Thursday, Jun 12, 2008    Text size: 

This follows a deal between N.Y. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and three major ISPs to block newsgroups that traffic in child pornography.

In a speech on Tuesday, Alliot-Marie said Internet users would be able to flag sites which carried child pornography, incitement to terrorism and racial hatred, or attempted fraud starting in September. This real-time information would help the French government to build a blacklist of sites that disseminated child pornography, which it would transmit to Internet service providers, who have agreed to block such sites.

"It is not a question of creating a Big Brother on the Internet," she said in the speech. "What I am responsible for as Interior Minister is to protect children and their families from pedophiles."

Alliot-Marie said the French government would pass on information about illegal sites not located in France to the host countries, EU police agency Europol, or to international police agency Interpol.