Most would assume that the drug dealer was at least equally, if not more, deserving of prosecution. Why do we not apply the same logic to internet crimes?

Every month we hear of someone being prosecuted for downloading child pornography, but why is no action taken against the companies that knowingly supply this sort of material to our homes? Both parties are guilty and should be prosecuted.

The internet companies will howl in protest. They will claim that filtering the internet is impossible, but this is untrue.

Filtering out 100% of illegal material is impossible, but cutting out much of the child porn that is available, through search engines, to every family computer is certainly possible, but it is not in the financial interests of the internet companies to carry out such filtering.

Too often, internet companies are assisted in their behaviour by those who are opposed to any censorship. Some are worried by the example of China, where the government forced Google to filter links to human rights sites.

Can anyone think of a worse abuse of rights than to use children for pornography?

We need legislation that imposes heavy fines on any search engine that provides links to illegal pornography. We need a system where web users can anonymously report sites that contain material involving any mix of sex and violence or children.

Many MPs present themselves as family men, so why do we hear no statements from MPs in favour of legislation fining internet companies that make no effort to filter their web services?

A J C, Belfast