I did a little digging and happened to come across this blog, about US federal and state governments requiring Internet service providers to collect online data about their customers to stop online porn activates. I completely agree with this bloggers' disapproval of such actions.
Although I agree with the principal idea of trying to stop online predators along with porn distributors and collectors, there needs to be a point where we can say "no" to some of these policies. If we allow the government to collect our online records, we might as well let them collect info on the other personal aspects of our lives too. There comes a point when we have to say enough is enough and this might be one of those points.
Now much like the majority of people in this country I am all for stopping child pornography, but at the same time this isn't going to completely stop it and there is no proof that of how effective it could actually be. Millions and millions of records would have to be saved and it would be tough to effectively use all of the information that would be saved. For those who say "Well if you aren't doing anything wrong, then what's the problem?", the answer would be that as time would move on these records wouldn't be used as much for stopping online child porn, but more to watch us and use it against us for a variety on a variety of levels.
Even though the idea in principal is good, there defiantly needs to be some changes made to it. One possible changed would be, if the government wants to keep records they should start only with people who have already been investigated for child porn or molestation. As I stated in a blog before, anyone is capable of committing these acts, but at the same time that shouldn’t give the government the right to spy on all of us. Trust me, if police enforcement follows online activities of the already convicted and charged (all whom usually repeat their acts), they will be led to others who are doing the same thing.
It's not right for the government to group us all together and keep records of our every online activity, even if the initial purpose is to stop child porn. We all know how our government works and we all know that they will bend the rules until are far as they can. It's a shame if they don’t do this correctly; because it’s the kids who will suffer in the end.
