Good luck. Overall a positive article, although I've noted one definite goof. I wonder if it would be possible to sue this FBI idiot as well as The Observer? -Allen
Avis FINN REJECTS INTERNET CHILD PORN CLAIMS
Copyright © 1996 Nando.net Copyright © 1996 Reuter Information Service
HELSINKI (Aug 26, 1996 10:53 a.m. EDT) - On the eve of a major conference on child sex abuse, a Finnish Internet specialist on Monday angrily dismissed allegations in a British newspaper that his system handled up to 90 percent of child pornography on the Net.
[...]
The newspaper reported the charges, by a U.S. policeman and FBI adviser, in the run-up to an international conference in Stockholm on the commercial sexual exploitation of children starting on Tuesday.
Finnish police also said they had found no evidence in areas they can investigate that Helsingius's system is now being used to forward child pornography on a large scale.
"We are working very closely with the authorities and the child protection agencies -- I am always encouraging people to report any incidence of child pornography they see on the Internet to police, so that they can investigate and act," Helsingius told Reuters by telephone.
The Observer quoted Toby Tyler, a Federal Bureau of Investigation adviser on child abuse and pornography, as saying 75-90 percent of the child pornography he saw on the Internet was forwarded through Helsingius' system.
Internet remailers are computers which receive and forward messages with a pseudonym or anonymous source.
There are about five in the world, and they exist to enable anonymous discussion of sensitive subjects -- for instance by victims of child abuse, potential suicides or people in politically repressed societies.
Five? Someone's miscounted...
Helsingius said one key reason his system would not be used for pornorgaphy was that it has built-in capacity limitations which make it impossible to send large pictures through it -- only small amounts of text.
"Also the groups where pictures are carried...are not supported in my server," he said.
It could be possible to compress and chop up picture material for use through the server but this would involve using "tens or hundreds of separate messages," he said.
Kai Malmberg, a Helsinki police specialist in Internet affairs, said he had in the past found child pornography remailed through the server but it had stopped since police started investigating.
"I've found really no evidence of the Finnish remailer being used for child pornography," he said. "But we can't -- we don't want to -- check people's mail. That would be like going into the post office and opening all the letters.
"I believe that he's quite sincere in trying to protect his server for people to discuss sensitive issues," he said.
Asked if his system could be used to carry child pornography through individual e-mail messages, Helsingius said this was possible but not on a large scale as it does not support e-mail systems which simultaneously send to many recipients.
But he said it was possible for Internet experts to imitate his remailer address to make it seem as if messages were coming through his system.
"In a prevous case roughly a year ago we could find a couple of cases of child porn," he said. "It was actually posted in the UK to the UK -- it didn't come to Finland at all but it was being made to look like it came from my server. Anyone can alter the origination information."
He said all the allegations about his remailer seemed to stem from Tyler, yet he had been unable to contact him. Tyler was travelling to the Stockholm conference on Monday and unavailable for comment.
"The fact that he's claiming 90 percent of the child porn goes through my remailer is pretty far from the truth. There might be the occasional instance and we are actively working against that," Helsingius said.
"My reputation has been tarnished all over Europe. We will take legal action, but we are not quite sure in what country."
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Copyright © 1996 Nando.net