Like it or not, They're Aiding Child Abusers
Published in The Universe
(August 04, 2002)
How might it be said that global companies like WorldCom,
Visa, and MasterCard These companies are accused of turning a very blind eye
to the content of their servers or how their credit cards are being used in
promoting child pornography. They deny any wrongdoing.
The U.S. Customs service estimates that there are 100,000 web sites carrying
child pornography, which is illegal worldwide. The dirty business nets as
much as 200 million to one billion Euro per year and more and more
perpetrators are being caught and jailed. US law exempts such communications
companies from liability for the content of the web sites carried on their
storage and transmittal computers and servers. The operators and owners of
the web sites are the ones who violate the law we are told.
In Germany, the state of, Bavaria forbade American on-line (AOL) from
transmitting child pornography over its servers based in Germany. This shows
that Governments can control the content of transmissions over the Internet
if they have the moral and political will to do so.
Every picture or video of children engaged in any sexually act or the the lewd
exhibition of the genitals (even if clothed) is evidence of a crime. The
victim suffers severe trauma and psychological abuse so destructive that few
ever recover. They carry the experience with them for life.
Such lewd pictures are also used by pedophiles to influence innocent children
and persuade them that such acts are ‘normal’ and in this way they can abuse
the child. Many pedophiles swap pictures some of the abusers show themselves
sexually abusing children. This is strong evidence when the suspects are
arrested and their computers taken.
Some if not all of the suspects recently arrested for transmitting child
pornography and possessing it, in Britain and Ireland, were connected to Web
sites hosted by companies such as Worldcom, Yahoo, Geocities, Verio and
Uunet a subsidiary of WorldCom.
A server company is like a mall and a web site is like a store .The store
owners( web site owners) rent space in the mall and from there they sell
their wares. The mall owner in not liable for what the stores sells
according to law. This is what needs to be changed. The store operators
deposit and store the child porno pictures and videos at their mall address.
A customer anywhere in the world can dial into the store (web site| ) on his
computer and see the contents, pay a fee and down load his choice of child
pornography to his own computer for storage and viewing and passing on to
other pedophile friends.
This highly organized trading is made possible by payment on-line that is done
by typing in a credit card number to pay for the pornography. Such payments
are frequently made by Visa and MasterCard and third party credit card
processors such as iWest and BillCards.
The unlawful images can be purchased for a monthly fee of 30 or 40.Singel
pictures can be purchased for a little as 2.When
Anyone logs on to a child pornography site the logos of the major credit card
companies such as Visa and MasterCard are displayed. In their defense the
companies say it is extremely difficult to know how their cards are used.
They deplore this use of their credit cards and they say if notified of
potentially illegal activity they will terminate trader’s Visa-acceptance
privileges.
It’s our member bank job to know what their customers are doing and how our
card is being used according to Joshua Peirez Vice-president and senior
Council for MasterCard. He also says that they cannot make a moral judgement
about what is child pornography and what is not.
If that is the case then we must demand that they find out and monitor the web
sites using their cards. Banks that sell credit card services are also
responsible according to Visa. Banks ought to get to know their customers
and refuse such transactions. The government must make an investigation and
introduce controlling legislation to curb this vicious form of child abuse.
