Cable firms join to root out child porn

WASHINGTON — Cable operators that offer Internet service to 87 percent of the nation's residences said Thursday they will take steps to keep online child pornography off home computers.

"Virtually all cable companies already provide free filtering software, but this (development) takes a big step beyond that," explained Rob Stoddard, a spokesman for the National Cable and Telecommunications Association.

Under this agreement with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, if the Center "finds a (child pornography) Web site hosted by a server managed by one of our companies, the company will shut that site down," said Stoddard.

The agreement is a "two-way street," he added, because if a cable company finds a child pornography site operating on a server it is managing, it will report the site to the center as well as shut it down.

"We are deeply grateful for this industry-wide attack on child pornography," said Ernie Allen, president and CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "It is not possible to arrest and prosecute every offender. We must be creative and build new public-private partnerships to address this insidious problem more effectively."

The agreement "will limit the ability of predators to store and exchange images of exploitation of those who are, by definition, among the more vulnerable in society," said Patrick C. Lynch, the attorney general of Rhode Island and president of the National Association of Attorneys General.

The industry-wide memorandum of understanding was agreed upon by cable operators that ???

The cable operators will begin the program within 30 days.

The companies, which offer broadband Internet service to more than 112 million homes, include: Comcast Corp.; Cox Communications, a corporate sibling of Cox Newspapers; Charter Communications; Cablevision Systems Corp.; Bright House Networks; Suddenlink Communications; Mediacom Communications; Insight Communications; Bresnan Communications; Midcontinent Communications; Broadstripe; GCI; Harron Communications; US Cable Corp.; BendBroadband; Eagle Communications, and Sjoberg's, Inc.?Time Warner Cable had already signed the agreement.

Bob Dart is a Washington correspondent for Cox Newspapers.