a

GAO

United States Government Accountability Office

Report to Congressional Requesters

May 2005 FILE SHARING 

PROGRAMS

The Use of 

Peer-to-Peer Networks 

to Access 

Pornography

GAO-05-634
What GAO Found

United States Government Accountability Office

Why GAO Did This Study

Highlights

Accountability Integrity Reliability

www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-634.

To view the full product, including the scope 

and methodology, click on the link above. 

For more information, contact Linda D. 

Koontz at (202) 512-6240 or 

koontzl@gao.gov. 

Highlights of GAO-05-634, a report to 

congressional requesters 

May 2005

FILE SHARING PROGRAMS 

The Use of Peer-to-Peer Networks to 

Access Pornography 

According to three popular file sharing Web sites, 134 P2P programs are 

available to the public. Of those programs, Warez, Kazaa, and Morpheus 

were among the most popular, as of February 2005. 

Pornographic images are easily shared and accessed on the three P2P 

programs we tested—Warez, Kazaa, and Morpheus. Juveniles continue to be 

at risk of inadvertent exposure to pornographic images when using P2P 

programs. 

Two of the three P2P programs—Kazaa and Morpheus—provided filters 

intended to block access to objectionable material, but the effectiveness of 

the filters varied. Warez did not provide a filter. The filters provided by 

Kazaa and Morpheus functioned differently: Kazaa filtered words found in 

titles or metadata (data associated with the files that contain descriptive 

information), while Morpheus required the user to enter the specific words 

to be filtered. Kazaa’s filter was effective in blocking pornographic and 

erotic images in our searches, but the Morpheus filter was largely ineffective 

in blocking pornographic content associated with words entered into the 

filter. (See figure.) 

The filters for the three leading Internet search engines—Google, Yahoo, and 

MSN—also varied in their effectiveness. MSN’s filter was as effective as 

Kazaa’s filter in consistently blocking pornographic and erotic images, while 

Google’s filter was not as effective. Similar to Morpheus’ filter, Yahoo’s filter 

was largely ineffective in blocking pornographic and erotic images. 

Results of P2P Searches Using a Word Known to be Associated with Pornography 

Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing 

programs represent a major change 

in the way Internet users find and 

exchange information. The 

increasingly popular P2P programs 

allow direct communication 

between computer users who can 

access and share digital music, 

images, and video files. These 

programs are known for having the 

functionality to share copyrighted 

digital music and movies, and they 

are also a conduit for sharing 

pornographic images and videos. 

Regarding these uses of P2P 

programs, GAO was asked to, 

among other things 

• Determine how many P2P 

programs are available to the 

public and which are the most 

popular P2P programs. 

• Determine the ease of access 

to pornographic files on 

popular P2P programs and the 

risk of inadvertent exposure. 

• Describe how P2P program 

filters operate and determine 

their effectiveness. 

• Determine how the 

effectiveness of filters offered 

by P2P programs compares to 

filters provided by leading 

Internet search engines. 

In commenting on a draft of this 

report, DHS officials agreed that 

that our report accurately 

represented the work performed by 

the Cyber Crimes Center. 
Page i GAO-05-634 Accessibility to Pornography on P2P Networks

Contents

This is a work of the U.S. government and is not subject to copyright protection in the 

United States. It may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety without further 

permission from GAO. However, because this work may contain copyrighted images or 

other material, permission from the copyright holder may be necessary if you wish to 

reproduce this material separately.

Letter 1

Appendix

Appendix I: Briefing Slides 6

Abbreviations

P2P peer-to-peer

ICE United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement

C3 Cyber Crimes Center
Page 1 GAO-05-634 Accessibility to Pornography on P2P Networks

United States Government Accountability Office

Washington, D.C. 20548

A

May 25, 2005 Letr

The Honorable Tom Davis

Chairman, Committee on Government Reform

House of Representatives

The Honorable Mark E. Souder

Chairman, Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy 

 and Human Resources

Committee on Government Reform

House of Representatives

The Honorable Charles Pickering

The Honorable Joseph Pitts

The Honorable John Shadegg

House of Representatives

Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing programs represent a major change in the 

way Internet users find and exchange information. Increasingly popular 

P2P programs, such as BitTorrent, Gnutella, LimeWire, Morpheus, Warez, 

and Kazaa allow direct communication between computer users who can 

access and share digital music, images, and video files. P2P programs are 

known for having the functionality to share copyrighted digital music and 

movies, and they are also a conduit for sharing pornographic images and 

videos. 

As requested, we reviewed various aspects of P2P networks. Specifically, 

our objectives were to determine

• how many P2P programs are available to the public and which are the 

most popular P2P programs, in terms of users;

• the ease of access to pornographic files on popular P2P programs and 

the risk of inadvertent exposure;

• whether advertising on P2P programs contains adult-oriented material 

that can be easily accessed by juveniles;

• how clear and conspicuous the warnings are that pornography, 

including child pornography, is accessible through the use of P2P 

programs;
Page 2 GAO-05-634 Accessibility to Pornography on P2P Networks

• how P2P program filters operate and their effectiveness;

• how the effectiveness of filters offered by P2P programs compares to 

filters provided by leading Internet search engines; 

• other tools that are available to block pornography on P2P programs; 

and 

• the corporate owners of Warez, Kazaa, and Morpheus file sharing 

programs, as well as obtain corporate information for the subject 

corporations, including the country of incorporation.

To address our objectives, we obtained information from resources that 

provide data about publicly available P2P programs, including user and 

download data. We performed unfiltered searches on three P2P 

programs—Warez, Kazaa, and Morpheus—using search words known to be 

associated with pornography and innocuous search words that juveniles 

would likely use. We also assessed advertisements that appeared on the 

P2P programs to determine if they contained easily accessible, 

adult-oriented services. We reviewed information that was presented while 

installing P2P programs to determine how clear and conspicuous warnings 

are that pornography is accessible through the use of the programs. 

Further, in order to determine how P2P filters function, we reviewed 

literature and instructions provided by the programs’ manufacturers. We 

performed filtered searches on the three P2P programs using known and 

innocuous search words, and we compared the results with the unfiltered 

searches. We also performed filtered and unfiltered searches on leading 

Internet search engines—Google, Yahoo, and MSN—using known and 

innocuous search words and compared the results with the P2P program 

searches. Lastly, we conducted an Internet literature search to identify 

tools available to block pornography and to identify the corporate owners 

of the three P2P programs. 

We conducted our review from January through March 2005 in Fairfax, VA, 

and Washington, D.C., in accordance with generally accepted government 

auditing standards. 

On April 5, 2005, we briefed your offices on the results of this review. This 

report transmits the slides from that briefing. These briefing slides, 

including details of our scope and methodology, can be found in appendix I.
Page 3 GAO-05-634 Accessibility to Pornography on P2P Networks

In summary, our briefing made the following points:

• According to three popular file sharing Web sites1

, as of March 2005, 

there were 134 P2P programs available to the public to download. 

According to organizations2

 that track the number of users on P2P 

networks and the number of times P2P programs have been 

downloaded, Warez, Kazaa, and Morpheus were among the most 

popular as of February 2005. 

• Pornographic images were easily shared and accessed on the three P2P 

programs we tested—Warez, Kazaa, and Morpheus. In addition, 

juveniles continue to be at risk of inadvertent exposure to pornographic 

images when using P2P programs. For example, when searching Kazaa 

using a word known to be associated with pornography, 65 percent of 

the 31 images downloaded were adult pornography, 19 percent were 

nonpornographic, 13 percent were adult erotica, and 3 percent were 

child pornography. When searching Kazaa using an innocuous word, 46 

percent of the 13 images were cartoon pornography. 

• The P2P programs we tested contained advertising for adult-oriented 

services that could be easily accessed by juveniles. For example, three 

of the four advertised adult-oriented services on Warez (two gambling 

and one dating) had age restrictions that could be easily circumvented. 

• The three P2P programs did not display any warnings indicating that 

pornography, including child pornography, was accessible through these 

programs. However, the Distributed Computing Industry Association3

has efforts under way to encourage P2P programs to include warnings 

about the risks of exposure to pornography. 

1

 Zeropaid.com, http://www.zeropaid.com/php/top_prog.php (downloaded March 4, 2005), 

Download.com, 

http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0.html?titlename=&author=&desc=file+sharing&qt=&

ca=&os=&daysback=&li=&dlcount=&dlsize=&swlink=false (downloaded March 4, 2005), 

and Slyck.com, (http://www.slyck.com/programs.php?cat=2 (downloaded March 22, 2005).

2

Slyck.com and MediaDefender track the number of users on P2P networks and 

Download.com tracks the number of times P2P programs have been downloaded. 

3

The Distributed Computing Industry Association is an organization that represents sectors 

of the distributed computing industry such as, file sharing companies, digital rights 

management companies, and file sharing consumers.
Page 4 GAO-05-634 Accessibility to Pornography on P2P Networks

• Two of the three P2P programs—Kazaa and Morpheus—provided filters, 

but the effectiveness of the filters varied. Warez did not provide a filter. 

Kazaa filtered words found in titles or metadata (data associated with 

the files that contain descriptive information). Kazaa’s filter was 

effective in blocking pornographic and erotic images in our searches. 

For example, Kazaa’s filter blocked all pornographic and erotic images 

on all known and innocuous search words. Conversely, Morpheus 

required the user to enter the specific words that the user would like to 

filter. Morpheus’s filter was largely ineffective in blocking pornographic 

content associated with the words entered into the filter. For example, 

when searching on known word “X” and entering the known word “X” 

into the filter, we were able to download 13 images, of which 9 were 

adult pornography, 3 were adult erotica, and 1 was nonpornographic. 

• The filters for the three leading Internet search engines—Google, Yahoo, 

and MSN—also varied in their effectiveness. MSN’s filter was as 

effective as Kazaa’s filter in consistently blocking pornographic and 

erotic images, while Google’s filter was not as effective. For instance, 

when searching Google using a known search word, we were able to 

download 79 images, of which 11 were adult erotica. Similar to 

Morpheus’ filter, Yahoo’s filter was largely ineffective in blocking 

pornographic and erotic images. During the filtered searches, Yahoo’s 

filter did not block a substantial number of pornographic and erotic 

images on two of the known word searches and did not block erotic 

images on the third known word search. 

• According to the product manufacturers, there are a variety of filtering 

tools available that can block pornography on P2P networks. 

Lastly, Kazaa is owned by Sharman Networks, Ltd., and is incorporated in 

the South Sea island of Vanuatu in Asia. Morpheus is owned by StreamCast 

Networks and is incorporated in California in the United States. We were 

unable to obtain corporate information on Warez.

We provided a draft of this report to Department of Homeland Security 

(DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Cyber Crimes Center (C3) 

officials. In an email communication, the C3 acting section chief for child 

exploitation agreed that our report accurately represented the work 

performed by the Center. 
Page 5 GAO-05-634 Accessibility to Pornography on P2P Networks

As agreed with your staff, unless you publicly announce the contents of this 

report earlier, we plan no further distribution of it until 30 days from the 

date of this report. At that time, we will send copies of this report to the 

Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and other interested 

congressional committees. In addition, the report will be available at no 

charge on the GAO Web site at http://www.gao.gov.

Should your offices have any questions on matter discussed in this report, 

please contact me at (202) 512-6240 or by e-mail at koontzl@gao.gov. Other 

key contributors to this report were Michael Alexander, Neil Doherty, 

Mirko Dolak, Nancy Glover, Teresa Neven, Shannin O’Neill, and Jena 

Sinkfield. 

Linda D. Koontz

Director, Information Management Issues
Page 6 GAO-05-634 Accessibility to Pornography on P2P Networks

Appendix I

Briefing Slides ApApenednxidexiIs

1

The Use of Peer-to-Peer Networks to Access 

Pornography

Briefing to 

Congressional Requesters

April 5, 2005
Appendix I

Briefing Slides

Page 7 GAO-05-634 Accessibility to Pornography on P2P Networks

2

Outline of Briefing

Introduction

Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

Results in Brief

Background

Results

Agency Comments

Attachment 1: Description of Selected File Sharing Networks

Attachment 2: List of Available Peer-to-Peer Programs

Attachment 3: Results of Searches on Peer-to-Peer Programs and Internet

Search Engines

Attachment 4: Tools to Protect Users on Peer-to-Peer Programs
Appendix I

Briefing Slides

Page 8 GAO-05-634 Accessibility to Pornography on P2P Networks

3

Introduction

Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing programs represent a major change in the way

Internet users find and exchange information. The increasingly popular P2P

programs allow direct communication between computer users who can access

and share digital music, images, and video files. Some of these P2P programs

include BitTorrent, Gnutella, LimeWire, Morpheus, Warez, and Kazaa.

P2P programs are known for having the functionality to share copyrighted digital

music and movies, and they are also a conduit for sharing pornographic images

and videos.
Appendix I

Briefing Slides

Page 9 GAO-05-634 Accessibility to Pornography on P2P Networks

4

Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

Objectives

As agreed, our objectives were as follows:

1. Determine how many P2P programs are available to the public and which are 

the leading P2P programs, in terms of users.

2. Determine the ease of access to pornographic files on popular P2P programs

and the risk of inadvertent exposure.

3. Determine whether advertising on P2P programs contains adult-oriented

material that can be easily accessed by juveniles.

4. Determine how clear and conspicuous the warnings are that pornography,

including child pornography, is accessible through the use of P2P programs.

5. Describe how P2P program filters operate and determine their effectiveness.

6. Determine how the effectiveness of filters offered by P2P programs compares

to filters provided by leading Internet search engines.

7. Identify other tools that are available to block pornography on P2P programs.

8. Identify the corporate owners of Warez, Kazaa, and Morpheus file sharing

programs. Obtain corporate information for the subject corporations, including

the country of incorporation.
Appendix I

Briefing Slides

Page 10 GAO-05-634 Accessibility to Pornography on P2P Networks

5

Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

Scope and Methodology

To address objective 1—determine how many P2P programs are available to the 

public and identify the most popular P2P programs—we obtained data from three 

popular resources that provide extensive lists of publicly available P2P programs:

Zeropaid.com, Download.com, and Slyck.com. We confirmed the availability of 

each program by initiating installation for each P2P program listed on 

Zeropaid.com, Download.com, and Slyck.com. We obtained user data from

Slyck.com, MediaDefender, and download data from Download.com, in order to 

identify the three P2P programs that were among the most popular.

To address objective 2—determine the ease of access to pornography on the

three most popular P2P programs (Warez, Kazaa, and Morpheus) and the risk of 

inadvertent exposure—we worked with an intelligence research specialist at 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Cyber Crimes Center (C3).1 We

performed unfiltered 5-minute searches for six keywords: three keywords known 

to be associated with pornography and three innocuous terms that juveniles

1 The Cyber Crimes Center is recognized nationally and internationally as a leader in the investigation of international criminal activities conducted on or facilitated by the Internet.
Appendix I

Briefing Slides

Page 11 GAO-05-634 Accessibility to Pornography on P2P Networks

6

Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

would likely use (a popular teenage singer/actress, a popular cartoon, and a 

popular movie character). 

Of the files that the search returned after 5 minutes, the C3 research specialist

classified all images that we were able to download within 30 minutes. The

classification categories we used were as follows:

• adult pornography—the visual depiction of an adult (a person 18 years of 

age or older) engaged in sexually explicit conduct

• child pornography—the visual depiction of a minor (a person less than 18 

years of age) engaged in sexually explicit conduct

• adult erotica—sexually arousing images of adults that do not depict sexually

explicit conduct

• child erotica—sexually arousing images of children that do not depict 

sexually explicit conduct

• cartoon pornography—the cartoon depiction of sexually explicit conduct
Appendix I

Briefing Slides

Page 12 GAO-05-634 Accessibility to Pornography on P2P Networks

7

Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

• cartoon erotica—the cartoon depiction of sexually arousing images that do

not depict sexually explicit conduct

• nonpornographic—images that are neither pornographic nor erotic

To address objective 3—determine whether advertising on P2P programs

contains adult-oriented material that can be easily accessed by juveniles—we

assessed the first ten advertisements that appeared on each of the three popular

P2P programs to determine whether they offered adult services (for example,

gambling and dating services) and, if so, whether they provided mechanisms

intended to block minors from using the adult services. 

To address objective 4—determine how clear and conspicuous the warnings are 

that pornography, including child pornography, is accessible through the use of 

P2P programs—we reviewed all the messages, license agreements, and 

warnings that were presented during the installation process of the three P2P 

programs and looked for statements that specifically stated that adult and child 

pornography was accessible through these programs.
Appendix I

Briefing Slides

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8

Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

To address objective 5—describe how P2P program filters operate and determine

their effectiveness—we first determined how the filters function by reviewing 

literature and instructions provided by the programs’ manufacturers. Next, we 

performed filtered searches using the same three known words and the same

three innocuous words that we used to determine the ease of access to 

pornography in objective 2. In order to determine the effectiveness of Morpheus’s

filter, we entered each of the three known words into the filter and then we

searched on each word. The C3 research specialist classified all images (using

the same classification categories used in objective 2) that downloaded within 30 

minutes. Then, we compared the results of the searches to the results of our 

searches in objective 2 to determine how many pornographic and erotic images

had been blocked.

To address objective 6—determine how the effectiveness of filters offered by P2P 

programs compares to filters provided by leading Internet search engines—we

referred to Neilsen//NetRatings, a service that provides Web site ratings. It 

indicated that Google,Yahoo, and MSN were the most frequently used search

engines at the time of our review. Next, we performed unfiltered and filtered

searches on the three known words and the three innocuous words used in the 

previous objectives.
Appendix I

Briefing Slides

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9

Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

The C3 research specialist classified up to the first 100 images as adult

pornography, child pornography, adult erotica, child erotica, cartoon pornography,

cartoon erotica, and nonpornographic. Then, we compared the results of the 

unfiltered searches to the results of the filtered searches to determine how many 

pornographic and erotic images had been blocked on the search engines’

searches. Finally, we compared the results of the search engines’ searches to the 

results of the searches from objective 5 on the P2P programs.

To address objective 7—identify other tools available to block pornography on

P2P programs—we conducted an Internet literature search and our primary

source was GetNetWise.2 We did not test the efficacy of these tools.

2 GetNetWise is a project created by Internet industry corporations and public interest organizations to help ensure that Internet users have safe and rewarding online experiences.
Appendix I

Briefing Slides

Page 15 GAO-05-634 Accessibility to Pornography on P2P Networks

10

Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

Finally, to address objective 8—identify the corporate owners of Warez, Kazaa,

and Morpheus and obtain corporate information for the subject corporations,

including the country of incorporation—we conducted research using sources

such as Lexis-Nexis,3 Dunn and Bradstreet,4 and Whois.source.5

We performed our work between January and March 2005 at Immigration and

Customs Enforcement’s Cyber Crimes Center, Department of Homeland Security,

in Fairfax, Virginia, and at GAO headquarters in Washington, DC. Our work was 

conducted in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.

3 Lexis-Nexis is a news and business online information service that contains comprehensive company, country, financial, demographic, market research, and industry reports.

4 Dunn and Bradstreet reports that it maintains a large business database containing information on over 64 million businesses worldwide, including 13 million in the United States.

5 Whois.source allows users to search all current, deleted, and expired whois domains.
Appendix I

Briefing Slides

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11

Results in Brief

According to three popular file sharing Web sites,6 134 P2P programs are

available to the public. Of those 134 programs, Warez, Kazaa, and Morpheus

were among the most popular.

Pornographic images are easily shared and accessed on all three of the P2P 

programs we tested. Juveniles can be inadvertently exposed to pornographic

images when using P2P programs.

The P2P programs we tested contained advertising for adult-oriented services

that could be easily accessed by juveniles.

The P2P programs did not display any warnings indicating that pornography,

including child pornography, was accessible through these programs.

6 Zeropaid.com, http://www.zeropaid.com/php/top_prog.php (downloaded March 4, 2005),

Download.com, http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0.html?titlename=&author=&desc=file+sharing&qt=&ca=&os=&daysback=&li=&dlcount=&dlsize=&swlink=false (downloaded March

4, 2005), and Slyck.com, (http://www.slyck.com/programs.php?cat=2 (downloaded March 22, 2005).
Appendix I

Briefing Slides

Page 17 GAO-05-634 Accessibility to Pornography on P2P Networks

12

Results in Brief

Two of the three P2P programs—Kazaa and Morpheus—provide filters, but the 

effectiveness of the filters varies. Warez, however, does not provide a filter.

Kazaa filters words found in titles or metadata (data associated with the files that 

contains descriptive information). Kazaa’s filter was effective in blocking

pornographic and erotic images in our searches.

Morpheus requires the user to enter the specific words that the user would like to 

filter. Morpheus’s filter was largely ineffective in blocking pornographic content

associated with the words entered into the filter.

The filters for the three leading Internet search engines—Google, Yahoo, and

MSN—vary in their effectiveness. MSN’s filter was as effective as Kazaa’s filter in 

consistently blocking pornographic and erotic images, while Google’s filter was 

not as effective in consistently blocking pornographic and erotic images. Similar to 

Morpheus’ filter, Yahoo’s filter was largely ineffective in blocking pornographic

and erotic images. During the filtered searches, Yahoo generated a substantial

number of pornographic images on two of the known word searches and

generated erotic images on the third known word search.
Appendix I

Briefing Slides

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13

Results in Brief

According to the product manufacturers, there are a variety of filtering tools

available that can block pornography on the P2P networks.

Kazaa is owned by Sharman Networks, Ltd., and is incorporated in the South Sea 

island of Vanuatu in Asia. Morpheus is owned by StreamCast Networks and is 

incorporated in California in the United States.

In their oral comments on a draft of this briefing, Immigrations and Customs

Enforcement, C3 officials, including the C3 section chief for child exploitation,

generally agreed with our results.
Appendix I

Briefing Slides

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14

Background

P2P file sharing programs are a major change in the way Internet users find and 

exchange information. Under the traditional Internet client/server model, the 

access to information and services is accomplished by the interaction between

clients (users or requesters of services) and servers (the providers of services,

usually Web sites or portals). Unlike the client/server model, the P2P model

enables consenting users—peers—to interact directly and share information

without the intervention of a server. A common characteristic of P2P programs is 

that they build virtual networks with mechanisms for routing message traffic. 

Attachment 1 provides a detailed description of P2P file sharing programs.

In February 2003, we reported that child pornography could be easily accessed

and downloaded on P2P networks.7 The National Center for Missing and

Exploited Children has stated that P2P technology is increasingly popular for 

disseminating child pornography.

7 GAO, File Sharing Programs: Peer-to-Peer Networks Provide Ready Access to Child Pornography, GAO-03-351 (Washington, D.C.: Feb. 20, 2003).
Appendix I

Briefing Slides

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15

Background

We also reported that, when searching and downloading images on P2P 

networks, juvenile users face a significant risk of inadvertent exposure to 

pornography, including child pornography. Searches on innocuous keywords

likely to be used by juveniles produced a high proportion of pornographic images:

34 percent of the images returned were adult pornography; 14 percent were

cartoon pornography; 7 percent were child erotica; and 1 percent was child

pornography.

P2P programs have added filtering capabilities to their programs to provide users 

with the ability to block access to objectionable material (such as pornography)

when searching for files. Filtering software can usually be controlled by an

authority (such as parents). It has parameters such as pornography, drugs, and 

music that can be set by an authority to block access to objectionable material by 

keyword, usually for the benefit of children. It is important to note that filters are 

not 100 percent accurate, since they block content based on keywords found in a 

file’s metadata (descriptive information about a file) rather than on the actual

content of the files.
Appendix I

Briefing Slides

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16

Objective 1 Results

Objective 1—Determine how many P2P programs are available to the public 

and which are the most popular P2P programs in terms of users.

According to three popular file sharing Web sites,8 as of March 22, 2005, there

were 134 P2P programs available to the public to download; 123 programs were 

free and 11 required a fee. We were able to initiate installation on all 134 P2P

programs. Attachment 2 provides the list of these P2P programs.

Since user trends for P2P programs are constantly changing, it is very difficult to 

definitively identify which of the P2P programs are the most popular. However,

according to organizations9 that track the number of users on P2P networks and 

the number of times P2P programs have been downloaded, Warez, Kazaa, and

8 Zeropaid.com, http://www.zeropaid.com/php/top_prog.php (downloaded March 4, 2005),

Download.com, http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0.html?titlename=&author=&desc=file+sharing&qt=&ca=&os=&daysback=&li=&dlcount=&dlsize=&swlink=false (downloaded

March 4, 2005), and Slyck.com, (http://www.slyck.com/programs.php?cat=2 (downloaded March 22, 2005).

9 Slyck.com and MediaDefender track the number of users on P2P networks and Download.com tracks the number of times P2P programs have been downloaded.
Appendix I

Briefing Slides

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17

Objective 1 Results

Morpheus were among the most popular programs as of February 17, 2005. At 

that time, there were more than 2.5 million users of Kazaa and 1.5 million users of 

Warez; we were unable to obtain the number of users of Morpheus.

However, Morpheus has been downloaded many more times than most P2P 

programs: as of March 2005, it had been downloaded more than 131 million

times.
Appendix I

Briefing Slides

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18

Objective 2 Results

Objective 2—Determine the ease of access to pornographic files on popular

P2P programs and risk of inadvertent exposure.

Pornographic images are easily shared and accessed on all three popular P2P

programs. When searching on three words known to be associated with

pornography, we were able to easily find and download pornographic images on 

the three programs. For example, from Kazaa searches for a known word, 31 

images downloaded, of which 20 images were adult pornography; 1 was child

pornography; 4 images were adult erotica; and 6 were nonpornographic.

Figure 1 shows the results of one of the known word searches.

Attachment 3 displays the results of all three known word searches on each P2P 

program.
Appendix I

Briefing Slides

Page 24 GAO-05-634 Accessibility to Pornography on P2P Networks

19

Objective 2 Results

Figure 1: Results of P2P Searches Using First Word Known to be Associated with

Pornography

Warez (20 images) Kazaa (31 images) Morpheus (84 images)

5%

Non

pornographic

5%

Cartoon

pornography

Adult

pornography

Adult erotica

3%

Child

pornography

Adult erotica

Non

pornographic

Adult

pornography

2%

Child

pornography

1%

Cartoon

erotica

2%

Cartoon

pornography

Adult erotica

Adult

pornography

Non

pornographic

Source: GAO analysis of C3 research specialist’s classification of images.

60% 65% 30%

13%

19% 47%

41%

7%
Appendix I

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Objective 2 Results

In addition to allowing pornography to be accessed by a known word search,

Warez provides chat rooms that enable users to directly share entire folders of 

files with one another, including pornographic files. Many of these chat room

discussions are sexually oriented.

While Morpheus also offers chat rooms, it does not allow users to access each 

other’s files directly. Kazaa does not contain chat rooms.

As we reported in our last review on file sharing,10 juveniles can be inadvertently

exposed to pornographic images when using P2P programs. When we searched 

for files using three innocuous terms likely to be used by juveniles (a popular

teenage singer/actress, a popular cartoon, and a popular movie character), all 

three P2P programs produced pornographic images. Figure 2 shows the results

of our innocuous word search on the name of a popular cartoon show.

Attachment 3 displays the results of all of the innocuous word searches.

10 GAO, File Sharing Programs: Peer-to-Peer Networks Provide Ready Access to Child Pornography, GAO-03-351 (Washington, D.C.: Feb. 20, 2003).
Appendix I

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Objective 2 Results

Figure 2: Results of P2P Searches When Searching the Name of a Popular Cartoon Show

Warez (14 images) Kazaa (13 images) Morpheus (31 images)

Cartoon

pornography

Cartoon

pornography

Non

pornographic Cartoon

pornography

Non

pornographic

Non

pornographic

Source: GAO analysis of C3 research specialist’s classification of images.

50% 54% 46% 50%

6%

94%
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Objective 3 Results

Objective 3—Determine whether advertising on P2P programs contains

adult-oriented material that can be easily accessed by juveniles.

Advertisements for adult-oriented services (i.e., gambling and dating services)

were available on two of the three popular P2P programs. Of the 10 

advertisements on Warez that we analyzed, 4 advertisements were geared

toward adult services (3 gambling, 1 dating). Of the 10 advertisements on 

Morpheus that we analyzed, one advertisement was geared toward adult services 

(gambling). Of the 10 advertisements on Kazaa that we analyzed, none were

geared toward adult services. Figures 3 and 4 show the results of our research on 

adult-oriented advertisements.
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Objective 3 Results

Figure 3: Adult-oriented Advertisements

Warez (10 advertisements) Kazaa (10 advertisements) Morpheus (10 advertisements)

Adult-oriented

None of the 10 advertisements

contained adult-oriented

material

Adult-oriented

Neutral

Neutral

Source: GAO analysis.

60% 40%

90%

10%
Appendix I

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Objective 3 Results

Services offered by four of the five adult-oriented advertisements can be easily

accessed by juveniles.

• Three of the advertised adult services on Warez (2 gambling and 1 dating

service) can be easily accessed by juveniles, since they can easily

circumvent the services’ age restrictions by reporting an age over 18. 

• Similarly, the one adult service advertisement on Morpheus (gambling) was

also accessible by juveniles, since reporting an age over 18 easily 

circumvents this service’s age restrictions. 

One of the advertised gambling services on Warez limited juvenile accessibility by 

requiring a credit card. 

Figure 4 shows the results of our analysis. Figures 5 and 6 are two examples of 

the adult-oriented advertisements that we found on the P2P programs.
Appendix I

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Objective 3 Results

Figure 4: Accessibility of Adult-oriented Advertisements

Warez (4 advertisements) Morpheus (1 advertisement)

Accessible

Not

accessible

Source: GAO analysis.

3

1

Only one adult-oriented advertisement

was accessible
Appendix I

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Objective 3 Results

Figure 5: Warez Dating Advertisement

Source: Warez.

How do you

measure

compatibility?

Start now!

Only True.com has the 

scientifically proven

compatibility test endorsed

by Psychology Today to bring 

you more accurate matches
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Objective 3 Results

Figure 6: Morpheus Gambling Advertisement

Source: Morpheus.

Morpheus

You just made $100,000

$0 $25,000 $50,000 $75,000 $100,000
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Objective 4 Results

Objective 4—Determine how clear and conspicuous warnings are that 

pornography, including child pornography, is accessible through the use of 

P2P programs.

During the installation of the three P2P programs, no warnings were presented

indicating that pornography, including child pornography, was accessible through 

the use of the P2P programs.

The Distributed Computing Industry Association has efforts under way to 

encourage P2P programs to include warnings about the risks of exposure to adult 

and child pornography on their applications. A few P2P programs are currently

working with the association to add such warnings to their applications, including

Kazaa, Grokster, and TrustyFiles. 
Appendix I

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29

Objective 5 Results

Objective 5—Describe how P2P program filters operate and determine their 

effectiveness.

Two of the three popular P2P programs that we accessed—Kazaa and

Morpheus—provide filtering capabilities, which are intended to block access to 

objectionable material such as pornography. The third program that we accessed, 

Warez, did not offer a filtering option.

Kazaa’s filter is based on matching words in the file’s title or metadata against a 

set of keywords embedded in the filter that Kazaa has associated with the three

filters.
Appendix I

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Objective 5 Results

Kazaa includes these three filtering options:

• Offensive content—filters any search results where the metadata includes

keywords that could potentially be used to describe offensive material.

• Adult content—filters any search results where the metadata includes

keywords that could potentially be used to describe adult material, plus all 

keywords from the offensive content setting. Adult content is the default 

filter.

• Images and video—filters any search results that are in standard image or 

video format.

On Kazaa, users can also add specific search terms into the filter’s list of blocked 

terms. Figure 7 is an image of Kazaa’s filter feature.
Appendix I

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Objective 5 Results

Figure 7: Kazaa Filter

Source: Sharman Networks.

Kazaa Options

OK Cancel Apply

Adult content

No filter

Offensive content

Adult content

Images and videos

Filter file types that can potentially contain viruses

Filter files I cannot download due to firewalls

Filter bogus music and video files
Appendix I

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Objective 5 Results

Kazaa’s filter was effective in filtering out all pornographic and erotic images on all

of the known word searches and the innocuous word search. As previously 

discussed in objective 2, when searching Kazaa for a word known to be 

associated with pornography without a filter, we were able to successfully 

download 31 images. According to the C3 research specialist’s classification of 

the images, 65 percent of the 31 images were adult pornography; 3 percent were 

child pornography; 13 percent were adult erotica; and 19 percent were nonpornographic. When searching the same word with the adult filter on, the search 

returned no files, thus filtering 100 percent of pornographic images. Figure 8

shows the results of Kazaa’s filter when searching for a known word.

Attachment 3 presents the results of all three filtered known word searches on

Kazaa.
Appendix I

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Objective 5 Results

Figure 8: Results of Kazaa Filter Using First Search Word Known to be Associated with

Pornography

Filter off (31 images) Filter on

Adult erotica

Non

pornographic

Adult

pornography

Source: GAO analysis of C3 research specialist’s classification of images.

19%

13%

65%

3%

Child pornography

No files returned from

search
Appendix I

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34

Objective 5 Results

When searching for an innocuous word—the name of a popular cartoon show—

we were able to download 13 images (6 cartoon pornography and 7 nonpornographic). When searching the same word with a filter, we were able to

download 12 images, none of which contained pornography. Figure 9 shows

the results of Kazaa’s filter when searching for this innocuous word.

Attachment 3 presents the results of all three filtered innocuous searches on

Kazaa.
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35

Objective 5 Results

Figure 9: Results of Kazaa Searches of Popular Cartoon Show

In addition, Kazaa provides the option of establishing a password to protect the user’s

preferences from being changed. However, the password protection can be easily

circumvented by un-installing Kazaa and re-installing it to remove the password

protection.

Filter off (13 images) Filter on

Cartoon

pornography

Non

pornographic

Source: GAO analysis of C3 research specialist’s classification of images.

54% 46%

None of the 12 images was

pornographic or erotic
Appendix I

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36

Objective 5 Results

Morpheus requires users to create their own filter sets: users enter specific words into the

block list that are intended to filter and block files that contain those words. Figure 10 is an 

image of Morpheus’s filter feature.

Figure 10: Morpheus Filter

Source: Morpheus.

Parental control Properties

OK Cancel Apply

Set Password ...

No filters Add new filter ... Delete filter

No filters

Local

Share

Transfer

Block

Chat

Proxy

Bandwidth

Parental control

Antivirus

Search

Net

Location
Appendix I

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Objective 5 Results

We determined that the Morpheus filter was largely ineffective in blocking

pornographic content associated with words entered into the filter. For instance, 

when searching on known word “X” without a filter, we were able to download 63 

images; 42 were adult pornography, 16 were adult erotica, and 5 were nonpornographic. When searching on known word ”X” again and entering the known 

word “X” into the filter, we were able to download 13 images, of which 9 were

adult pornography, 3 were adult erotica, and 1 was nonpornographic. In addition,

the overall effectiveness of this filter is dependent on the user’s ability to identify

keywords associated with objectionable content, such as pornography.

Attachment 3 presents the results of the three filtered known word searches and 

the three innocuous searches on Morpheus.

Morpheus provides users the option to password protect the filter setting. 

However, like Kazaa’s filter option, Morpheus’s password protection can be easily 

circumvented by un-installing the program and re-installing it to remove the 

password protection.
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Objective 6 Results

Objective 6—Determine how the effectiveness of filters offered by P2P 

programs compares to filters provided by leading Internet search engines.

The filters for the three leading Internet search engines—Google, Yahoo, and

MSN—vary in their effectiveness. We determined that MSN’s filter was as 

effective as Kazaa’s filter in consistently blocking all erotic and pornographic

images during the known word searches as well as in the innocuous word

searches.

Google’s filter was not as effective. It blocked all pornographic and erotic images

on the filtered innocuous searches and on two of the known word searches;

however, when filtering the third known word, Google generated 79 images, of 

which 11 were erotic.

Similar to the Morpheus filter, Yahoo’s filter was largely ineffective in blocking

pornographic and erotic images. While it blocked pornographic and erotic images

on the innocuous word searches, Yahoo’s filter did not block a substantial number

pornographic and erotic images on two of the known word searches and did not 

block erotic images on the third known word search.
Appendix I

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39

Objective 6 Results

Figure 11 displays the results of one of our known word searches and attachment

3 presents the results of the filtered and unfiltered known and innocuous word

searches on the three Internet search engines.
Appendix I

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40

Objective 6 Results

Figure 11: Results of Internet Searches Using Second Word Known to be Associated with 

Pornography

Filter off (100 images)

Google MSN Yahoo

Adult erotica

Non

pornographic

Adult

pornography

Adult erotica

Non

pornographic

Adult

pornography

Adult erotica

Non

pornographic

Source: GAO analysis of C3 research specialist’s classification of images.

31%

29%

40%

34%

48%

18%

86%

14%

Filter On (79 images)

No images returned from search

(100 images)

Non

pornographic

Adult

pornography

Adult erotica Adult erotica

Non

pornographic

Adult

pornography

42%

46%

12%

63% 22%

15%

(100 images)

(100 images)
Appendix I

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Objective 6 Results

Yahoo was the only application among the Internet search engines and the P2P 

programs in which the filter could not be easily circumvented. As previously

mentioned, while Kazaa and Morpheus allows users to password protect their

preferences, a user can simply re-install a new version of the program to 

circumvent the filters. MSN and Google do not allow users to password protect

their preferences. Yahoo’s filter, however, allows users to establish a password to 

save and lock their filtering preferences.
Appendix I

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Objective 7 Results

Objective 7—Identify other tools that are available to block pornography on 

P2P networks.

A variety of filtering tools are available that are separate from filters offered by the 

P2P programs. According to the manufacturers, these tools allow parents to 

establish which P2P programs can and cannot be run on the computer and can 

prevent pornographic images from being displayed on the computer.

In addition to the filtering products, other tools are available that cannot directly

block pornographic images, but can provide additional mechanisms to limit the 

accessibility to pornography on P2P programs. These tools include monitoring

tools and time limiting tools.

• According to the manufacturers, monitoring tools record computer activity and 

the access users have to the Internet. These tools can record the P2P 

applications that have been downloaded, the searches that have been

conducted, and the files the user is sharing. Some of these monitoring tools

can send, for example, parents an e-mail report of the computer’s activity. 
Appendix I

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Objective 7 Results

• According to the manufacturers, time limiting tools limit the time spent on 

the computer and/or on the Internet and the time of day the computer can 

be accessed. For example, according to the manufacturers, time limiting 

tools can allow a parent to program the times when their child can access 

the Internet. 

Attachment 4 lists products that offer filtering, monitoring, and time limiting

capabilities.
Appendix I

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Objective 8 Results

Objective 8—Identify the corporate owners of Warez, Kazaa, and Morpheus. 

Obtain corporate information for the subject corporations, including the

country of incorporation.

Kazaa is owned by Sharman Networks, Ltd. Sharman is incorporated in Asia in 

the South Sea island of Vanuatu. Sharman headquarters is in Australia and has 

management services in Europe.

Morpheus is owned by StreamCast Networks (formerly called MediaCity).

StreamCast is incorporated in the United States in California. StreamCast’s

parent corporation is Stirling Bridge, which is incorporated in Oregon.

We were unable to obtain corporate information on Warez.
Appendix I

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Agency Comments

We provided a draft of this briefing to and discussed its contents with 

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, C3 officials. In their oral comments, the 

C3 officials, including the C3 section chief for child exploitation, generally agreed

with the results in the briefing. They also provided clarifying information that we 

incorporated into this briefing. 
Appendix I

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46

Attachment 1

Description of Selected File Sharing Networks

There are three main models of P2P networks. The first model is a centralized

model that is based on a central server, or broker, that directs traffic between 

individual registered users (see fig. 12). 

The broker model was used by Napster, the original P2P network. It facilitated

mass sharing of copyrighted material by combining the file names held by

thousands of users into a searchable directory that enabled users to connect with 

each other and download MP3-encoded music files. The broker model made

Napster vulnerable to legal challenges and eventually led to its demise in 

September 2002.

The second model is the decentralized model, which is based on the Gnutella

network. In the decentralized model, individuals find and interact directly with

each other (see fig. 13). In both the centralized and the decentralized models,

users share complete files with one another. The decentralized model is not

dependent on the server/broker model that was the central feature of the Napster 

service, so these networks are less vulnerable to litigation from copyright owners.
Appendix I

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47

Attachment 1

Description of Selected File Sharing Networks

More recently, a third model has emerged—BitTorrent. In this model, users

simultaneously download segments of files from many different users to obtain

complete files. The more often users download and share segments of a file, the 

more quickly the file will download. Applications using this model include

Morpheus and eDonkey2K (see fig. 14). 
Appendix I

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48

Attachment 1

Description of Selected File Sharing Networks

Figure 12: Centralized Peer-to-Peer Model
Appendix I

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49

Attachment 1

Description of Selected File Sharing Networks

Figure 13: Decentralized Peer-to-Peer Model
Appendix I

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50

Attachment 1

Description of Selected File Sharing Networks

Figure 14: BitTorrent Model
Appendix I

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51

Attachment 2

Peer-to-Peer Programs

Name Free Fee Name Free Fee

Acquisition ¥ eDonkey ¥

AlienIdol ¥ eMule ¥

amule ¥ eMule Plus ¥

ANts ¥ Epicea ¥

Apollon ¥ eXeem ¥

Arachnid ¥ eXeem Lite ¥

Arctic Torrent ¥ ExoSee ¥

Ares Galaxy ¥ FileCroc ¥

Ares Lite ¥ Filetopia ¥

AudioGnome ¥ Flash! Torrent ¥

Azureus ¥ FolderShare ¥

Baobab ¥ Freenet ¥

BCDC++ ¥ FreeWire ¥

BearShare ¥ FreeWire (International) ¥

BearShare Lite ¥ G3 Torrent ¥

BitBuddy ¥ Gluz ¥

BitComet ¥ Gnewtellium ¥

BitLord ¥ Gnoozle ¥

BitTornado ¥ Gnucleus ¥

BitTorrent ¥ GreatDimensions ¥

BitTorrent Lite ¥ Grokster ¥

BitTorrentExperimental ¥ Grokster Pro ¥

Blubster ¥ Grouper ¥

BT++ ¥ Gtk-Gnutella ¥

Burst! ¥ iMesh ¥

Cabos ¥ iSwipe ¥

Crazaa ¥ iTunes ¥

DC Elite ¥ JavaShare ¥

DC++ - BCDC++ ¥ JetiAnts ¥

Deepnet Explorer ¥ JoeGalaxy.NET ¥

DICE ¥ Kazaa ¥

DigitalPlay ¥ KaZaA Lite ¥

DKMessenger ¥ KazaaGhost ¥

Drumbeat ¥ KCeasy ¥
Appendix I

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Attachment 2

Peer-to-Peer Programs

Name Free Fee Name Free Fee

Kiwi Alpha ¥ Pinky ¥

Lan2P ¥ Piolet ¥

LimeWire ¥ Poisoned ¥

LimeWire (Classic) ¥ PTC ¥

Lopster ¥ pysoulseek ¥

lphant ¥ Qnext ¥

MacFreenet ¥ RaidenFTPD ¥

Mammoth ¥ RevConnect ¥

MediaSeek ¥ Rockitnet ¥

mldonkey ¥ Shareaza ¥

MLmac ¥ Sigster ¥

Morpheus ¥ SolarSeek ¥

MP3 Galaxy ¥ Soulseek ¥

MP3 Kult ¥ StrongDC++ ¥

MP3 Music Search ¥ Swapper.Net ¥

MP3 Plus ¥ TAZ-E ¥

MusicMatch ¥ Tesla ¥

Mute ¥ The Circle ¥

MyNapster ¥ Torrent Search ¥

Myster ¥ TorrentStorm ¥

Network Auralization for Gnutella ¥ TorrentTopia ¥

NapMX ¥ TrustyFiles ¥

Napster ¥ TrustyFiles Personal File Sharing ¥

NATural IP SOHO Client ¥ Turbo Torrent ¥

NeoNapster ¥ VAMP Media Center ¥

NetFav ¥ Warez ¥

Nicotine ¥ WinMX ¥

Nova ¥ Winny ¥

Nova Torrent ¥ XBT Client ¥

OneMX ¥ XFactor ¥

Ospray OpenNap Client ¥ XoloX ¥

P2P Music Jukebox ¥ Yet ABC ¥

Phex ¥ Zultrax ¥

Source: GAO analysis of data from Zeropaid.com, Download.com, and Slyck.com.
Appendix I

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Attachment 3

Results of Word Searches

Figure 15: Results of P2P Searches Using First Word Known to be Associated with 

Pornography

Warez Kazaa Morpheus

5%

Cartoon

pornography

5%

Non

pornographic

Adult erotica

Adult

pornography

Adult erotica

Non

pornographic

Adult

pornography

Adult erotica

Adult erotica

Source: GAO analysis of C3 research specialist’s classification of images.

60% 30% 65% 19%

13%

Filter on

No filter capability No images returned from search

(31 images)

Non

pornographic

1%

Cartoon erotica

2%

Cartoon pornography

2%

Child pornography

3%

Child pornography

Non

pornographic

Adult

pornography

3

1

41% 47%

7%

(84 images)

(4 images)

Filter off (20 images)
Appendix I

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54

Attachment 3

Results of Word Searches

Figure 16: Results of P2P Searches Using Second Word Known to be Associated with 

Pornography

Filter off

Warez Kazaa Morpheus

Adult erotica

Non

pornographic

Adult

pornography

Adult erotica

Source: GAO analysis of C3 research specialist’s classification of images.

3

6

Filter on

No filter capability No images returned from search

(9 images)

Non

pornographic

Non

pornographic

Adult

pornography

Adult

pornography

69%

23%

8%

67% 25%

8%

(63 images)

(13 images)

All 4 images were adult

pornography
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Attachment 3

Results of Word Searches

Figure 17: Results of P2P Searches Using Third Word Known to be Associated with 

Pornography

Filter off Warez Kazaa Morpheus

Adult erotica

Non

pornographic

Adult

pornography

Adult erotica

Source: GAO analysis of C3 research specialist’s classification of images.

15%

85%

Filter on

No filter capability No images returned from search

(13 images)

Adult

pornography

2%

Child pornography

Child pornography

2%

Cartoon pornography

5%

Non pornographic

Adult

pornography

Cartoon

pornography

66% 22%

6%

6%

55% 36%

(44 images)

(18 images)

Of the two images that we were

able to download, one was adult

pornography and the other was 

adult erotica
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Attachment 3

Results of Word Searches

Figure 18: Results of P2P Searches Using First Innocuous Word

Filter off (20 images) (20 images)

(13 images)

(17 images)

Warez Kazaa Morpheus

Non

pornographic

Adult erotica

Adult erotica

Non

pornographic

Adult erotica

Adult erotica

Source: GAO analysis of C3 research specialist’s classification of images.

35%

65% 88%

12%

Filter on

None of the 12 images was

pornographic or erotic No filter capability

Non

pornographic

Adult

pornography

5%

Adult pornography

Non

pornographic

31%

54%

15%

35%

60%
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Attachment 3

Results of Word Searches

Figure 19: Results of P2P Searches Using Second Innocuous Word

Filter off (14 images) (13 images) (31 images)

Warez Kazaa Morpheus

Cartoon

pornography

Non

pornographic

Non

pornographic

Cartoon

pornography

Cartoon

pornography

Source: GAO analysis of C3 research specialist’s classification of images.

50% 50% 54% 46%

Filter on (53 images)

None of the 12 images was

pornographic or erotic No filter capability

Non

pornographic

Cartoon

pornography

Non

pornographic

64%

36%

6%

94%
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Attachment 3

Results of Word Searches

Figure 20: Results of P2P Searches Using Third Innocuous Word

Filter off

Warez Kazaa Morpheus

Source: GAO analysis of C3 research specialist’s classification of images.

Filter on

None of the 21 images was

pornographic or erotic

No filter capability

None of the 6 images was

pornographic or erotic

None of the 10 images was

pornographic or erotic

None of the 18 images was

pornographic or erotic

None of the 12 images was

pornographic or erotic
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Attachment 3

Results of Word Searches

Figure 21: Results of Internet Searches Using First Word Known to be Associated with Pornography

Filter off (100 images) (100 images) (100 images)

(100 images)

Google MSN Yahoo

1%

Cartoon

pornography

Non

pornographic

Adult erotica

Adult

pornography

2%

Adult erotica

Non

pornographic

Adult

pornography

Adult erotica

Source: GAO analysis of C3 research specialist’s classification of images.

26%

9%

64%

18%

76%

6%

Filter on

No images returned from search

Non

pornographic

1%

Cartoon

pornography

3%

Adult erotica

Non

pornographic

4%

Adult

pornography

98%

92%

No images returned from search
Appendix I

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Attachment 3

Results of Word Searches

Figure 22: Results of Internet Searches Using Second Word Known to be Associated with Pornography

Filter off (100 images) (100 images) (100 images)

Google MSN Yahoo

Non

pornographic

Non

pornographic

Adult erotica

Adult erotica

Adult

pornography

Adult erotica

Non

pornographic

Adult

pornography

Adult erotica

Adult erotica

Source: GAO analysis of C3 research specialist’s classification of images.

31%

29%

40%

34%

48%

18%

14%

86%

Filter on (79 images) (100 images)

No images returned from search

Non

pornographic

Non

pornographic

Adult

pornography

Adult

pornography

42%

46%

12%

63% 22%

15%
Appendix I

Briefing Slides

Page 66 GAO-05-634 Accessibility to Pornography on P2P Networks

61

Attachment 3

Results of Word Searches

Figure 23: Results of Internet Searches Using Third Word Known to be Associated with Pornography

Filter off (100 images) (100 images) (100 images)

Google MSN Yahoo

1%

Adult erotica

Non

pornographic

Adult

pornography

Cartoon

pornography

Adult erotica

Non

pornographic

Adult

pornography

5%

Adult pornography

5%

Cartoon

pornography

Adult erotica

Adult erotica

Source: GAO analysis of C3 research specialist’s classification of images.

13%

8%

78%

23%

68%

7%

Filter on (20 images)

No images returned from search No images returned from search

Non

pornographic

2%

Child erotica

Non

pornographic

Adult

pornography

35%

14%

74%

55%

12%
Appendix I

Briefing Slides

Page 67 GAO-05-634 Accessibility to Pornography on P2P Networks

62

Attachment 3

Results of Word Searches

Figure 24: Results of Internet Searches Using First Innocuous Word

Filter off (100 images) (100 images) (100 images)

Google MSN Yahoo

Non

pornographic

1%

Adult erotica

Non

pornographic

2%

Adult erotica Adult erotica

Source: GAO analysis of C3 research specialist’s classification of images.

99% 95%

Filter on

None of the 66 images was

pornographic or erotic

None of the 100 images was

pornographic or erotic

None of the 100 images was

pornographic or erotic

2%

Adult

pornography

Non

pornographic

Adult

pornography

12%

78%

10%

Note: Due to rounding, percentages may not add up to 100.
Appendix I

Briefing Slides

Page 68 GAO-05-634 Accessibility to Pornography on P2P Networks

63

Attachment 3

Results of Word Searches

Figure 25: Results of Internet Searches Using Second Innocuous Word

Filter off (100 images)

Google MSN Yahoo

Source: GAO analysis of C3 research specialist’s classification of images.

Filter on

None of the 100 images was

pornographic or erotic

None of the 100 images was

pornographic or erotic

None of the 100 images was

pornographic or erotic

None of the 100 images was

pornographic or erotic

None of the 100 images was

pornographic or erotic

1%

Cartoon

pornography

Non

pornographic

99%
Appendix I

Briefing Slides

Page 69 GAO-05-634 Accessibility to Pornography on P2P Networks

64

Attachment 3

Results of Word Searches

Figure 26: Results of Internet Searches Using Third Innocuous Word

Filter off

Google MSN Yahoo

Source: GAO analysis of C3 research specialist’s classification of images.

Filter On

None of the 100 images was

pornographic or erotic

None of the 100 images was

pornographic or erotic

None of the 100 images was

pornographic or erotic

None of the 100 images was

pornographic or erotic

None of the 100 images was

pornographic or erotic

None of the 100 images was

pornographic or erotic
Appendix I

Briefing Slides

Page 70 GAO-05-634 Accessibility to Pornography on P2P Networks

65

Attachment 4

Tools to Protect Users on Peer-to-Peer Programs

SurfPass ¥

Spector Pro ¥

Screen Shield ¥

Norton Internet Security ¥

Noah’s Web ¥ ¥

Net Nanny ¥ ¥

ModemLockDown ¥

Kidsnet Parental Controls ¥

iProtectYou ¥

Guardian Monitor ¥

EyeTimer ¥

ENUFF PC ¥

Enologic Net Filter Home ¥ ¥

CyberSnoop ¥ ¥

Cyber Patrol ¥ ¥

Computer Cop ¥

Blockster ¥ ¥

AOL Parental Controls ¥ ¥ ¥

Advanced Computer Monitor ¥

Time

limiting

capability

Filtering

capability

Monitoring

Program name capability

Source: GAO analysis based on GetNetWise data.

(310735)
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