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Google Sued for Profiting from Child Porn
By Walaika K. Haskins

May 5, 2006 4:10PM

In a statement, Google executives categorically denied the charges, calling child pornography "vile and illegal." Such content, they indicated, is prohibited in all Google products. The executives also said that when the company finds or is made aware of any child pornography on its indexing servers, it removes the material.

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A Democratic representative in Long Island's Nassau County filed a lawsuit against Google on Thursday, accusing the company of making billions of dollars from child pornography.

Delegate Jeffrey Toback filed the complaint, charging the Internet search giant with "putting child pornography profits ahead of the well-being of children and community members."

In the lawsuit, Toback claims that the multibillion-dollar company makes its money, in part, by "facilitating deviant criminals in the procurement, transfer, and marketing of illicit and patently illegal material, including child pornography."

Protecting Search

According to the complaint, illegal content "has become an obscenely profitable and integral part of Google's business model." Simple searches, the suit said, not only turn up results that provide easy access to child pornography that is readily available to minors but also "alarmingly" reveal sponsored links that are obscene and illegal.

The suit seeks a financial judgment for damages and also seeks to have a court compel Google to prohibit site links or advertising for Web sites that have illegal content on them.

Jeffrey Carton, one of the lawyers representing Jeffrey Toback, said the action is being brought by "concerned community members" seeking to prevent illegal content from being searched and accessed. "This case is not about denying First Amendment speech," he said.

Google Responds

In a statement, Google executives categorically denied the charges, calling child pornography "vile and illegal." Such content, they indicated, is prohibited in all Google products.

The executives also said that when the company finds or is made aware of any child pornography on its indexing servers, it removes the material.

"We also report it to the appropriate law enforcement officials and fully cooperate with the law enforcement community to combat child pornography," the executives said.

Frost & Sullivan analyst Mukul Krishna does not anticipate that the lawsuit will have much of an affect on Google's image.

"I don't think it's going to have any impact," Krishna said. "The lawsuit seems to tread a very thin line. Google has a disclaimer and fair measures that are more than accurate to keep them out of [this type of] litigation."

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