Possession and Distribution of Child Pornography

My question involves criminal law for the state of: California

Hello,

I am an 18 year old male from California. For the past few days I have been terrified of getting involved with the police due to some instances in the past.

I have been sexting online ever since I was 16. I would go to a website where you can talk to random people and attempt to have girls (they were normally underage) to sext me using photos on an instant messaging app, called KIK.

I would trade the pictures I got to other users for the pictures they had themselves - building my "collection." I would go on and off for the past few years. Most of the time I was 17, however I did this also in the first half of my 18th year of age.

It's been a around a month since I did this. At some points, I had a few hundred photos and a handful of videos of girls who were likely underage. They have long since been deleted. I'm considering buring my hard drives. At one point I actually had sex on skype with a girl, but we were both underage and I don't think they could find proof.

Do any of you guys think the police are tracking me? I am terrified of the idea that they are currently getting warrants and closing in on me.

Please give me your opinions, I can also answer questions to help you. Thanks!

I doubt that the police are tracking you, but only time will tell. It is, of course, sensible to have stopped engaging in illegal activity.

Okay thanks, could they see this post and use that as a reason to go for me?

They may but paranoia is something that feeds on itself. Forget about it unless or until something else happens. In the mean time, stop your activity and get on with your life.

You should understand something critical about most child porn offenses. The fact that you are under 18 does not give you a defense to the crimes; it simply may mean that you get prosecuted under the juvenile court system rather than as an adult for those offenses. Thus, I tell teens that trading naked and sexually suggestive photos of themselves and their friends/lovers is a bad idea. While you are not likely to get caught for doing that unless someone complains to law enforcement about it, all it takes is one ticked off person who knows you did it to turn you in and you have a problem. Law enforcement otherwise tends to focus on the more severe problem of the commercial child porn peddlers that are out there. You won’t know if law enforcement is going to come after you until it happens, and it may never happen. So don’t panic yourself here. There is nothing you can do now about what you did in the past anyway. But now that you are an adult, act like a responsible one and not involve yourself in pursuing sexual related things with minors going forward. And yes, it was a good idea to delete the material you had collected.

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Quoting Pizzaman1337

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I am an 18 year old male from California. For the past few days I have been terrified of getting involved with the police due to some instances in the past.

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so you are saying something happened very recently that you suspect may have been a sting?

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I have been sexting online ever since I was 16. I would go to a website where you can talk to random people and attempt to have girls (they were normally underage) to sext me using photos on an instant messaging app, called KIK.

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so you admit to knowing they were underage. There goes any possibility of mistake of age being a defense.

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I would trade the pictures I got to other users for the pictures they had themselves - building my "collection."

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so you have admitted to committing multiple felonies on the internet, you know, where you can tracked?

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I would go on and off for the past few years. Most of the time I was 17, however I did this also in the first half of my 18th year of age.

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doesn't make any difference how old you were. Possessing child porn is a crime. Distributing child porn is a worse crime. If you sent pictures of you while you were underage, you produced and distributed child porn. That can be a REALLY serious crime and yes, kids have been charged for doing exactly what you describe of producing, possessing, and distributing child porn.

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It's been a around a month since I did this. At some points, I had a few hundred photos and a handful of videos of girls who were likely underage. They have long since been deleted. I'm considering buring my hard drives.

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computers do not delete anything. They simply remove the file locator so the computer well see that sector as empty and use it for other data. Eventually it may get overwritten enough it is unreadable but fragments remain for a long time

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At one point I actually had sex on skype with a girl

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,well, call me Rip Van Winkle. They figured out how to have physical interaction over a phone or computer? Last I knew it was merely audio and video and while you can watch each other do things to themselves, you cannot have sex over skype.

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Do any of you guys think the police are tracking me? I am terrified of the idea that they are currently getting warrants and closing in on me.

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paranoia can be a good thing sometimes. It helps keep you from doing stupid things sometimes. Kind of like your mother standing behind you smacking you upside the head saying; don't do that.

but hey, don't look now but I think there is somebody in a car across the street watching you right now.

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Quoting Taxing Matters

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Y While you are not likely to get caught for doing that unless someone complains to law enforcement about it, all it takes is one ticked off person who knows you did it to turn you in and you have a problem. Law enforcement otherwise tends to focus on the more severe problem of the commercial child porn peddlers that are out there.

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I come from a small town, rural area. There have been a few such prosecutions in my area. It doesn't even take a ticked off person. What it has taken around here is a stupid kid that shows other kids while at school. Teachers or administrators find out sometimes.

I don't think there was a sting. I never went very far with the recent ones. Are police going to find out just because I posted this? I can't find the delete place how do I do that?

Thanks.

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Quoting Pizzaman1337

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I don't think there was a sting. I never went very far with the recent ones. Are police going to find out just because I posted this? I can't find the delete place how do I do that?

Thanks.

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well, something stirred you up and thinking the cops were standing outside your door waiting for you to walk outside. No need to delete anything. This was apparently something you were driven to do to make amends for your activities. Let Karma be. If it was meant to be, it will be.

Will I have trouble with the police looking at this forum and finding my post?

well, there is a cop that posts here frequently.