Let’s say you are a small-time county politician in New York state, and you’re hankering for some national press coverage. You’ve already milked your crusade to protect teens from the dangers of tanning salons for all the ink you could. Your plan to ban the sale of toy guns in your home county has not yet gathered steam. Why not sue Google for profiting from the hobgoblin of the Internet: kiddie porn.
Jeffrey Toback, a lawmaker in Nassau County, New York, sued Google Thursday for “putting Child Pornography profits ahead of the well-being of children and community members,” and asked the world’s largest search engine be compelled to prohibit links or advertising to illegal porn sites, a remedy that Google said it already does.
Filed by the White Plains, New York law firm of Meiselman, Denlea, Packman, Carton & Eberz in the Supreme Court for the state of New York in Nassau County, the suit claims that Google has submitted to the anti-democratic wishes of the Chinese government but “when it comes to the protection and well-being of our nation’s innocent children, [Google] refuses to spend a dime’s worth of resources to block Child Pornography from reaching children or to filter out search terms such as ‘child pornography’ or ‘kiddie porn’ or the content to which such terms lead.”
Mr. Toback, a democrat and the father of three school-age children, did not return calls on Friday.
For its part, Google said it is vigilant about following child pornography laws.
“Child pornography is illegal and Google prohibits it in our products,” the Mountain View, California company said in an email statement. “When we find or are made aware of any child pornography, we remove it from our products, including our search engine. We also report it to the appropriate law enforcement officials and fully cooperate with the law enforcement community to combat child pornography.”
The company offers a product it calls SafeSearch, which filters adult content.
A nonprofit funded by the adult entertainment industry called the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection, which seeks to eliminate child pornography on the Internet, said that Google and other search engines don’t turn a blind eye to kiddie porn.
“They are very aware of it, and they have no desire to have anyone be able to access child pornography through their search engine,” said Joan Irvine, executive director of the now-10-year-old nonprofit entity.