WASHINGTON, July 17 (UPI) -- U.S. investigators say the proliferation of wireless access to the Internet has made tracking child pornography traders more difficult.
Flint Waters, an officer with the Wyoming State Police, has developed software that turns up pornography users. He recently sat with a laptop in an Internet cafe near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, The Miami Herald reported.
Using his program, he was able to find 165 people in five countries involved in kiddie porn. But he said identifying them off-line is tougher now.
"It's definitely a challenge," he said.
Congress is still considering legislation that would require Internet service providers to keep user information for some period of time. But someone who goes to an Internet cafe or gets wi-fi access at a hot spot has no established ISP address.
Some universities or towns providing free wi-fi access resist keeping information.
"We're not tracking anything," said Howard DeYoung, the information chief for St. Cloud, Fla., near Orlando. "We didn't want the local residents here to get the idea that Big Brother is watching or anything like that. Our free wireless is unrestricted."
