Man Downloads Child Porn “Accidentally,” Faces Up To 20 Years in Prison

I do not dispute any of this and to the extent that my post suggested otherwise, I should have been clearer. See below.

It's probably quite rare (for the very reasons you outlined just above) but it can still happen.

There are, however, certain lesser-known yet nonetheless legal and seemingly legitimate social networking sites that are regularly abused for such activities. Removal can be slow and users continually create new accounts and groups.

The post I replied-to was incredulous even about that.

 

Lets not get ahead of ourselves, I've investigated both Matthew Bandys story (the 16 year old caught surfing illegal porn sites) as well as the 22 year old who is also named Matthew and they are not as innocent as they claim.

Matthews story, I read from both his side and even spoke to his attorney and read public court documents which stated that trojans found on Matthews computer post dated when he downloaded illegal pornography. Furthermore, feds recovered CD's which he actually had the offending files.

In the case of the older man (the 22 year old), forensics uncovered 150 deleted photos, an additional 800+ images were discarded that were found in his cache so he had actually saved these photos at one point.

 

In the case of child porn, people are rarely completely innocent. As I stated in a previous post, you generally don't "happen upon it". It sounds like he needs a lesson in secure deletion to me (No, I'm not trying to condone it, simply saying that the majority of people who do this sort of thing have no clue about security practices).

 

While I would usually agree with this, I think it's absolutely absurd what the U.S. now considers "Child Porn." It creates a boogyman that isn't as prevalent as it seems. In the USA, a fully clothed girl in a "provocative pose" can be considered "child pornography." Not only that, the laws are written so that what's in ones own mind is the real issue and it becomes more of a thought crime - without a victim! Until they get serious about prosecuting only real child porn, can one feel safe that everything on ones hard drive is legal. This has become such a problem that even John Walsh has come out in support of only labeling true-blue child porn as child porn as it waters down the real crimes and doesn't separate the dangerous offenders, who get off on seeing children having sex, (rape), showing genitalia, etc. (real child porn), and somebody who has a picture of a sexy-looking teen who may - or may not be - eighteen years old --- in a bikini! And yes, they are now prosecuting these kinds of pictures as "child porn" in an effort to look strong on the issue and look like they are "fighting child pornography," when, in fact, they're not doing any such thing. It's like crying "wolf" and when the real stuff comes down the pike they get no harsher sentences than these other pseudo-porn cases.

Don't ever assume what you have on your computer is legal if it comes to a child - it's become that ridiculous. A politically-correct environment rules in states attorneys offices all across America. It's the modern day equivalent of witch hunting, not to mention the cause for so-called "fishing expeditions" that have nothing to do with children at all - just a convenient and popular excuse to impound computers and "go fishing". Yes, it's done everyday in America.

 

Do you have some kind of reference for this?

 

I know, it's hysterical, isn't it? It reminds me of all of the Satanic Rituals abuses and molestations that were sweeping the nation in the 80's. Remember?....They were infiltrating all of the pre-schools and daycares?.