ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the content of pornographic images in USENET, a public computer network forum for electronic groups called "newsgroups". The Internet has evolved over the past 25 years from a US Department of Defense network for assisting with engineering and scientific research to a commercially oriented communications network. Computer pornography has moved from simple images composed of alphanumeric characters to more sophisticated digitized, moving images. In Canada, the Criminal Code respecting Canadian laws on child pornography was changed in 1993 to define more explicitly what acts constitute a breach of the law. Pornographic images may be posted on newsgroups in two ways. In one way, material may be posted anonymously by individual users from any location. That is, individuals with access to a scanner or a digital camera can scan images from pornographic magazines and videos or take photographs that can then be posted in one or more newsgroups.
