Federal agents tracked a movie showing the rape of a 2-year- old to a computer in Colorado that distributed the video on the Internet.
But the agents failed to find the distributor, or the child, because Comcast, the Internet service provider, didn’t maintain records that could have identified the computer, a federal investigator told a congressional subcommittee Thursday.
“The abuse was so horrible, it even shocked the seasoned analysts at the (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children),” Flint Waters, a lead special agent from a Justice Department task force on Internet Crimes Against Children, told members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
“Comcast is horrified by any act of violence inflicted on a child and takes the issue very seriously,” said Comcast spokeswoman Jeanne Russo.
The company promptly processes and responds to valid requests from law enforcement agencies, she added.
The committee hearing occurred as the government is moving on several fronts to obtain data on Internet activity to achieve its law enforcement goals, from domestic security to the prosecution of online crime.
The Justice Department recently asked a federal judge to compel Google, the Internet search giant, to turn over records on millions of its users’ search queries as part of an effort to uphold an online-pornography law.
The House committee is holding a series of hearings on Internet sexual exploitation of children. Currently, there is no obligation for Internet service companies to keep records, said U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Denver, a member of the committee.
The committee is considering legislation that would require companies to keep logs of Internet addresses for an undetermined period that would identify a computer.
Comcast and most other Internet service providers keep the logs for several months.
“One cannot require businesses to keep data for too long; it creates incredible storage burdens. It’s not the (companies’) job to keep records forever for the convenience of police,” Chris Hoofnagle, senior counsel of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, wrote in an e-mail.
Forcing the companies to keep the information would violate the First Amendment right of Internet users to speak privately and anonymously, said Kevin Bankston, staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at 303-820-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com.
