Microsoft’s MSN service operates “community” web sites which allow users to set up sites on its servers. The service is not routinely monitored for content and Microsoft, acting only as the ISP, is not legally required to carry out such monitoring. However, it is obliged to remove any illegal material on its service to which it is alerted.
Swedish police advised MSN on 26th December that the site contained child pornography. The police have subsequently criticised Microsoft’s delay of eleven days in disabling the site which the company attributed to Christmas holidays and time consuming procedures necessary to gather evidence from the site’s log files. Microsoft is now working with Swedish police to help track the site’s author.
In the UK, according to an Observer investigation, few people convicted of crimes relating to internet child pornography are considered paedophiles by the courts and receive light sentences.
The newspaper report points to the recent high profile case of former pop star Gary Glitter whose real name is Paul Gadd. Gadd received a four month sentence last year for downloading 4,000 images of children, including images depicting the torture of a two year-old. The Observer claims that a four month sentence is now seen as “the standard sentence for conspiracy to distribute child porn.”