Proposed legislation in Michigan designed to help prosecute pedophiles would rip the anonymity out of free Internet service providers nationwide. That would have a deleterious effect on free speech, privacy advocates say.
Proposed legislation in Michigan designed to help prosecute pedophiles would rip the anonymity out of free Internet service providers nationwide. That would have a deleterious effect on free speech, privacy advocates say.
The Michigan Internet Minimal Identifiers Act, drafted by the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department, would require all free ISPs operating in Michigan to identify their subscribers by verifying customers’ phone numbers or credit card information. The department says it needs the information to prosecute pedophiles.
“Child pornographers hide behind free Internet service providers,” said Wayne County Deputy Chief of Staff Ralph Kinney. “Our efforts have been thwarted by anonymous service providers.”
Of the 33 felony arrests made by the department’s Internet Crimes Task Force, since it was formed in 1998, 70 percent have been for child pornography, he said. Sheriff’s deputies routinely monitor chat rooms where pedophiles troll for minors and grew frustrated when they couldn’t trace some perverts beyond their Internet handle.
Free ISPs are to blame, Kinney said. If a pedophile uses a paid provider such as AOL, the department can subpoena the company for the person’s payment records and obtain their real identity. Even if a pedophile gives a paid ISP a bogus name and street address, the department can subpoena the credit card company used to pay for the service to track the person down.
There is no such credit card trail with free services, Kinney said. In fact, three pornographers who escaped the department’s grasp all used NetZero’s service.
State privacy advocates have vowed to fight the act.
“It would have a chilling effect on First Amendment rights should this bill pass,” said Wendy Wagenheim, public education director of the Michigan Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
“This bill stifles anonymous speech, which has long been protected by the First Amendment. The Internet allows the controversial views to be expressed freely, and that’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”
While online anonymity may protect perverts, it also protects whistle-blowing employees and people living under repressive regimes, said Robert Ellis Smith, publisher of Privacy Journal.
“These kind of solutions are shortsighted and over-excited,” Smith said. “They really have to show documentation that this is happening and that there aren’t alternative means for taking care of it.”
But officials in Wayne County — home to 2 million people — say there is no alternative solution. In a letter sent to the nation’s 100 largest free ISPs late last year, the Sheriff’s department asked companies to immediately comply with the proposed legislation as an act of “good corporate citizenship.”
So far, only K-mart’s ISP, BlueLight.com, has complied. BlueLight.com, which has 6 million subscribers, started verifying users’ phone numbers when they registered for service via caller ID.
A NetZero spokeswoman refused to comment on the Michigan legislation, referring instead to the company’s privacy policy.
State Rep. Bob Brown (D-Dearborn Heights) plans to introduce the bill within the next month, according to an article in the Detroit Free Press. Brown did not return phone calls requesting an interview.
Author: Julia Scheeres
News Service: Wired News
URL: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,41740,00.html
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