From
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/us/21porn.html [snip]
As part of the battle against the spread of child pornography on the
Internet, an initiative has begun allowing for the
shutdown or blocking
of sites offering illicit images of minors, even in cases where no
criminal investigation is being conducted.The initiative, expected to be announced today at a Congressional
hearing, is part of an effort among a group of Internet service
providers and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Until now, the decisions to close child pornography sites were ad hoc,
based on thousands of referrals to the service providers and the
Cybertipline of the center.
[snip]
So they want to be able to block/shutdown a site without investigating it? How hard is it to investigate, discover it has child porn, and then block it?
To me, this is as bad as the warrantless wiretapping that was discussed before -- as much as I agree wholeheartedly with the cause and hope that child porn sites do get shut down, I don't want to be giving power to somebody to do anything without proper evidence, and how hard is it to get evidence?