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Three major Internet provides have agreed to block access to
websites and online discussion groups featuring child pornography,
New York state attorney general said Tuesday.
"The pervasiveness of child
pornography on the Internet is horrific and it needs to be
stopped," Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said in a statement on
the agreement with Verizon, Sprint and Time Warner Cable.
"We are attacking this
problem by working with Internet Service Providers to ensure they do
not play host to this immoral business," he said, adding that
the agreement "should serve as a model for the entire
industry."
Internet providers had initially
refused to control the content of communication between online
users, but they finally agreed to block the pedophile content, Cuomo
said.
The agreement covers the entire
United States and Cuomo said he was negotiating similar deals with
other Internet providers.
"Online child pornography
represents one of the worst abuses of the Internet," said Jeff
Zimmerman, senior vice president and chief ethics officer at Time
Warner Cable.
"Among the steps Time Warner
Cable is taking are removing Newsgroups from our Internet
service," Zimmerman said, referring to online discussion
groups.
Verizon, with 8.2 million users,
and Time Warner, with 7.9 million, are among the five largest
Internet provides in the world. Sprint is one of the three biggest
mobile phone companies.
-- AFP
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