mail, the main conduit for computer users to speak with one another, is protected from snooping much the way U.S. mail is protected.
``Just like the postmaster can't look at your mail as it is being processed, computer-services providers cannot look at your electronic mail as it is sent,'' America Online spokeswoman Pam McGraw said.
The company's letter stresses that the network is not monitoring mail messages.
``But if we are alerted to a potential offense and we are sent evidence, as we were recently, we will vigorously pursue the matter,'' the letter said.
The FBI would not comment on the pending case, but it has prosecuted computer-related child-pornography cases in the past, spokesman Bill Carter said. The agency does not keep track of how often computer porn is reported, he said.
Although uncomfortable in the role of traffic cop, America Online and rival services such as Prodigy have installed a variety of brakes to the online machinery.
America Online has begun canceling some computer conference boards whose titles violate the company's policies or ``suggest illegal activity,'' the firm's letter said.
Called ``rooms,'' these conference centers within the computer service allow several users interested in a particular topic to talk or send data at once.
Sushil Jajodia, director of the Center for Secure Information Systems at George Mason University in Fairfax, said there are bulletin boards to satisfy virtually any sexual appetite or fetish imaginable.
``I am not interested in looking at it, but I would know where to look,'' Jajodia said. ``It is very, very specialized. You can have female pictures, male pictures, children, whatever. It is accessible to me or anybody who has access to the Internet.''
The computer networks also allow parents to block some computer messages and features.
In New York, a state legislator is trying to make online sexual conversations with minors a felony. The effort is partly in response to the case of a 51-year-old man who had erotic computer chats with a 14-year-old girl and sent her lewd pictures of himself.
Computer industry experts think it's the first time a state legislature has tried to restrict online speech.
That worries computer-network operators and many users.
``Controls, or some kind of law, opens up all kinds of privacy questions,'' said Jajodia.
Jajodia agrees child pornographers should be pursued, but he thinks restricting children's access to other potentially harmful material isn't a matter for the law.
For one thing, enterprising computer users probably will find a way around legal or physical barriers online, Jajodia and others said.
``There is something out there for whatever you're interested in looking at. It's all there,'' Jajodia said. ``As long as we're adults using it, it's up to us as to how we use it.''
by CNB