From: ur-valhalla!world.std.com!snet (Glenda M Stocks)
Subject: (fwd) AOL Letter
Message-ID: <199509180546.AA07141@world.std.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Sep 1995 01:46:33 -0400

Dear Members,

At America Online we are committed to providing an electronic 
community that provides a fun, enjoyable and enriching experience for 
all members.  That's why we created our Terms of Service, which are 
the policies and guidelines that govern the AOL community.  We 
encourage members to leverage the rich communications capabilities of 
AOL, but we also ask that people recognize that with these 
capabilities come certain responsibilities.  We therefore have a staff 
in place to enforce the Terms of Service, as we believe they represent 
important building blocks to foster the development of a community of 
which we can all be proud.  And so I was very troubled to learn 
recently that we have had another report of members using AOL for 
illegal activity.  I want to take this opportunity to remind each of 
you of our policies and to ask for your support in helping us retain 
the kind of community that enriches us all. 

Our policy is clear:  all private communications -- including 
electronic mail, instant messages and private chat rooms -- are 
strictly private and we do not and will not monitor any private 
communications.  But if we are alerted to a potential offense by a 
member we will act swiftly to enforce the AOL Terms of Service and 
comply with federal and state laws.  When material is forwarded to us 
which we believe is illegal, we notify law enforcement and upon 
receipt of a court order or subpoena, we cooperate fully. 

That is exactly what has taken place in this most recent occurrence --
members forwarded to us copies of electronic mail messages which 
contained graphic files which appear to be child pornography.  Upon 
receiving this material and verifying that it was a violation of TOS 
and in all likelihood illegal, we immediately contacted the law 
enforcement authorities.  While our strong desire is to trust the 
judgment of our members and err on the side of free expression, we 
also recognizethat community standards need to be enforced.  We aren't 
going to let this type of inappropriate use of our service ruin AOL 
for the rest of us. 

Since this is not the first report of such activity on our system, I 
want to share with you what we have done, and will continue to do, to 
reduce the likelihood of such incidents in the future.  We have 
continued to aggressively staff our Terms of Service group and online 
volunteers who help provide assistance in public chat rooms and other 
public areas of our service.  Additionally, we have continued to 
improve our Parental Controls (keyword:  parental controls) which are 
tools that allow parents to restrict access to various parts of AOL 
and the Internet for their children.  We've made our Terms of Service 
more prominent throughout the service and now require that each new 
member proactively review and agree to abide by them. 

While it is important for our community to recognize the serious 
nature of this situation, it is also important to keep it in 
perspective.  Although it is disheartening, the fact is that any 
community with more than 3.5 million citizens will have its share of 
illegal activity.  To those using AOL for illegal purposes, let the 
message be heard:  we will terminate the accounts of those 
participating and we will notify the proper authorities of any illegal 
activity that is brought to our attention. 

For the rest of us, I ask for your support to keep the quality of life 
and a safe environment in our community.  While we're trying to 
eradicate these incidents, I'd like to ask you, as an AOL 
"cybercitizen," to report any unusual or improper behavior that you 
see immediately.  If you're in a chat room, notify our Terms of 
Service advisory unit by using keyword GUIDEPAGER.  Email, Instant 
Message, and Message Board violations should be reported to keyword 
TOS.  Let's work together using this "neighborhood watch" approach to 
insure that AOL remains the kind of service that you want your friends 
and family to enjoy. 

Thanks for you

---SnetMgr 0.60 [r0001]
 * Origin: snet-l@world.std.com <-> FidoNet (114:1/0)