The principle of Net Neutrality is one that to law makers poses a problem: if people can access any content online without any sort of intervention, parts of the internet will fast become virtual black markets. The most talked about material of this sort is child pornography, which governments and those influential on policy around the world purport to be an almost rampant problem online (though to this site’s knowledge, there is no substantial information to support this claim). The latest legislation dealing with child pornography online comes from German, in which the cabinet is seeking to pass a law that would compel ISPs to direct their users away from sites thought to contain child pornography.
Yet even in trying to deter something as detestable as child pornography, the German government faces a potential threat: corruption by its own power. Keeping records of what citizens due is the first step to implementing a police state; history has taught us that much. Yet not logging any sort of information essentially gives individuals a superpowered version of America’s Fourth Amendment, which states that authorities need probable cause or a warrant to make investigations and arrests.
Redirecting traffic outright is not the right option as the chance that the filtering systems set up by ISPs would work properly is scant at best – it was not so long ago that England blocked Wikipedia due to a bizarre classification. That said, it is definitely a problem that those who do in fact seek out child porn can use the internet as a shield. Unfortunately, having the government install watchdog technology is probably not the best solution.
