The Internet and the Child Porn Laws

[WorkInProgress]

This article http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42740201/ns/technology_and_science-wireless/ tells of a man first being arrested, then cleared, for downloading child pornography online, a mistake caused by his neighbor pirating his unsecured wi-fi access.

First of all, let me make a little full-faith disclosure. I have unsecured wi-fi in my home. Why did I opt to make it unsecured? Because, at the time I moved here and got set up with internet access, I truly didn't mind the thought of neighbors using it if it reached into their homes. And I had a good reason for not minding: back in Baltimore, I didn't subscribe to wi-fi, and I made great use of some neighbor's signal that came into my apartment, frequently logging into TMF on it to catch up on Maniac Tickler's latest gems of brilliance.

Now, that aside: I have two things to say about this article.

(1.) The victim of the false arrest is a very nice guy not to sue. He has every right to sue, especially the way the troopers behaved. Law enforcement officials, even if they have good reason to be sure they're arresting the right person, have no right to make insults to the person they're arresting. Their job is to inform the person of the situation, read the Miranda card if there's going to be an interrogation, and take the person into custody with the least force and restraint needed. Name-calling should be strictly prohibited.

(2.) About child pornography: There are, in my view, two offenses that clearly merit arrest and prosecution, connected with child pornography. One is producing it with real children. That is exploitation, and a very serious crime. It does direct damage to real children. Second is purchasing material that has been made through child exploitation, and what makes it a crime, in my opinion, is that it puts money into the hands of the exploiters. But is there a reason why merely looking at something on the internet, or even downloading it, if money does not change hands, needs to be a crime? Do we want to punish someone for being a sick pervert by virtue of what's going on inside his head, or do we want to punish someone for actually doing something that directly contributes to the abuse of a child?

 

[ndj101982]

Um.....I would've sued that police force blind and retired to an island 🙂

 

[smokinj]

Well you bring up some interesting points, I think the less exposure to suggestive pictures or videos of kids the better. I really feel in alot of ways the internet has created more pedophiles due to the abundance of child pornography on the web.

There is no place for that in the world. That being said, that guy should sue the police dept, not only was he innocent, his reputation is completely shot. Everyone will look at him as a pedophile even after exonerated. Sad.

 

[Mitchell]

I read about this case in the newspaper this morning. To me, this is an extremely serious matter.

An innocent man is in his home, using the internet for legitimate purposes, and then has the cops bust down the door, and arrest him, because his neighbor is pirating his signal for illegal purposes. Child porn is a very serious crime. If I were the innocent man in this case, I would have sued the neighbor for every penny he was worth, and the police for civil rights/arresting an innocent man, etc.

Maybe the guy dropped it because he just wanted peace, but.. the neighbor is nothing more than a common criminal, and should have been punished like one.

Mitch

 

[ndj101982]

Well you bring up some interesting points, I think the less exposure to suggestive pictures or videos of kids the better. I really feel in alot of ways the internet has created more pedophiles due to the abundance of child pornography on the web.

There is no place for that in the world. That being said, that guy should sue the police dept, not only was he innocent, his reputation is completely shot. Everyone will look at him as a pedophile even after exonerated. Sad.

Well, yes, the internet has definitely strengthened the pedophile world. Like any unhealthy sickness, the easier the access, the worse off the addiction becomes.

I'll even use the TMF and tickling on the internet as an example. Before I knew of this stuff on the web I was a straight A student in high school, and in my first semester of college. At 19 I discovered tickling on the interent. At that time I literally let this stuff totally ruin my early 20s. I spent so much time searching tickle materials that I couldn't find balance in my life. I failed out of college, couldn't hold a job, got into some hefty credit card debt because I was buying lots of clips (days before youtube and dailymotion) and lost my gf because at the time I would rather spend 5 hours looking up tickling stuff and whacking off, than having plain old sex with her. She didn't know of my fetish, but the relationship severely suffered as I developed a bit of a "distance" relationship with a girl that lived in France whom I met on the TMF. We did a great deal of roleplaying and I preferred fantasy over reality for sexual stimulation at the time so I began ignorning the gf, schoolwork, and other things to spend hour upon hour on the web.

 

[Jagermeistered]

Well, it's so easy to say: Let's sue everybody!

My point is, what would happen if this guy sued the police force, what does that mean? Who funds the police force? The taxpayer does! If the government collecting taxes isn't able to collect taxes to pay off the lawsuit; let alone fund the police force. What does that mean? A downsize in the police force; thus, less public safety and security(however you want to look at).

I am sure their are other retribution ventures for the wrongfully accused...

 

[socktickler86]

Good for him for not suing. Everyones reaction these days are lawyers lawyers lawyers. People screw up and when you're dealing with something as sickening as child exploitation, I can imagine people will say some awful things. Hell, most the people in this thread have said awful things... and although saying things on the internet is not the same as putting a gun to someone and calling them a pedophile, we're not all immune to such behavior.

As far as the topic goes, it's always good to at least know where your logs are or if you're even keeping a log in the first place of the connections to your router. Personally, I hide everything and WPA2 encrypt my connection. Having an open router can be fun and be seen as a nice thing to do, but don't fool yourself into thinking people don't go around and try to intercept things like banking/credit info. I personally have a friend who, if he were actually a criminal, could easily grab data like that off our entire university's network since they don't encrypt or verify MAC addresses at the least.

 

[WorkInProgress]

Sometimes a lawsuit is the only way of getting attention paid to a problem. Actually, if it were me, my main priority would be that I would want the responsible individuals on the force discharged completely. Part of my angle is, when you're a cop making an arrest, you keep completely to yourself your personal feelings about the person you're arresting and the crime you think that person committed. A cop may not be a therapist, but there's still got to be some professionalism.

 

[Jagermeistered]

Thus, I think the wrongly accused show receive a public apology from all those officers...

A third party should be present, and decide if they stay on or off the force. If they are still on should pay $1-too some amount out of their paycheck. Not to the point were their working for free. But, a bitch-slap on their wallet.

 

[GEORGIATKLER]

Do doughnut shops have wi-fi?

In Atlanta, he would have been an 80-90 year old woman, and would have been shot/killed by police when they came through the wrong door on a drug raid and she tried to defend herself. The Atlanta police were given a wrong address by a CI. What are the police doing to make sure it doesn't happen again? I know the police do a great job most of the time, but the public should know these type incidents will not reoccur. Crimes against children and the elderly are the lowest, since they have almost no chance to defend themselves.

 

[socktickler86]

Sometimes a lawsuit is the only way of getting attention paid to a problem. Actually, if it were me, my main priority would be that I would want the responsible individuals on the force discharged completely. Part of my angle is, when you're a cop making an arrest, you keep completely to yourself your personal feelings about the person you're arresting and the crime you think that person committed. A cop may not be a therapist, but there's still got to be some professionalism.

People like saying it's the only way to get people to pay attention... but no one buys that when it's typically the first thing people start thinking about.

And REALLY, a cop should lose his job, his livelihood, his means to support his family because he SAID something? It's not like he smacked the guy in the face with the butt of a rifle or shot him or planted evidence. Disciplinary actions, sure. Getting fired? Come on.

 

[ndj101982]

In Atlanta, he would have been an 80-90 year old woman, and would have been shot/killed by police when they came through the wrong door on a drug raid and she tried to defend herself. The Atlanta police were given a wrong address by a CI. What are the police doing to make sure it doesn't happen again? I know the police do a great job most of the time, but the public should know these type incidents will not reoccur. Crimes against children and the elderly are the lowest, since they have almost no chance to defend themselves.

In Atlanta a good percentage of the cops are probably registered sex offenders...lol

 

[ndj101982]

Good for him for not suing. Everyones reaction these days are lawyers lawyers lawyers. People screw up and when you're dealing with something as sickening as child exploitation, I can imagine people will say some awful things. Hell, most the people in this thread have said awful things... and although saying things on the internet is not the same as putting a gun to someone and calling them a pedophile, we're not all immune to such behavior.

As far as the topic goes, it's always good to at least know where your logs are or if you're even keeping a log in the first place of the connections to your router. Personally, I hide everything and WPA2 encrypt my connection. Having an open router can be fun and be seen as a nice thing to do, but don't fool yourself into thinking people don't go around and try to intercept things like banking/credit info. I personally have a friend who, if he were actually a criminal, could easily grab data like that off our entire university's network since they don't encrypt or verify MAC addresses at the least.

I dunno. I don't agree with suing for a lot of things, but arresting a man for accused pedophile behavior when he was innocent is a different story. Who knows just how bad it was. That guy is lucky he didn't get the fuck beat out of him in the short time he was probably in jail as well. I know from a prison guard friend of mine that rapists and pedophiles get fucked up almost as soon as they get brought in a lot of times. They have the nickname "Chester's" (aka chester the molester) .Also, the poor guy's name was almost definitely in the next day's paper for this. Possibly on the first page! I would've sued, sued, sued!!!!

 

[socktickler86]

I dunno. I don't agree with suing for a lot of things, but arresting a man for accused pedophile behavior when he was innocent is a different story. Who knows just how bad it was. That guy is lucky he didn't get the fuck beat out of him in the short time he was probably in jail as well. I know from a prison guard friend of mine that rapists and pedophiles get fucked up almost as soon as they get brought in a lot of times. Also, the poor guy's name was almost definitely in the next day's paper for this. Possibly on the first page! I would've sued, sued, sued!!!!

That's the point. If he didn't sue, I would lean towards the idea that it wasn't that bad.

 

[ndj101982]

That's the point. If he didn't sue, I would lean towards the idea that it wasn't that bad.

Possibly. He could sue the bastard that was using his internet access to do it though. That may be worth his while.

 

[socktickler86]

Possibly. He could sue the bastard that was using his internet access to do it though. That may be worth his while.

Although I'd hope being sued would be the LEAST of that guys problems.

 

[love feet]

not good!

 

[ndj101982]

Regardless of this particular incident, is anyone else concerned with the fact that "Big Brother" in monitoring your computer usage at all times? I mean, how humiliating would it be if they mistakingly busted one of us for kiddie porn, and when dissecting our computer memory they discover all kinds of stuff about this fetish. Not only would that make it more of a complicated case because you'd be regarded as some kind of sexual deviant, but that information gets released in court and probably makes the papers when they you were cleared upon discovery that your computer memory only possessed fetish sites.

 

[stroker]

Regardless of this particular incident, is anyone else concerned with the fact that "Big Brother" in monitoring your computer usage at all times? I mean, how humiliating would it be if they mistakingly busted one of us for kiddie porn, and when dissecting our computer memory they discover all kinds of stuff about this fetish. Not only would that make it more of a complicated case because you'd be regarded as some kind of sexual deviant, but that information gets released in court and probably makes the papers when they you were cleared upon discovery that your computer memory only possessed fetish sites.

I used to be very concerned about this not just for the reasons youve given but also the general principle that anyone with the authority and know how can find out almost anything about you without you knowing a thing about it or how the informatiion is being used.And its all being done in the name of "protecting " us. However once I started looking at fetish stuff and wasnt outed immediately Ive become a bit more blase, This case though has made me think that i should be much more carefull about securing my computer from hijack. I never had a clue about just how easy it was to get into someone elses system and how common its becoming. And your right about the papers . They would try to label anything sexual on your computer no matter how tame as deviancy and therefore proof positive that you were a threat to children.

 

[Flatfoot]

Possibly. He could sue the bastard that was using his internet access to do it though. That may be worth his while.

Realistically, he could actually seek damages from the police for false arrest, as well as I think slander? I don't have my law textbook near me. lol

As far as the neighbor, though, I'm not so sure he can seek damages, since he had a means to secure his wifi, but didn't, which he is responsible for. I'm pretty sure he can even be held responsible by his internet service provider for data transmitted over the connection they provide to him. That's probably how this whole mess started in the first place! Lesson learned: Secure your wifi!