Google and child pornography

What is the deal with Nassau County Legislator Jeffrey Toback, anyway? He's targeting Google with charges of promoting online child pornography, but no article I have seen specifies exactly how Google is doing that. He claims that google is "knowingly generating billions of dollars from the pornography trade and illicit profiteers, in intentional and reckless disregard of its legal duties and the well-being of our nation's children."

Billions of dollars? Total Google revenues in 2005 was $6.1 billion. so a third or more is from child pornography? And that from a site that refuses to accept ads for beer and tobacco, let alone porn.

This is clear grandstanding for Toback's constituency. Like many fearmongers, he's targeting Google because it's big and successful. It comes with the territory.

The Brazilian government is also targeting Google's Brazilian version of Orkut for allowing child predators to use the site. The government is threatening to shut the site down.

Google is not only big, but it pledges to do no evil, making it a ready target. People overly criticize the company precisely because it makes that claim. That's good. It forces the company to be more careful than any other business I can think of. Except maybe Ben & Jerry's.

But it's Google's own fault for exacerbating the problem. Its PR sucks. It is so obsessed with secrecy it fails to adequately address these issues and defend itself. This is one of the biggest threats to Google's future. Everyone targets the company, and the public begins to question its honesty, a crucial feature of its success.

There are plenty of real issues to criticize Google for. Let's skip the child pron stuff and and tackle some of the real issues. What's your favorite? And let's force Google to open up and defend itself more.