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Accidentally Viewed Underage Porn Pics/ Faulty Image Links

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polisci2005

Junior Member
Hello. While at college this previous summer semester, I had been viewing adult porn sites; many of these sites have "image" links, unlike the standard hyperlinks that people view. After seeing a picture of a lady that I wanted to look at some more, I hit the image link, and, lo and behold, CHILD PORN image links popped up on my browser' s screen. In fact, I decided to hit another of the child porn image links, figuring that I could get out of the garbage, and get back to an adult image link site (most of the adult image links that I previously accessed took me to more BS image link pages, and I regret even looking at them); needless to say, MORE child porn popped up on my screen. In any event, I decided to hit the "x" button on my browser, and get the hell out of Dodge. I didn't think much about it, until a few days later, when I read my school's editorial about the arrest and conviction of a former student for downloading graphic images of an underage boy (20 pictures). Since that day, let's just say that I'm "paranoid" that the authorities are going to knock down my door, arrest me, and throw me in jail, just for accidentally seeing porn pics as image links. Furthermore, my computer began to shut down, due to malware. So, I decided to go to the IT center on campus to fix the situation. Additionally, I figured that, if a hacker downloaded images unto my computer, that I could get them erased. I also told the help desk folks that I was afraid some "questionable" things could be on my computer, such as child porn, because of the malware. Needless to say, they fixed my computer, and reassured me that there was nothing awful on my computer, and that I shouldn't worry about cops throwing me in jail. In fact, to reassure me, the IT man looked at the network violation page, and looked up my dorm room. He told me that he discovered no violations. I even looked it up, since it was accessable on the school's website. Why? Because I don't feel good about this, nor the help desk's "expertise". Oh yeah, the IT help desk erased my cache, all of my files, and my Windows software. They performed a "re-format" of the computer, and, due to my paranoia, I told them that it was fine. Now, a.) should I be afraid that the authorities will come knocking on my door for a mistake (I sent the pedophile links to a child exploitation page that requests these links), and, b.) what's a download? If you view a pic (s) accidentally, that's not a download, is it? I thought downloading was saving something to your hard drive, ala Kazaa, or Morpheus. Any REAL legal advice would be greatly appreciated. Because I am VERY SCARED and nervous. Thank you.

p.s.-I reside in Iowa.
 
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HomeGuru

Senior Member
polisci2005 said:
Hello. While at college this previous summer semester, I had been viewing adult porn sites; many of these sites have "image" links, unlike the standard hyperlinks that people view. After seeing a picture of a lady that I wanted to look at some more, I hit the image link, and, lo and behold, CHILD PORN image links popped up on my browser' s screen. In fact, I decided to hit another of the child porn image links, figuring that I could get out of the garbage, and get back to an adult image link site (most of the adult image links that I previously accessed took me to more BS image link pages, and I regret even looking at them); needless to say, MORE child porn popped up on my screen. In any event, I decided to hit the "x" button on my browser, and get the hell out of Dodge. I didn't think much about it, until a few days later, when I read my school's editorial about the arrest and conviction of a former student for downloading graphic images of an underage boy (20 pictures). Since that day, let's just say that I'm "paranoid" that the authorities are going to knock down my door, arrest me, and throw me in jail, just for accidentally seeing porn pics as image links. Furthermore, my computer began to shut down, due to malware. So, I decided to go to the IT center on campus to fix the situation. Additionally, I figured that, if a hacker downloaded images unto my computer, that I could get them erased. I also told the help desk folks that I was afraid some "questionable" things could be on my computer, such as child porn, because of the malware. Needless to say, they fixed my computer, and reassured me that there was nothing awful on my computer, and that I shouldn't worry about cops throwing me in jail. In fact, to reassure me, the IT man looked at the network violation page, and looked up my dorm room. He told me that he discovered no violations. I even looked it up, since it was accessable on the school's website. Why? Because I don't feel good about this, nor the help desk's "expertise". Oh yeah, the IT help desk erased my cache, all of my files, and my Windows software. They performed a "re-format" of the computer, and, due to my paranoia, I told them that it was fine. Now, a.) should I be afraid that the authorities will come knocking on my door for a mistake (I sent the pedophile links to a child exploitation page that requests these links), and, b.) what's a download? If you view a pic (s) accidentally, that's not a download, is it? I thought downloading was saving something to your hard drive, ala Kazaa, or Morpheus. Any REAL legal advice would be greatly appreciated. Because I am VERY SCARED and nervous. Thank you.

p.s.-I reside in Iowa.
**A: you have a right to be scared and nervous.
 

The Occultist

Senior Member
Well, we can get semi-technical here and say that anything you do online requires downloading. Any time your computer receives information from an outside source, that is downloading. When a picture has loaded in a webpage, you have technically downloaded that picture.
Now, as per the User Agreement you have with your ISP, in this case the school, they might have a specific definition of "downloading" that they mean.

Will you get in trouble? It doesn't seem likely at this point. As the IT guy said, and as you stated you later confirmed, you did not show up as having any violations on the server. Also, I highly doubt that the website that took the kiddie-porn links from you plans on turning you into the authorities. Since all this occurred on campus, I'm fairly certain the college would have sent a letter to you by now telling you if anything was amiss.
 

polisci2005

Junior Member
The Occultist said:
Well, we can get semi-technical here and say that anything you do online requires downloading. Any time your computer receives information from an outside source, that is downloading. When a picture has loaded in a webpage, you have technically downloaded that picture.
Now, as per the User Agreement you have with your ISP, in this case the school, they might have a specific definition of "downloading" that they mean.

Will you get in trouble? It doesn't seem likely at this point. As the IT guy said, and as you stated you later confirmed, you did not show up as having any violations on the server. Also, I highly doubt that the website that took the kiddie-porn links from you plans on turning you into the authorities. Since all this occurred on campus, I'm fairly certain the college would have sent a letter to you by now telling you if anything was amiss.
Thanks for your reply. I don't seek those kinds of sites out, nor do I download that garbage on disks or my hard drive. Here I am, someone without any priors, who has lived according to the rules (not to sound sanctimonious), who feels as if they're possibly going to jail for accidentally entering a criminalistic website. It makes me shudder.
 
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