From: mpd@netcom.com (Mike Duvos)
Date: Thu, 2 Jun 94 12:49:48 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Pedophiles in Cyberspace
Message-ID: <199406021949.MAA28067@netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Perry E. Metzger <perry@imsi.com> writes:

 > Mike Duvos says:
 >> Just what the world needs.  Another reporter who spends a short
 >> time on Usenet and emerges to proclaim to the clueless masses
 >> that the Internet is bursting at the seams with child porn GIFs
 >> and that the pedophiles are frolicking uncontrollably.

 > I must disagree. His analysis that discussion by pedophiles
 > on alt.sex.intergen is likely 100% covered by the first
 > amendment was a statment we would all agree with.

Mr. Bates lukewarm acknowlegement that the First Ammendment
protects such discussions hardly mitigates his other inaccuracies
and in any case, is not at odds with my statement above.

 > I'd say his article was more on the lines of "here are
 > problems" not "here are problems -- lets regulate the net".
 > He didn't appear to be advocating any new laws or law
 > enforcement activities.

No.  He was just attempting to convince the numerous readers of
the Wall Street Journal that Usenet has a "child porn newsgroup"
filled with the stuff and accessible to everyone on the net.
Once this incorrect notion is sold to the American public, new
laws will follow of their own accord, without need of any further
help from Mr. Bates.

 > I thought that the article was a bit of a downer, but it was
 > hardly horrifying. Indeed, I'd say it was quite well
 > written.

Only in the sense of being grammatically correct.

-- 
     Mike Duvos         $    PGP 2.6 Public Key available     $
     mpd@netcom.com     $    via Finger.                      $