FC: American Family Association wants Yahoo execs imprisoned

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,44619,00.html

    Yahoo in Porn Foe's Sights
    By Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com)
    2:00 a.m. June 19, 2001 PDT

    Patrick Trueman wants to see Yahoo's executives imprisoned.

    It's no joke, but it's not personal, says the 52-year-old chief
    lobbyist for the American Family Association. Trueman doesn't seem to
    have any particular animus toward Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, who took the
    job last month, or co-founders Jerry Yang and David Filo, now members
    of Yahoo's board of directors.

    To Trueman, it's entirely political: He says that since images on
    Yahoo's discussion groups and Geocities area violate state and local
    pornography laws, prosecutors can send a message to the Internet
    industry by bringing criminal charges against a high-profile target.

    After eight years of a Democratic administration with a laissez-faire
    attitude toward the burgeoning online sex industry, Trueman and his
    allies in the anti-porn movement are hoping that a conservative
    Justice Department, led by an attorney general who is open in his
    religious beliefs, will finally put the fear of God into
    sextrepreneurs.

    "Yahoo is involved in something that I maintain is illegal, both on
    the child side and with respect to obscenity," said Trueman, the
    former head of the Justice Department's Child Exploitation and
    Obscenity Section under the first Bush administration. "Yahoo should
    be treated like any other business that trades in this kind of illegal
    material."

    [...]

---

press release dated 6/18:

Yahoo! Still Headquarters for Child Pornography, Obscenity, American Family 
Assoc. Says; Former Department of Justice Official Continues to Urge 
Investigation

Yahoo! continues to allow child pornography and obscenity to be posted on 
its servers, according to Patrick A. Trueman, of the American Family 
Association. Two months ago Yahoo! announced it would remove such material. 
"A search of Yahoo!'s Clubs and GeoCities sites, which are available to 
anyone including children, indicates that a seemingly endless number of the 
sites contain pornography, depicting children in a variety of sexual poses 
and involved in sex acts, he said.  Examples include the "Pic Club of 
Preteens," the "Preteen Pics up the Wazoo" Club. Links are provided on 
these sites to other areas on Yahoo! and elsewhere on the Internet where 
child pornography may be found.  One Yahoo! Club offers the "Complete 
Lolita Hookers Guide."
     Yahoo! also continues to allow hundreds of Clubs and GeoCities sites 
that offer obscene pornography to viewers, including sexually explicit 
depictions of violent rape, torture, group sex, urination, scatology, and 
sadomasochistic acts.  Some of the club names include the "Rape Photos," 
Club with pictures of women being raped, the "Women In Extreme Distress" 
Club, which includes a picture of a woman captioned "raped and tortured for 
three days," and the "Young Virgin Slave Market," Club depicting bondage 
and torture.  "Though Yahoo! seems to have removed many Clubs and GeoCities 
sites with potentially illegal material and has discontinued sales of 
hardcore pornographic videos, the company is still a magnet for pedophiles 
and those seeking all varieties of hardcore pornography," Trueman said.  On 
April 12, 2000 Trueman, wrote Attorney General Ashcroft to investigate 
Yahoo! for federal child pornography and obscenity violations.  Trueman 
continues to urge an investigation. "Yahoo! should not be allowed to profit 
from the sexual exploitation of children and women," Trueman said.  He is 
AFA's director of governmental affairs, and was chief of the Child 
Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of 
Justice, from 1988 to 1992.




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