The Seedy Side of the Internet

The situation I spoke of in my last post, Unwelcome Visitors brings to mind the often uncomfortable topic of online pornography. Since this blog focuses on technical issues that modern families face, it's probably best to get to this sooner than later.

I make no judgement on what consenting adults do with each other. In fact, I consider myself to be a very open minded and tolerant person. So I generally don't concern myself with what my fellow grown ups choose to view on their computers. It's their business and I respect their privacy.

However, some aspects of the seedy side of the Internet cross the line from naughty to out right illegal. In the United States and most other countries, it is illegal to present children with pornographic material of any kind. Additionally, any material that depicts children in sexual situations is also obviously illegal.

The FBI has a web site called the Innocent Images National Initiative devoted to this issue. The site contains a great deal of information on sexually related crimes against children. A great place to start is "A Parent's Guide to Internet Safety."

Another related site is the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. The NCMEC has been working to aid law enforcement in tackling the problem of missing and exploited children for over 20 years.

Finally, if you have information related to the sexual exploitation of children, be it online or in the rest of the world, please report it using the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children CyberTipline. Since the inception of the CyberTipline program, over 500,000 reports have been made and the associated information forwarded to the appropriate law enforcement offices.

You can also contact your local FBI Field Office with any such information.

In a future post, I will discuss the options available to parents to filter and otherwise deal with these issues.