Primetime, an Irish current affairs progamme, is currently broadcasting a much-advertised investigation into child pornography on the Internet in Ireland. I was reasonably hopeful that it might have some depth to it, but alas. Filenames were taken as representative of content, a completely inconclusive interview at microphone-point of some guy was shown, ominous music played almost constantly throughout, Undernet was portrayed as a den of paedophiles supported by the various ISPs and what not who provide Undernet services, and ISPs were held up as feckless profiteers with no concern for the data on their wires. On the last issue, the programme noted that some of the "paedophiles" they uncovered were using regular dialup lines, yet it apparently didn't occur to them that the ISP argument would equally apply to the providers of the phonelines. Almost all the people interviewed were of the opinion - most, apparently on either hearsay or personal supposition - that child pornography was rampant in Ireland; only one dissenting view was presented. The people who might actually have hard evidence, such as the police, declined to comment on any of the questions issued by the programme.
I'm not for one moment suggesting there isn't a problem. But really. This hasn't advanced anything except hysterical paranoia that anyone who uses the 'net is trafficking in child pornography, that they're supported in their activities by ISPs, and that the police are doing nothing to stop it.
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