[14588] in Cypherpunks
Re: Pedophiles in Cyberspace
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Perry E. Metzger)
Thu Jun 2 13:52:15 1994
To: mpd@netcom.com (Mike Duvos)
Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 02 Jun 1994 10:10:48 PDT."
<199406021710.KAA21953@netcom.com>
Reply-To: perry@imsi.com
Date: Thu, 02 Jun 1994 13:45:04 -0400
From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@imsi.com>
Mike Duvos says:
> Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com> writes:
>
> > The WSJ op ed page today has an article on the 1st
> > Amendment in Cyberspace by Stephen Bates that focusses
> > (analytically) on pedophiles and Usenet. It is not
> > hysterically negative but discusses the "downside" of our
> > technology.
>
> Just what the world needs. Another reporter who spends a short
> time on Usenet and emerges to proclaim to the clueless masses
> that the Internet is bursting at the seams with child porn GIFs
> and that the pedophiles are frolicking uncontrollably.
I must disagree. His analysis that discussion by pedophiles on
alt.sex.intergen is likely 100% covered by the first amendment was a
statment we would all agree with. I'd say his article was more on the
lines of "here are problems" not "here are problems -- lets regulate
the net". He didn't appear to be advocating any new laws or law
enforcement activities. I thought that the article was a bit of a
downer, but it was hardly horrifying. Indeed, I'd say it was quite
well written.
Perry
