Yesterday, a federal judge said he would soon require Google Inc. to release information to the U.S. Department of Justice in an attempt to crack down on the availability of online pornography to children.

And obviously, the gut reaction to this move is that it's a great idea. Really, where is the argument against barring pornography from children?

The only problem with this pending requirement is that it may lead to several other requirements, which could easily step on the toes of Google's millions of users -- not to mention the users of Time Warner Inc.'s America Online, Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN, which have all decided to comply with the release of information.

Google, however, has chosen to commit itself to privacy rights and has decided to battle the seizure of information.

With the amount of information Google yields and contains, it seems they may be doing the right thing and have its users' best interests in mind. Google also has an e-mail server and plans to create a hard drive, which would allow users to access their information from any computer with the Internet. With this change, Google would be the "biggest information storage company in the world," according to Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt.

Although, for the most part, the Internet does not really afford its users privacy rights, it seems Google has the right idea by protecting the Web industry from a slippery slope of absolutely no protection whatsoever, especially with all the changes being made to the Internet's basic use. Not a single person would feel safe storing information on a database that the government could seize at any time.

If the government only works against pornography, the move is acceptable, but it is impossible for Internet users to predict where the government will stop.