Federal study claims one percent of Web files are porn

Posted Monday, 20 November 2006, 18:49 HST @159

From USA Today and news.com: According to a Federal study, approximately 1% of files listed on Google and Microsoft search engines are pornographic.The study was commission by Federal lawyers to support the 1998 Child Online Protection Act. COPA required web sites to collect a credit card number before allowing a user to view adult materials. The law was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1998. A 2000 law that required libraries and schools to install and use Web filters was upheld by the Court in 2003. An earlier 1996 law that banned online pornography was overturned by the court in 1997, in part because the law employed a broad definition of porn.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) supports filters, claiming that highly restrictive filters can block a majority of adult web sites. However, many porn sites are operated outside the United States, and porn sites tend to use popular non-pornographic keywords in attempts to direct new users to the sites.