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CA4: ISP's duty to report child porn did not make its investigation a government search

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

AOL came upon child pornography and conducted its own investigation. As a “mandatory reporter,” AOL reported the child pornography to the government. AOL was not acting as an agent of the government, and defendant’s [creative] argument that the mandatory reporting requirements of Skinner applied here were rejected because the situations and interests were different. [AOL filed an amicus brief in support of the government.] United States v. Richardson, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 11928 (4th Cir. June 11, 2010): On June 10, 2004, AOL, pursuant to a mandatory reporting requirement set forth in 42 U.S.C. § 13032(b)(1),*1 reported to the Cyber Tip Line at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (“NCMEC”) that AOL had detected the transmission of child pornography images by a subscriber using an e-mail address called knifeisland@aol...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on June 14, 2010 (boomark / email).