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  1. #1

    Default Proper Reporting of Suspected Child Pornography

    My question involves criminal law for the state of: Florida

    About 3 weeks ago, I had found a TGP website (TGP means Thumbnail gallery post you can read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thumbnail_gallery_post)

    that was marketing it's self as a generic website for adult pornography, generally the sites list a bunch of thumbnails and you click them to get to the next gallery, on occasion, a number of these TGP websites are fake and generally link you to other TGP sites which usually involve popups about evidence eliminator or more gallerys, one of the advertisements had an IP address listed like the following

    hxxp://127.0.0.1/ref=16 which brought me to hxxp://www.example.com/tgp=6 (these aren't URL's just an example)

    The website had numerous questionable images that were unmistakeably what appeared to be minors or suspected child pornography. Some of the images looked legal (adults), others did not, I scrolled down to the bottom of the site which claimed the site followed Under Title 18, Section 2257 which correct me if i'm wrong, all adult sites are supposed to have to prove their models are over 18. The disclaimed said "we are not responsible for content on the website". Obviously even merely visiting the site is going to leave an apache log so I did a WHOIS of the website as well as the source of the image (which was a free image hosting site) and the link it went to. I did NOT save the picture as that would be considered possession.

    I contacted the webhost of the TGP site reporting the links, I reported the images to the host which he stated he would delete them, and then I contacted the host that the link redirected to via the misleading IP address since that was a form of distribution on behalf of the IP address by redirecting a user to a site by being mislead.

    The individual I spoke with on the phone said to send him the links that were involved in the offending content, I sent it to their support department which was moved over to abuse and I was given a reply that it is illegal for a host to investigate in the matter and I would need to contact the FBI.

    I stated that it's illegal to be in possession of the content and that I provided the offending links for their own logs and the following day, contacted the cybertipline with the information as well as ASACP (Association Of Sites Against Child Pornography).

    I believe i've taken the proper steps for reporting the activity, however I am now being told that sending links even to a webhost or abuse department can be considered grounds for distribution, ASACP states in their FAQ that you may not send actual content (pictures) because that is a form of posession and distribution which I am well aware of, as stated, I did not save any pictures, merely sent the links to the proper hosting companies. I spoke with the attorney for the webhosting company who stated that my complaint was being disregarded and then I spoke with him on the phone which he stated that outside sources were being contacted and my complaint was being taken "very seriously".

    While I realize investigations are illegal, I myself am involved in the webhosting industry and I am a little confused about the laws myself when it comes to a host being involved in providing content. Isn't a host required by law to remove the offending materials if it's on their servers knowingly since I reported the content? Furthermore, should I have merely taken my complaint to the FBI instead of the hosts?

    I'm not worried from a legal standpoint as I feel I did nothing wrong but the entire situation has me rather disturbed, I realize FBI cannot talk about ongoing investigations, but what else am I obligated to do other than send a report and go on with my life?

    I have only dealed with a similar situation in the past about 2 years ago which I had a pedophile community taken offline because of the content of the posts which involved arrests of 3 individuals for abuse of their children, I reported the site to ASACP and it was dealed with promptly, however this situation is quite a bit different since images (thumbnails) were involved on the site.

    To make matters even more complicated, even though I did not visit the site knowingly, the fact is that possession is not worded very well, what is considered possession? Well take for example, you visit google.com, that google image is saved in your temporary files automatically and hence any forensics will show those images regardless of the fact a user didn't save them in the temporary folder, even if they are deleted/destroyed, the files can still be recovered via EnCase with forensics which show the images were viewed at some point. What that means is you do not have to right click >save picture for it to appear on your computer as it's already cached via mozilla firefox or microsoft internet exporer. Is there an exemption out of good faith for the reporting party or could this lead to legal problems merely from thumbnails precached on a website that one did not intend to view?

    I spoke to my attorney about the matter as well, and he stated that because I reported the content and did not download the images or intend to download the images (as that was not what I was looking for) that I had reported it in good faith and that I should not be concerned.

    Thoughts?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Posts
    471

    Default Re: Reporting Child Pornography

    The easiest way to report is to use the online form at https://secure.missingkids.com/missi...eCountry=en_US

  3. #3

    Default Re: Reporting Child Pornography

    Quote Quoting kist
    View Post
    The easiest way to report is to use the online form at https://secure.missingkids.com/missi...eCountry=en_US
    That's what I used, same as the cybertipline.

    Something else to ponder, because the images were hosted on a free image hosting website, I'm sure that photobucket, imageshack and others have people uploading illegal content constantly, was it appropriate to report the content to the hosts?

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Posts
    471

    Default Re: Reporting Child Pornography

    Good, I'd be be careful to not get overly involved because that stuff can get you in trouble. There are a whole class of users who justify looking at that material in the name of finding it to report it, but that is just as illegal as looking for it to look at it. I'm sure that isn't the case with you but just be aware.

  5. #5

    Default Re: Reporting Child Pornography

    Quote Quoting kist
    View Post
    Good, I'd be be careful to not get overly involved because that stuff can get you in trouble. There are a whole class of users who justify looking at that material in the name of finding it to report it, but that is just as illegal as looking for it to look at it. I'm sure that isn't the case with you but just be aware.
    No, I wasn't specifically looking for that content, however I did take steps in exiting the site and running a virus scan which the site was infected with many trojans/viruses. I did need the web address to report it however it didn't help matters that most of the links on these TGP sites were "redirector" or referral sites, however since I work in the webhosting business, I am capable of proving how a site can redirect and how it would display in Apache (webserver) logs.

  6. #6

    Default Re: Reporting Child Pornography

    I did find the following

    18 U.S.C. § 2252

    http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/caseco...tion_2252.html

    (c) Affirmative Defense. - It shall be an affirmative defense to
    a charge of violating paragraph (4) of subsection (a) that the
    defendant -
    (1) possessed less than three matters containing any visual
    depiction proscribed by that paragraph; and

    (2) promptly and in good faith, and without retaining or
    allowing any person, other than a law enforcement agency, to
    access any visual depiction or copy thereof -

    (A) took reasonable steps to destroy each such visual
    depiction; or

    (B) reported the matter to a law enforcement agency and
    afforded that agency access to each such visual depiction.

    What is the proper legal term of possession, precached in standard temporary files which is standard with internet explorer or actually saving the images?

    Other than law enforcement agency? What about reporting to the hosts?

    Do you see where there is a legal problem?

  7. #7

    Default Re: Reporting Child Pornography

    Yes, the host may by policy want to remove such when notified, but yes, doing so tips off those who put the images there in the first place that someone has sent up the red flag about their content.

    Your best bet is to notify law enforcement at both the county level (sheriff's office) as well as the online report noted above, and let them investigate in ways that don't keep the image-holders a step ahead.

  8. #8

    Default Re: Reporting Child Pornography

    Quote Quoting aardvarc
    View Post
    Yes, the host may by policy want to remove such when notified, but yes, doing so tips off those who put the images there in the first place that someone has sent up the red flag about their content.

    Your best bet is to notify law enforcement at both the county level (sheriff's office) as well as the online report noted above, and let them investigate in ways that don't keep the image-holders a step ahead.
    Oh yeah I understand that, the reasoning of the host was that I shouldn't have even sent it to them despite the content being hosted on their servers.

    I realize hosts don't want to have to deal with it because then the FBI has to confiscate the servers, usually it's wise to just make a mirror backup of the drive and give the original to investigators although I've never had to deal with the content before being a webhost.

    I'm just curious how Yahoo, imageshack and photobucket deal with this kinda stuff, I would have thought I did the right thing, but yeah I reported it to that missing childs site as well as ASACP (Association Of Sites Against Child Pornography).

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