"Cox is distributing newsgroups that are generally known to carry child pornography and other obscene images," stated Paul Cardin, president of the Alliance for a Safer Internet. "It's been going on for years and it's time Cox put an end to it."

Usenet requires no personal registration with the group concerned, thereby making hundreds of pornographic image collections available to the children of Internet subscribers, according to the Alliance.

The availability of obscene, adult-oriented, or pornographic material on the Internet has been the frequent subject of legislation and court decisions since the mid-90s, adjunct professor at the University of San Diego School of Law, William Kammer. The most recent significant developments are probably the Child Online Protection Act of 1998 and the Supreme Court's 2004 decision in ACLU v. Ashcroft.

We think its best for Cox to discontinue all news groups, said Cardin. If they want to be in the pornography business that is their right. I think its a bad business decision but it is their right. But, it is not their right to distribute illegal material.

On Aug. 5, the group notified Cox officials that they were distributing potentially illegal material. Appropriate law enforcement agencies in Atlanta, where Coxs servers are located, were notified on Aug. 8, the group reported.

In a statement released Tuesday, Cox said, We are reviewing the concerns of the Alliance for a Safer Internet and will immediately remove any newsgroups that appear to relate to child pornography as covered in our acceptable use policy. It has been Cox's long standing policy to block access to such newsgroups when we learn of them."

The company said that it has donated over $2.2 million in cash and in-kind contributions to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and NetSmartz to promote child safety online.

"We strongly encourage all parents to visit www.cox.com/takecharge with their children to discuss and adopt safe and responsible guidelines for Internet use, Cox added.

According to Kammer, the 2004 Ashcroft decisions found that the Child Online Protection Act, which attempted to prohibit sexually explicit materials on the Internet, likely violated the First Amendment.

Few can dispute the rights of an adult to view much of the material in dispute. Few argue that children should not be protected. The quandary is how to accomplish the latter without infringing upon the First Amendment rights of adults, Kammer continued.

Court rulings have shown a general bias in favor of filters and blocking rather than outright bans on transmission and availability, according to Kammer.

There are some statutory defenses that protect an Internet service provider from liability for publishing certain information and materials, but they are still hotly debated in various cases, Kammer said.

Usenet is one of the oldest computer network communications systems still in widespread use.

Usenet groups began at Duke University in 1979, said Kammer. There are perhaps a hundred thousand of them. Google owns the archive of messages distributed since 1981, a number in excess of a billion messages. The utility of Usenet groups may be lessening because of the presence of blogs. There are many Usenet groups that serve innocuous or protected purposes.

Cox Communications serves about 7 million customers in 22 states. Cox's key cable markets include San Diego, Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, Omaha, Oklahoma City, Northern Virginia, Rhode Island and multiple markets in Texas. Cox's High Speed Internet service has about 3 million subscribers.

The Alliance for a Safer Internet Inc. is an Oklahoma corporation formed under IRC Section 501(c)(3) as an educational organization.

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