IP: Freeh calls for restrictions on anonymity online

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 12:56:24 -0800 (PST)
From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
X-URL: Politech is at http://www.well.com/~declan/politech/


More Afternoon Line items at http://netlynews.com/


*****




http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/afternoon/0,1012,1801,00.html


The Netly News / Afternoon Line
March 10, 1998
Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens


   Nothing like a little kiddie-porn scaremongering to give the FBI an
   excuse to call for an Internet crackdown. This time it was chief cop
   Louis Freeh telling a Senate appropriations subcommittee that online
   anonymity was imperiling investigations -- and putting America's
   children at risk. "We would encourage the Internet provider industry
   to maintain subscriber and call information" and Caller ID data, Freeh
   told the panel this morning. He added, generously, that it might not
   even be mandatory, at least not yet: "We certainly hope that it could
   be done, even on a voluntary basis." Joining him was Ernest Allen,
   head of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Child
   pornographers have "areas where they have relative anonymity and
   apparent sanctuary, places where they can trade and transmit image and
   information with little risk," Allen warned darkly. But Freeh should
   think twice before restricting anonymity: after all, his own men use
   it to pose as 12-year-old girls in chat rooms. And maybe they've
   become a little too good at it. "The likelihood that one agency will
   begin investigating another agency's undercover operation" may become
   a serious problem, Freeh admitted. --By Declan McCullagh/Washington








--------------------------------------------------------------------------
POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology
To subscribe: send a message to majordomo () vorlon mit edu with this text:
subscribe politech
More information is at http://www.well.com/~declan/politech/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------