America Online has a free service called AOL Hometown. People can get free space to host webpages and blogs. Unfortunately, some of the AOL webpages seem to have pornographic material. AOL Network Terms of Service states as follows.

“You may not submit or transmit through the AOL Network any material, or otherwise engage in any conduct that is unlawful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, deceptive, fraudulent, invasive of another’s privacy, tortious, or contains explicit or graphic descriptions, or accounts of, sexual acts.”

It also states as follows.

“You may not use any of our Services or communication tools to transmit, directly or indirectly, any unsolicited bulk communications (including e-mails and instant messages).”

So what happens if AOL Network users violate these terms? They won’t be caught so easily in the first place. The problem with AOL is that they offer customer assistance only to those who pay $9.95 a month. If you want to look for any means of contacting them, you will go through a web of pages for 20 to 30 minutes and finally reach a page that says live assistance is only for paid customers. So if you want to report abuse, you have to pay $9.95 a month. If you have questions about their products, you have to pay $9.95 a month just to talk to them. As for the Internet criminal who tried to post an undesirable comment, AOL protects them in a sense, and they are left alone.

The following screenshot contain sexually explicit words. Viewer’s discretion is highly advised.