Controlling Child Pornography on the Usenet - Article Example

Controlling Child Pornography on the UsenetIt all started when a network called “Usenet” was designed with the initial purpose of exchanging text messages between connected computers. Soon enough, this network grew encompassing a broad range of newsgroups. With the introduction of newsgroups, the posting of non-textual files became possible and from there sprang out the horrendous immorality of child pornography (CP). The secret of the immense popularity of Usenet among pedophiles can be unleashed by the advantage that enables the users to boldly distribute inhuman images.

Actually the person distributing these sorts of files does not have to pay for anything and all the while the persons making contributions to pornography remain anonymous. So it is easily understandable that anonymity serves as the key for such criminals, which they feasibly use as a protective shell. The catch-22 is that the complete censorship of CP on Usenet cannot be implemented easily since that is somewhat impossible without banning the internet because Usenet is basically served by the internet.

And why just strike out a war against Usenet when the percentage of CP on internet is basically even larger? The cutting truth is, pornography can never be simply rooted out and finished forever, since it really grows vigorously.Amidst darkness, the scintillating hope is that lately many Usenet communities have been reported to be curbed after important measures observed at the Government level. Internet Service Providers have been forced to shut down Usenet access at many places in order to cut down the incessant demand of child porn.

Cuomo crackdown is a well known open war happening against the erotic newsgroups of Usenet. “NY State attorney Andrew Cuomo has managed to get two more ISPs to join his ‘Crusade’ against Usenet child porn.” (Roettgers, 2008). America Online is among the ISPs who have agreed to do something about blocking CP and once it denies access to newsgroup servers, the Usenet is sure to become a less attractive magnet for cyber criminals. Another fact supporting the rampage against Usenet is that Recording Industry Association of America sued Usenet for trillions of dollars, criticizing it as the network of illicit file sharing sites.

Still saying that cyber censorship alone can play a vital role in stemming down CP is not actually true, since a large number of new Usenet groups and web servers are created daily.In comparison to all the opponents who suggest the ban of Usenet, some facts still suggest this mayhem to be a part of hyped criticism against this network. After all Usenet is not out and out about only CP. Sure enough, Usenet hugely became a favored passage for the ones exchanging illicit material after it was superseded by the popularity of World Wide Web.

Still not each one out of the thousands of newsgroups advertises CP. The complete banning of a huge network because of some black sheep is not quite fair. There are thousands of useful discussion groups on Usenet, banning of which would mean a big loss. Nothing significant can be done about the criminals posting pornographic images. We on our part have to strictly avoid promoting CP. In the long run, the development of self-morality is what needed to discourage the ones trading in CP. Works cited:Roettgers, Janko.

“AT&T says good-bye to all alt.binaries newsgroups.” 14 July 2008. 19 July 2010. < http://www.p2p-blog.com/?itemid=759>.