May 5, 2006 Comments
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The Seattle Post Intelligencer reports today that a N.Y. lawmaker has filed suit against Google by charging that the search engine serves as "the largest and most efficient facilitator and distributor of child pornography in the world." The suit does not name other popular engines like Yahoo!, MSN or Ask.com.
From the article:
Jeffrey Toback, a member of the Nassau County Legislature, said Google has paid links to Web sites containing pornography involving minors.
"This case is about a multi-billion dollar company that promotes and profits from child pornography," said the complaint filed in state Supreme Court in Mineola.
A Google spokesman denied the allegations and said the Mountain View, Calif.-based company takes numerous steps to prevent access to child pornography.
"When we find or are made aware of any child pornography, we remove it from our products, including our search engine," spokesman Steve Langdon said in an e-mail statement to The Associated Press. "We also report it to the appropriate law enforcement officials and fully cooperate with the law enforcement community to combat child pornography."
It's unlikely that the lawsuit will result in anything more than a little publicity and some public debate over the role of search engines in policing the content that they index. That said, it does add yet another negative PR kick to Google in a month that's already seen quite a bit of negative press.
Jennifer Laycock is the Editor of Search Engine Guide, an educational web site aimed at translating the search marketing world into something that small business owners can understand. Jennifer specializes in common sense search engine marketing, viral marketing and customer outreach via social media and blogs. A former search marketing consultant and in-house trainer, Jennifer’s clients have included companies like Verizon, American Greetings and Highlights for Children. Her primary clients now are a little girl named Elnora and a little boy named Emmitt.
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