----- Original Message -----
From: "Livingood, Jason" <Jason_Livingood@comcast.com>
The challenge of course is that in the absence of a silver bullet solution, that people working to combat all forms of child exploitation are simultaneously trying several things, ranging from going to the source as you suggest and arresting people, to trying to interrupt the online tools that they may use or that might fund/support them, etc. So they don’t approach it as a binary choice between trying these ecosystem measures vs going to the source – they are working all the levers.
It is unfortunately a very difficult problem. FWIW, a recent NYT article on this was interesting – see https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/09/28/us/child-sex-abuse.html Headline is “The Internet Is Overrun With Images of Child Sexual Abuse. What Went Wrong? Online predators create and share the illegal material, which is increasingly cloaked by technology. Tech companies, the government and the authorities are no match.”
Ah yes; the "proxies for evil" problem. Same problem as "getting the guns" (to quote President Andrew Shepard) as a solution for mass shootings. (And note here that I'm a lefty; we're not *required* to be gun-negative paranoids.) Child molesters also make use of houses, vans, and phonecams, so lets get all of *those* off the streets, too. Tools are *inherently* neutral, regardless of how partisans on either side want to paint them; even lockpicks -- or haven't you had to call a locksmith to get you back into your car/house without breaking a window. Tools. Are. Neutral. Any solution to a problem that involves outlawing or breaking tools will. Not. Solve. Your. Problem. Cheers, -- jra -- Jay R. Ashworth Baylink jra@baylink.com Designer The Things I Think RFC 2100 Ashworth & Associates http://www.bcp38.info 2000 Land Rover DII St Petersburg FL USA BCP38: Ask For It By Name! +1 727 647 1274