Kiddie Porn Is Not Cool
Nate Anderson thinks people should calm down:
ISPs could face tougher penalties for failing to report child pornography under a bill passed yesterday by the House, but don’t start searching the skies for the black helicopters yet: the bill doesn’t require any active surveillance of user behavior, and it won’t affect your local coffee shop’s WiFi, despite what you may have read.
My take: If you find out someone is using your network to sexually exploit children, you should probably report it to the proper authorities — whether or not this law passes.
Update: George Ou provides another voice of reason. And he posts this bit from the actual bill:
H.R.876 section 2258A
(f) Protection of Privacy- Nothing in this section shall be construed to require an electronic communication service provider or a remote computing service provider to–
1. monitor any user, subscriber, or customer of that provider;
2. monitor the content of any communication of any person described in paragraph (1); or
3. affirmatively seek facts or circumstances described in subsection (a)(2).
