Row over crackdown on adoption websites

[Ray Taylor]

The Guardian reports: "The government is to clamp down on adoption over the

internet by warning British-based service providers that they face criminal

prosecution for relaying material which infringes British adoption law, it

emerged yesterday. "

Full story:

http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,426254,00.html


Well it is a general election year (Tony tells me it will be May 2001, all

things being equal)!


No doubt the ISPs would say that it is not their fault and that they are

just an unwitting conduit for the international child slave trade, but has

it ever occurred to anyone that one way to prevent this sort of thing

happening (government attacks, not the buying and selling of cute baby

twins) would be to issue policies on illegal use of the internet that allow

them to do what they can to help police identify and prosecute child abusers

and other criminals who use the internet.


A bit of pro-activeness on the part of UK ISPs would help give the internet

a much better public image and give the ISPs a better argument against the

inevitable political rants that follow this kind of scandal.


Just a thought.


Ray Taylor