After hearing about this pedophilia freak Jack McClellan on TV I was interested in his site. My question... Is it illegal to view such a site? And also is it legal to search and find other such sites with the intent of reporting them to the authorities? Not talking about joining a site just finding one that has obvious child pornography and reporting it to the feds? Is it illegal?
2007-07-30 16:20:13 · 6 answers · asked by John D 1 in Politics & Government ➔ Law Enforcement & Police
Keep up the good work Dog
2007-07-30 16:29:11 · update #1
if you 'hit' a child porn site that is under investigation, than you will be flagged.
But, if you are not down loading anything.... pretty much anything that is OPENLY available on the web is fair game for the viewer... only illegal for the poster.
That is the general rule of thumb.
2007-07-30 16:25:55 · answer #1 · answered by Dog Lover 7 · 6⤊ 1⤋
I am a retired police detective and commander with over 20 years law enforcement at the local and federal level.
Let me explain the pitfalls of what you are suggesting. In the first place, federal law enforcement does not need nor want private citizens searching out to "report" illegal websites. You certainly don't have more resources or expertise in such a search.
Secondly, as soon as you go to such sites, even the small pictures that may be displayed would then be placed on your computer hard drive. You would not be able to erase the images. Possession of such images are a felony, per each image, in every state of the union. You could quite easily be subject to criminal charges for such possession. It would then be up to you to prove you were just being a good citizen trying to "report" the sites.
It is one thing to receive misleading emails the inadvertently lead you to an illegal website. This could be easily proved. It is something quite different to actively search out sites. These sites are routinely monitored by local and federal law enforcement. Law enforcement agencies are well aware that it is common practice for pedophiles to go to such sites claiming they are doing it for the exact reason you claim you want to do it. Some even actually report the sites in the hope that if something should ever come back to them, they can say they were "researching" or "reporting."
If your intentions are honorable, still stay away from these sites or anything connected to these sites. You could quite easily find yourself accused of something that you may never be able to shake off, even if you are innocent.
While your crusade may have good intentions, leave it to the professionals who know far more and have far more experience than you would ever dream of having. If you accidentally come across something that needs to be reported, by all means do so. But its like going into a crack house, buying crack, and then when you get busted, saying you were actually going to take it to the police to report it. How credible would that seem? Be against it, report it if you find it and help anyway you can. Just don't go looking for it.
Keep this in mind. When you go looking for trouble, you quite often find it.
2007-07-31 01:56:31 · answer #2 · answered by Chris H 3 · 3⤊ 0⤋
You can use that reason all day long, and although it may be valid, I think the police will most likely NOT assume you're telling the truth. I am sure they have had real creeps use that same reason. I would not venture there on my own.
If you're interested in helping out, contact your local police and ask if you can in some way help out with that. They are probably drastically understaffed and may be willing to take your help. Also, there's a GREAT group called Perverted Justice and that's exactly what they do all day every day, try to catch these folks. Try contacting them as well, as I am sure they have their hands absolutely full. Check out their website, very interesting. Will really make you realize how many just plain freaky people are out there.
2007-07-30 23:52:58 · answer #3 · answered by class act 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I really would not go there for the reason that Dog Lover said. At any given time, so many of those sites are being investigated, you do not want to be flagged as a possible pedophile. I hate pedos as much as you (I have kids of my own), but this is one of those things that I would just leave to the authorities, unless I somehow came across it by accident.
2007-07-30 23:32:39 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Most site will have a warning, but you must watch out for those that say minors or young. The Internet is still the wild west and you must be sure that what you see is what you get. If you want porn go to a site that has security back ups. If you want to view adult video most of the time you must enter a name and e- mail address to insure you are of age.
2007-07-30 23:39:28 · answer #5 · answered by schneider2294@sbcglobal.net 6 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Thats good. You can be a big help to the government against pedophilla. Congratulations.
jtm
2007-07-30 23:26:05 · answer #6 · answered by Jesus M 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋