Verizon, Time Warner Cable and Sprint have signed an agreement with New York's Attorney General to block access to Internet bulletin boards and Web sites nationwide that disseminate child pornography, according to the
New York Times. Carriers have traditionally resisted such measures, afraid that the first step of blocking child porn would result in opening the door to the ISP as cyber-nanny. From the report:
The agreements resulted from an eight-month investigation and sting operation in which undercover agents from Mr. Cuomo’s office, posing as subscribers, complained to Internet providers that they were allowing child pornography to proliferate online, despite customer service agreements that discouraged such activity. Verizon, for example, warns its users that they risk losing their service if they transmit or disseminate sexually exploitative images of children.
After the ISPs failed to react to the undercover agents' complaints, NY AG Andrew Cuomo threatened them with charges of "fraud and deceptive business practices".
