New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has indicated his office will pursue legal action against cable operator and broadband provider Comcast if it doesn’t quickly move to comply with a “code of conduct” drawn up by the state designed to impede online trafficking in child porn. Among other things, the code of conduct specifies that ISPs will block access to Web sites and bulletin board systems that distribute child porn.
Cuomo described Comcast as continuing “to drag its heels when it comes to taking every necessary action to eliminate online child porn from the Internet.”
Three major New York-area Internet providers—Verizon, Sprint, and Time Warner Cable—pledged to uphold the code of conduct last July after the New York State Attorney General’s office reportedly threatened legal action against them on charges of deceptive business practices and fraud. The AG’s office conducted an eight-month investigation in while officers found the ISPs took little or no action on complaint from subscribers about child porn transiting their networks.
Comcast has not signed on to the code of conduct, but said in a statement it is working with the NY Attorney General’s office and expects it will eventually sign on to the code of conduct. Comcast did sign onto an agreement with 18 other ISPs and 48 states’ attorneys general to block access to sites entered in a blacklist maintained by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
