'Search engines need to follow local laws'. Excuse me? How can a search engine on a web-site, any web-site, obey all local laws in every state and country in the world, assuming that the IP address of the user accurately provides that data?

This is like requiring the mail service to inspect every letter and package just in case it contains criminal acts of some form; expensive, error-prone, and ultimately useless as a form of security or crime prevention.

Google has an ethical obligation to provide accurate search data. Since when did it ever have an obligation to police how its service is used by the international community?

Remember that the Internet is not tied to any one culture. I believe the age of consent in Japan is 13, so what they would at best class as porn and legal, we in the UK or US would class as child porn and illegal.

Major search engines are insufficient to block illegal material; there exist plenty of porn search engines hosted in many countries. True censorship would be the US disconnecting from the non-US portion of the Internet except to approved external sites - but that's not going to happen.

[ reply ]

Link to this comment: http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/columns/383/33068#33068