Delaware News

Attorney General Biden Announces National Agreement to Protect Children from Predators

Criminal Division | Department of Justice | Department of Justice Press Releases | Family | Date Posted: Thursday, July 17, 2008



Wilmington, DE – Attorney General Beau Biden today announced that an agreement among U.S.
cable providers, attorneys general nationwide, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children will target child pornographers and provide additional protections to children from
predators.
“In the fight to keep kids safe from predators, industry must do its part,” stated Attorney
General Joseph R. Biden, III. “By taking active steps to limit the distribution of child pornography
and reporting offenders to law enforcement, the entire cable industry is taking a significant step in
the right direction.”
Today’s agreement was reached among the National Cable & Telecommunications Association
(NCTA), the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), and the National
Association of Attorneys General (NAAG). Attorney General Biden joined more than 40 of the
nation’s Attorneys General in formally supporting today’s agreement.
Nationally, the cable industry brings internet service to 112 million homes, representing 87
percent of U.S. households. Through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with NCMEC, all
cable operators represented on the NCTA Board of Directors will help reduce the proliferation of
child pornography by:
• Using NCMEC’s database of websites identified as containing child pornography to ensure
that no such site is hosted on servers owned or controlled by those companies
• Reporting websites containing child pornography to NCMEC’s CyberTipline
• Revising their policies around other potential sources of child pornography, such as webbased
newsgroups.
All cable internet service providers currently forbid the hosting of child pornography on their
servers. Through the MOU, NCMEC will provide service providers with additional sources of
information to help them enforce their terms of service, including help in identifying instances of
child pornography and facilitating their reporting of such material to NCMEC as required by federal
law. NCMEC, in turn, refers these cases to law enforcement, including the Delaware Child
Predator Task Force, for investigation and prosecution.
The cable operators that have agreed to execute the MOU within 30 days include: Comcast
Corporation; Time Warner Cable; Cox Communications; Charter Communications; Cablevision
System Corporation; Bright House Networks; Suddenlink Communications; Mediacom
Communications Corp; Insight Communications; Bresnan Communications; Midcontinent
Communications; Broadstripe; US Cable Corporation; BendBroadband; Eagle Communications;
GCI; Sjoberg’s Inc.; and Harron.
# # #

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Attorney General Biden Announces National Agreement to Protect Children from Predators

Criminal Division | Department of Justice | Department of Justice Press Releases | Family | Date Posted: Thursday, July 17, 2008



Wilmington, DE – Attorney General Beau Biden today announced that an agreement among U.S.
cable providers, attorneys general nationwide, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children will target child pornographers and provide additional protections to children from
predators.
“In the fight to keep kids safe from predators, industry must do its part,” stated Attorney
General Joseph R. Biden, III. “By taking active steps to limit the distribution of child pornography
and reporting offenders to law enforcement, the entire cable industry is taking a significant step in
the right direction.”
Today’s agreement was reached among the National Cable & Telecommunications Association
(NCTA), the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), and the National
Association of Attorneys General (NAAG). Attorney General Biden joined more than 40 of the
nation’s Attorneys General in formally supporting today’s agreement.
Nationally, the cable industry brings internet service to 112 million homes, representing 87
percent of U.S. households. Through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with NCMEC, all
cable operators represented on the NCTA Board of Directors will help reduce the proliferation of
child pornography by:
• Using NCMEC’s database of websites identified as containing child pornography to ensure
that no such site is hosted on servers owned or controlled by those companies
• Reporting websites containing child pornography to NCMEC’s CyberTipline
• Revising their policies around other potential sources of child pornography, such as webbased
newsgroups.
All cable internet service providers currently forbid the hosting of child pornography on their
servers. Through the MOU, NCMEC will provide service providers with additional sources of
information to help them enforce their terms of service, including help in identifying instances of
child pornography and facilitating their reporting of such material to NCMEC as required by federal
law. NCMEC, in turn, refers these cases to law enforcement, including the Delaware Child
Predator Task Force, for investigation and prosecution.
The cable operators that have agreed to execute the MOU within 30 days include: Comcast
Corporation; Time Warner Cable; Cox Communications; Charter Communications; Cablevision
System Corporation; Bright House Networks; Suddenlink Communications; Mediacom
Communications Corp; Insight Communications; Bresnan Communications; Midcontinent
Communications; Broadstripe; US Cable Corporation; BendBroadband; Eagle Communications;
GCI; Sjoberg’s Inc.; and Harron.
# # #

image_printPrint


Graphic that represents delaware news on a mobile phone

Keep up to date by receiving a daily digest email, around noon, of current news release posts from state agencies on news.delaware.gov.

Here you can subscribe to future news updates.