Columbus, OhioFREE SEX VS. FREE SPEECH

: A leading online service jumped into the middle of the debate over electronic free speech on Thursday by blocking subscriber access to a sexually explicit section of the Internet. The move by CompuServe Inc., prompted by threats from a German prosecutor probing child pornography, means that the company's four million subscribers will not be able to access some 200 different "newsgroups" on a portion of the Internet called Usenet. "This shows that if you pull the plug in one country, you pull the plug on all countries," says TIME's Philip Elmer DeWitt. "But anyone who wants to regulate the Internet has to come to terms with the fact that it has no boundaries. I have a feeling it won't hold, since CompuServe will likely find a way, probably at a substantial cost, to allow access on a selective basis. The Internet itself will find a way to flow around this."