Google Brazil to Remove Underage Adult Material from Orkut

Run by Google, this service provides online social networking and was created by a Google employee. All over the world there are about 60 million Orkut users and a staggering 50% of them are from Brazil. Since illegal material was plentiful on Orkut, the Brazilian legislators and Google had to come to an agreement in order to put a stop to this. The agreement, which is the first of its kind internationally, states Google will set up filters that will look for illegal material and will gather evidence in regard to crimes against children and teenagers. The logs for any user under investigation will be preserved for a period of six months.

Alexandre Hohagen, president of Google in Brazil, as cited by PCWorld: "It's an historic day not only for Brazil but for the Internet in the entire world."

The number of Orkut users in Brazil is truly amazing - 30 million people, half of all the Orkut users in all the other parts of the world. But according to Brazilian authorities it is also "lawless". Last year, Sao Paulo federal prosecutors had to investigate a total of 624 crimes related to human rights; out of that total, a staggering 420 were in regard to users being in possession of adult material depicting minors. Out of all illegal content that is currently under investigation in Brazil, 90% of it is directly connected to Orkut. A total of 18.000 photo albums are currently under investigation.

According to Sergio Suiama, Brazilian public prosecutor, Google had initially refused to cooperate, stating that it must obey the laws of the US, not Brazil. As a result, the public prosecution sued Google, but dropped the case after the two parties involved (Google and Brazil prosecutors) came to an agreement. Google representatives on the other hand say that they take the issue very seriously and that Google has always been cooperative.