A story in today's St. Petersburg Times tells how $1.5 million in city and county subsidies are being used to incubate software that allows users to mask their Internet activities.
PrivacyView Software, LLC created a program that allows users to save favorite websites, images and videos without being detected. The software was created specifically with Internet pornography users in mind. The press release announcing the program claimed: "The days of Internet porn consumers being 'busted' by their spouses or worse yet, their children, will eventually be a thing of the past. Now your members can surf with 100 percent confidence that their adult surfing habits will not be discovered."
The incubator where PrivacyView is being stored is part of the University of South Florida's (USF)efforts to raise its profile in biotechnology and bioscience research. Public money subsidizes the incubator.
Florida State Senator Ronada Storms sat on the County Commission in 2005 and 2006 when public money was approved. ""Needless to say, I was not informed that we would be providing incubation services for a company that wants to help the worst of the worst circumvent the law and engage in what most moms and dads would not think is where they want their taxpayer dollars spent," she said. She is concerned that the software will better allow Internet predators to hide themselves and their activities.
The director of the USF Foundation says he has no problem housing PrivacyView, and defends his position by pointing out that pornography on the Internet spurred the commercialization of the Internet. He ought to be concerned. As governments, communities, private and non-profit organizations and parents pour resources into protecting children online, he is incubating technology that will thwart all that.
Despite the growing concern for the safety of children on the Internet we continue to value the rights of pornographers, and those who tolerate them, over the rights of children. That must change.
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