New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo managed to strike a deal with Verizon Inc., Time Warner Cable Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corp. have all agreed to ban completely websites which are known to host child pornography. In addition, the three ISP heavyweights have pledged to fund other efforts aimed at searching and removing underage porn.

The actual blocking will be made using a database of sites provided by the Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The companies were more or less forced into agreeing with Cuomo after undercover agents complained to the three companies that the ISPs weren't doing enough to keep out child porn, even though such efforts were pledged in the customer service agreements.

Among the sites blocked there are also many newsgroups which appears to be the favorite way through which perverts communicate and share the illegal material. The issue at stake is whether this will set a precedent which will allow blocking of other types of content, actions which might amount to hindering free speech.

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a 2003 federal law, making it a crime to promote or present material considered as child pornography. The court voted 7 to 2 that a federal appeals court was wrong to find the law ambiguous. The court rejected the argument that one part of the law illegally infringed on free-speech, and that documentarians, movie reviewers or grandparents could be the victims of the law’s standards.

In February, more than 22 people were put under arrest by the Ontario Provincial Police in what was the biggest child pornography investigation ever conducted in Canada.