ISPs must block illegal content, says senior policeman

Bob Packham, deputy director general of the National Crime Squad, spoke to silicon.com at the Operation New Frontiers conference in Birmingham earlier this week, and made his comments in light of the recent arrest of the key players in an online paedophilia ring.

He said: "Paedophile material is so obvious, the ISPs must recognise these sites themselves. The possession of such material is a criminal offence so they have to make absolutely sure the material they are hosting is not illegal."

But this remark has angered the Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA). Tim Snape, a committee member of the organisation, claimed that ISPs cannot be responsible for paedophile material.

"ISPs can not be blamed for hosting this sort of material because it arrives from all over the world to our machines and is therefore made available. ISPs will remove it as soon as they find out the material is illegal," he said.

He also accused the law enforcement agency of being a poor communicator. "They should be talking to us directly if there is a problem," he said.

Dan Stevenson, analyst at Jupiter MMXI, said it is physically impossible for ISPs to check every site they host.

"It's not logistically possible to check all the content they are hosting because they offer a certain amount of free space to subscribers. Usually, the criminals move sites around too quickly to be able to track them down in the first place. In my opinion, ISPs are normally very quick to react against any offensive material," he said.

We'll have more from the conference - including a revealing insight into how much the police know about RIP - in our News in View programme next Tuesday