File-sharing sites allow trading of porn
By Brad Wright
CNN
 |
Story Tools
VIDEO
|
CNN's Julie Vallese reports peer-to-peer networks are under fire by lawmakers for easy access to the sharing of illegal porn (March 13)
|
|
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The same technology used to download music from file-sharing sites makes it possible to trade pornography, tech experts testified at a Capitol Hill hearing Thursday.
At a hearing of the House Government Reform Committee, parents were put on notice that they've got to do more than put porn blocking programs on their computers to keep x-rated images away from their children.
"Now parents may think that they are doing something about this problem," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif. "When they put in these parental control software programs like Net Nanny or Cyber Patrol, they think they can protect their children from this pornography. But our investigation also found that while these programs might work to keep kids from pornography on the World Wide Web, they do not work in the same way for file sharing programs."
How porn filters work
Many porn filters block Web pages from a user's computer by weeding out sites that contain words such as "sex" and "XXX." But file sharing sites, such as Kazaa, allow direct exchanges between one computer user and another. This peer-to-peer trading cannot be intercepted by porn filters.
"That's what makes it hard to police," said Randy Saaf, who operates MediaDefender.com.
Sounding the alarm for parents
During the hearing, a committee staffer showed how easy it is to access pornographic images. The staffer performed a Google search to reach Kazaa, then once on Kazaa searched for Britney Spears. Hundreds of downloadable files then appeared on the screen.
Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., was surprised. "This is really very alarming to me as a parent who thought he was tech savvy on this kind of thing to see how far this has gone," he said.
That children might download porn isn't the only reason for concern, Saaf said. He said his work has shown that at federal government agencies there are people who spend time at work downloading porn.
