The Globe and Mail
Wednesday, February 4, 1998
The number of Internet sites devoted to pornography and child porn is growing despite laws intended to limit them, says a Queen's University professor.
More than that, Dr. Michael Mehta said yesterday, the success of the on-line porn industry -- virtually the only Web sites that make money -- is driving the development of technology as consumers of adult materials demand better monitors, more powerful microprocessors and faster Internet access speeds.
"It's quite clear that the number of adult-oriented Web sites is growing," said Dr. Mehta, who is researching the issue for a book. And as the porn sites grow, so do the child porn sites.
There are perhaps 250,000 adult-oriented Web sites, which constitute probably less than 2 per cent of the total number of Web sites, Dr. Mehta said. "But the adult-oriented sites are one of the only types making a profit from the Internet," he said.
Dr. Mehta studied 9,800 images on the Internet from July, 1995, to July, 1996. During that period, the United States enacted the Communications Decency Act, severely restricting the nature of adult content that could legally be placed on-line.
Despite the CDA, the percentage of images involving children, or adults posing as children, actually increased to 20 per cent from 15 per cent, Dr. Mehta said. The U.S. law has since been struck down as unconstitutional.
The proliferation of Internet-based child pornography is no surprise to police.
"[Child pornography] is far more pervasive in our society than our society believes or is aware of," said Detective Staff Sergeant Robert Matthews, the officer in charge of the Ontario Provincial Police Child Pornography Unit.
And it's only going to get worse, he said.
"This is a borderless crime," Det. Staff Sgt. Matthews said. "It's extremely difficult to investigate. It's high-tech, complex and it requires considerable human resources to bring these cases to court."
But the answer is not a change in the law, which appears adequate, he said.
"There has to be a deterrent effect and the only way we can have a deterrent effect to protect our society is to have the courts handing down stiff penalties for anyone who distributes or is in possession of child pornography."
Dr. Mehta agrees new laws won't help. He said the Internet industry needs to develop voluntary initiatives and extend the use of filtering software.
But the Internet industry already has voluntary codes of ethics, and that hasn't slowed the growth of child porn.
"The balancing act we are trying to do is between the individual's right to privacy and doing what's right for society," said Ron Close, president of Netcom Canada, a Toronto-based Internet service provider.
Canadian providers adhere strictly to child-pornography laws, but only when they know about a problem, Mr. Close said. But providers won't look into their subscribers' E-mail or private files without a court order. Even then, widely available encryption technology enables anyone to hide what he or she is doing.
