The Protect Children of Internet Pornographers act currently in Congress will help battle the issue of child pornography among other online crimes.

The bill will require Internet service providers to keep a record of customers’ IP addresses for 18-month periods.

According to the bill, hr. 1981, the act will require ISPs to record and secure the IP addresses used by customers for 18 months after being used. This will allow law enforcement agencies to more accurately track IP addresses to their sources.

“What happens in a network environment is that we don’t have a fixed IP address connected to a computer. Your ISP loans you an address,” Steve Burrell, vice president of information technology and chief information officer, said. “It’s like if your phone number changed every time you used it.”

“If a person goes to a child porn site, the owner can see the IP address of the person who visited. The thing is, most ISPs don’t keep a very long record of who had which IP,” Burrell said.

“If the FBI is investigating a case like that, they can only follow the IP address to the ISP. Once they get there, if the ISP isn’t keeping record, the trail goes cold,” Burrell said.

Georgia Southern University already keeps records like these.

“Here at the university, we already do that — not for 18 months though. A lot of ISPs already keep records. This bill would just bring all ISPs into compliance, regulate them,” Burrell said.

The bill wouldn’t only help fight child pornography, but also help find those who are providing pirated materials online.

“We’re still seeing a lot of people downloading music and movies illegally. This would make it easier to track down those providing the music. No one has been sued for pirating music, only for providing it,” Burrell said.

“As for us, we’d have to change operation procedures. We’d have to prepare to retain what could potentially be a ton of information, especially on a university,” Burrell said.

The bill doesn’t worry Burrell, however.

“What concerns me isn’t the bill itself, it’s the root motivation. I’m more concerned about corporations getting the information. Information stolen from corporations also leads to identity theft,” Burrell said.

Student opinions are generally in favor of the bill.

“I’d say the government has the right to do this. It’s a good thing, in that it protects children,” Corey Claiborne, a sophomore exercise science major, said.”

“It’s got a good motivation behind it,” Jim Richardson, a senior math major, said.

Tom Tolleson, a junior marketing major, said, “Any decrease in internet crime is a good thing.”