But then he checked with a few sources at online filtering companies, who told him that Yahoo wasn't just selling videos, it was also hosting porn on its servers.

"They told me where to go," Trueman says. "I checked out the Yahoo Clubs section" -- home of several thousand electronic user-generated personal ads -- "and found the same kind of stuff we used to prosecute when I was at the Justice Department. I was amazed at how much was there. Searching under key words like 'Lolita' or 'preteen,' you could find a number of obscene images, many of children in sexually explicit poses."

Trueman immediately switched into high gear. He made sure that the AFA press release hit the wires before 2 p.m. -- in time for newspaper reporters to grab quotes before their daily deadline -- and typed out a quick letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft. The 200-word note cut to the quick. It urged Ashcroft to personally "investigate and prosecute Yahoo for its direct involvement in the sale and distribution of obscene material and child pornography," adding that Yahoo "must not be allowed to flaunt [sic] federal law" because other major companies would follow its lead.

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Immediately, the letter and press release thrust Trueman into an already-forming media maelstrom. He became the spokesman of the anti-porn movement, spending the next day and a half railing at Yahoo in interviews with the Associated Press, television networks, National Public Radio and other outlets.

Then, on April 13, Yahoo bowed to the criticism. The 3,500-employee company cut off access to certain personals in its Clubs section -- and searches for "preteen" and "Lolita" now come up blank. Yahoo didn't just remove allegedly illegal kiddie porn. The portal also stopped accepting adult banner ads and closed its adult store, effectively removing every legal adult-related entertainment product that it had been selling for the past two years without complaint.

Yahoo argues that the retreat makes perfect sense. Users demanded prudishness and Yahoo simply complied. "About 100,00 people e-mailed us," says Jackson Holtz, a company spokesman. "We decided to value our readers and take a leadership position based on their feedback."

But the move can't be explained so easily. Yahoo has 192 million registered users and while Holtz refused to say how many customers complain about non-porn issues in a given two-day period, it's hard to believe that 100,000 e-mails represent a massive groundswell. Plus, Yahoo has stood up to criticism before. When a French anti-racism group sued in April 2000, demanding that the portal stop selling Nazi memorabilia in its auctions, Yahoo fought back with all the legal guns it had. Even now, after banning the items, Yahoo is still fighting to overturn a French court's decision that bars the company from selling hate-related products.

It's not as if the AFA is a powerhouse of influence, either. Though the Tupelo, Miss., nonprofit has won a handful of battles over the course of its 25-year history -- it led the campaign to keep 7-Elevens from selling Playboy in the '80s -- its demands have typically gone unanswered. A high-profile attempt to put Internet filters in Michigan libraries failed last year, while this year, the AFA has tried to turn Fox from "Temptation Island" and Showtime from "Queer as Folk," and it even tried to keep 7UP from running a commercial that depicts a nudist colony -- all to no avail.

So, what gives? Other portals, such as Excite, offer adult videos and have no plans to stop. Why did Yahoo reverse its course? Did the company react because it feared its users or, rather, because it feared the wrath of Wall Street and the law?

And what do Yahoo's entry and exit mean for the future of online pornography? As Trueman and other so-called decency crusaders meet this week with Attorney General Ashcroft to urge prosecution of companies that profit from porn, could Yahoo's retreat be the beginning of a trend? Is the freewheeling, smut-peddling era of the Internet about to end?

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