IDG News Service - A European proposal to introduce mandatory blocking of child abuse websites poses a threat to the openness of the Internet, according to Ed Black, president of the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA).
Black is so far the only person from the IT industry willing to speak out on the issue. Companies including Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and the Spanish telecommunications operator Telefónica, as well as other trade groups representing the interests of the IT industry, either declined to comment, failed to respond to questions or said they are still analyzing the draft law.
Meanwhile, the European Commission which drafted the proposal is paying a group of child protection groups from around Europe €300,000 to lobby in favor of the proposed law. And key politicians in the European Parliament are already lined up firmly in favor of the plan.
The website blocking plan is part of a wide-ranging draft law intended to clamp down on child exploitation that was proposed by the European Commission last month.
The idea has sparked controversy, but owing to the sensitive nature of the subject, the lobbying against the idea from the IT industry has so far been muted.
"There is a real danger that this proposal will have unintended consequences," Black said in an interview.
"We oppose this idea partly because it is an inefficient way to combat online child abuse, but also because it builds on efforts by governments around the world to block what they don't like on the Net," he said.
Several countries in Europe including the U.K., Italy and the Scandinavian countries are already blocking a range of websites. The U.K. blocks illegal music file sharing sites; Denmark blocks online gambling sites, while Italy blocks a wide range of websites including ones selling cigarettes and even a site created to fight the Mafia.
"With laws like the one being proposed by the Commission, the open Net will die by 1000 cuts," Black said, adding: "The Internet is less threatened by China than it is by well-intentioned people trying to solve society's problems."
Black said he wishes others from the IT industry would show courage by opposing the blocking plan but he added that he isn't surprised by their reluctance to do so.
"Big companies are gun-shy. They don't want to get involved in issues where they can be attacked and in this case there's the risk that they will be portrayed as sympathetic to pedophiles," he said.
The task of explaining why website blocking won't help in the fight against child exploitation on the Internet has been left to civil liberties campaigners, who argue that blocking the sites will do nothing to stop the circulation of the offensive material.
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