Lamar Smith (the creator of SOPA and PIPA
anti-piracy acts) has created a new bill called the Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011.
The Act “amends the federal criminal code to prohibit
knowingly conducting in interstate or foreign commerce a financial transaction
that will facilitate access to, or the possession of, child pornography”. The
Act will ensure that child pornographers and sex offenders will be charged
with a large fine and/or prison term of up to 20 years for the possession of
pornographic images of a child under the age of 12. While the majority of people will agree that preventing
and punishing child pornographers for abusing children is very important, many
people have found issues with the act pertaining to their own personal privacy.
The Act will use somewhat
extreme (but perhaps necessary) measures to find, track, and prosecute sex
offenders with ownership of child pornography. Any internet service provider
will be required to record and review each IP and ISP (the special number given
to every computer or phone with internet access) history without probably cause
for a minimum of 18 months. The records, while only available to government
officials, will save bank account numbers, purchase records, addresses, emails,
personal web browsing, anything you download, upload, view, click, listen to,
or buy on the internet. And while most people will admit they have “nothing to
hide” many people are opposing the law because they find it as an invasion of
privacy.
One of the points the
opposition has made is simple: internet child pornographers change their IP
addresses daily, so why would we track each IP address without suspicion? Of
course it will make it easier for the government to find people that only
download or view child pornography, but the actual producers and distributors
are very experienced in the way of using proxies and systems that disguise
their internet identities. On the other hand, the bill may discourage people
from circulating the pornography, and therefore lowering the demand for it and
the surprisingly common occurrence of distribution on the web.
The Act is currently
under review in the House of Representatives and has gained 39 followers since
December 16th 2011. The estimated cost of the Act is more than $200
million.
Read more here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:h.r.1981: