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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
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    8

    Default Accidental Child Porn

    California.

    Friends of mine have claimed to visit porn sites, which have all (from what they have said) been verified to only show models above 18 (and even have the United States Code disclaimer that all models are 18 or older). None of the websites advertise, attempt to advertise, or state to have child porn or anything other than models above 18. The websites (again I have not seen any of these) all are very "normal," and are regularly accessible (meaning they show up very easily on google searches or whatnot) and cater only to adults looking for adults.

    Anyhow, they have some concern that its theoretically possible that a model might have been underage and thus they would have viewed child porn.

    I'm not sure what to tell them, I did a little legal research and found that it does not matter at all, just by having gone to a site, as legit as it may be, could bring a charge. While they may plea it out or get a good enough attorney to reduce it or drop it if they can really show it was truly an accident, but the DA (or DOJ) could still bring a charge.

    Short of destroying their computer, is there anything they can do? Would destroying the computer even adsolve them?

    As mentioned, I'm an attorney, but not a criminal attorney, so I come here for a bit of help.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
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    Somewhere near Canada
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    35,894

    Default Re: Accidental Child Porn

    You're an attorney?

    Really?

    In the US?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
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    8

    Default Re: Accidental Child Porn

    yup...just don't practice criminal law. What I do is very different from this.

  4. #4
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    Sep 2005
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    Default Re: Accidental Child Porn

    I find it difficult to believe that you have friends, plural, who have all suddenly come to you with exactly the same theoretical concern.

    If the concern is not theoretical, nobody can promise that evidence won't tie your friends to their offense even if they destroy their computers. Destroying their computers, in fact, could be construed as evidence of both knowledge and intent.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Massachusetts
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    24,521

    Default Re: Accidental Child Porn

    I'm sorry, but this is like the second or third post I've seen in fairly recent memory about people "accidently" being involved with child porn. Kind of makes one suspicious, y'know?

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
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    8

    Default Re: Accidental Child Porn

    As I've mentioned, I'm an attorney, and I do a lot of general non-profit work and help out under priviledged people and many are homosexual, generally live very frightended lives (have HIV, etc.). Are they really "friends" no they are not, but I am also masking certain things (like what all they said, and how they said it so in case you know them the story seems general). As you can imagine, many homosexuals feel the world (including the police) are out to get them, so they run scared a bit.

    Anyway, I found this forum and thought I'd be a good place to see what others thought.

    In this case, I think its a bit paranoid, but again I've seen none of the evidence.

    That's all.

  7. #7
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    Jan 2008
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    Toledo, OH
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    16,307

    Default Re: Accidental Child Porn

    Quote Quoting cbg
    View Post
    I'm sorry, but this is like the second or third post I've seen in fairly recent memory about people "accidently" being involved with child porn. Kind of makes one suspicious, y'know?
    In general, I would agree with you. However, the work I do for one of one of my jobs has inadvertantly landed me on more than a few child porn sites.

    Thankfully, my employer has a policy in place for reporting these.

    That said, I don't think our OP's friends are working for my employer or its competitors. They would already know what to do about accidental porn, child or otherwise.

  8. #8
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    Sep 2005
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    Default Re: Accidental Child Porn

    Your clients should be aware, first, that they should avoid any website where they suspect that a problem could exist. Second, if they find suspect content on a website they should leave the site and not go back. Third, the more activity they engage in while visiting a suspect website, the more likely it is that they'll land themselves in trouble - the downloading of images can be tracked to their IP and quite possibly to their computer; the use of a credit card to access a site is a connection that's very difficult to overcome.

  9. #9

    Default Re: Accidental Child Porn

    Quote Quoting LawResearcherMissy
    View Post
    In general, I would agree with you. However, the work I do for one of one of my jobs has inadvertantly landed me on more than a few child porn sites.
    My research in conjunction with my certificates in behavioral forensics and profiling of child sexual predators put me on more child porn home pages than I imagined ever existed. It's the going PAST those homepages, or as been noted, whipping out ones....credit card....that creates the potential for possible criminal charges.

  10. #10
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    Jan 2008
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    Toledo, OH
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    Default Re: Accidental Child Porn

    I remember a seminar my former employer (current employer's competitor) did about our liability for the things that ended up in our browsers. There had been quite a commotion when a bunch of us got upwards of 1000 kiddie pr0n pages in a week, in addition to all kinds of bomb building sites and other...not legal...things. Many had raised questions of "What if my house is raided by the FBI when my ISP sees where all my traffic is going?"

    We were taught "good browser hygiene" - when you land on something illegal, do not click ANYTHING, not even your back button. Immediately clear your cache, clear your cookies, clear any open sessions, close your browser. Repeat every night after logging out of the work interface.

    Current employer has also added reporting procedures. I'm not the paranoid type, myself. I figure the Feds have better things to do than bust down the door of a lowly information specialist. But enough people are paranoid about this that all the major search engines (and probably the minor ones, too) have designated procedures to keep their peeps from freaking out.

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