The federal government has created a database that will eventually contain every child pornography image ever created, from those in old Danish magazines to digital photos put online to private pictures seized from busted pervs.
I'm reminded of the (probably) apocryphal tales of the Vatican's secret porn collection, said to be the largest in the world. In this case, though, it's true. The feds are building an all-inclusive archive of kiddie porn, and it's remotely accessible (i.e., people physically located away from the computers housing the database can still log into it).
They've been keeping quiet about such an important plan. The only mentions of the database come in a single paragraph in a press release from the Department of Homeland Security and two paragraphs in a Government Accountability Office report.
The Homeland Security release concerns Operation Predator, a scheme to crack down on child molesters. One part of the plan involves the database, which has been jointly created by the Department of Homeland Security's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (which houses the database), the FBI, the Secret Service, the Justice Department's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, the Postal Inspection Service, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, with help from law enforcement agencies of other countries. The reasons are explained:
With its capacity to search and identify known images, the system is designed to help law enforcement agencies throughout the world identify and rescue children featured in the images. The system is also designed to facilitate prosecution of those who possess or distribute digital child pornography images in the wake of a 2002 Supreme Court decision (Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition) requiring proof that such images depict an actual child.
They say that “this system will eventually contain all known child pornography images.” The GAO report concerns the use of peer-to-peer networks — best known for allowing users to swap unauthorized MP3s of corporate-controlled music — to share child pornography. Toward the end, the publication mentions the kiddie porn archive, confirming that it went live in January 2003, with the goal of the first phase being 100,000 images. It's “being populated with all known and unique child pornographic images obtained from national and international law enforcement sources and from CyberTipline reports filed with NCMEC.”
Although housed at Customs, it “can be accessed remotely” by the agencies involved, including the nongovernmental National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
In some ways, this sounds like a good idea, and the DHS claims that in its first six months, the system identified six kids in roughly 300 images. But putting all of this radioactively illegal, far-flung, extremely hard-to-obtain material into one place protected by just a password raises a whole raft of tough questions. Precisely who at each of these agencies will have access to this cornucopia of kiddie porn? How closely will access be monitored? How tight is the system's security? How often will passwords be changed? What happens if hackers compromise it? What are the implications of allowing a private organization to have access? What kind of oversight will there be? Public oversight has been nil, and by the time Congress was informed by the GAO, the database had already been a fait accompli for nine months. Let's hope that NAMBLA (the North American Man/Boy Love Association) doesn't have an accomplished hacker within its ranks. 