The fight against child porn: to the root of the matter, money

The EU accepted to fund the European Financial Coalition where different firms and NGOs join their forces to combat child porn. The 427,000 euros will go towards tracking down the producers of child porn via the amount of money they manipulate. In other words, it goes to the heart of the matter: money. Porn is about money first of all (for adult porn, it is even truer). The fight has traditionally gone towards the end users probably because it is easier to track them down than to find the producers. But like the mafia or other forms of organised crimes, money (and tax) is the first tool used by criminals; tracking it down allows for the chain to be discovered.

Europa Press release 3 March 2009

In that sense, filtering looks like an inadequate tool. Given the immensity of the web, it is also an ineffective tool to avoid child porn. See "Group Reveals There Are Ways To Fight Child Porn Other Than Useless Web Filters" (TechDirt, 5 March 2009)