# Best way to report kiddie porn?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-report-kiddie-porn/34398>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 24, 2000, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-report-kiddie-porn/34398 "2000-09-24T22:52:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![SoulFrost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f07891/32.png) [@SoulFrost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoulFrost)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2000, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-report-kiddie-porn/34398/21 "2000-09-25T16:29:18Z")

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I almost didn’t include the “where to find it” section in my last post, but I decided to go ahead.

One of the major problems that we ran into was getting people to believe that child porn was actually out there in abundance.

“That can’t happen to **MY** child”, “We don’t know any people like that”, “That stuff’s only traded in shadowy back rooms”–Man, if I had a nickle…

Sometimes we’d tell unbelievers where to look, and they’d come back shaken to their core at how easy it is to find and how _MUCH_ of it there is.

Anyway, Mods feel free to eliminate that part of my post if it feels wrong to you.

Frogstein sez:

> [@](#):
>
> Chances are, that since the stuff you saw came off Usenet, it was sent from an overseas news server with dummied headers, so it’s extremely unlikely that you’d ever track down the source.

'Fraid not. Much of it **IS** European or Asian, but just as much of it comes from the good ole USA.

See, the pedos aren’t afraid anymore.

They’re suspicious, granted, but with the internet’s sense of anonymity, most traders don’t think that they can be tracked down.

Some actually put disclaimers on their posts and emails stating that “by reading this, you acknowledge that the sender is innocent of all wrongdoing” and other pathetic attempts at legal acrobatics.

-David

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**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2000, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-report-kiddie-porn/34398/22 "2000-09-28T04:17:44Z")

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I was browsing on an adult pornography site. (OK, I’m sick, but I’m not _sick_!) When I backed out of a picture, they had an on-exit script pop up a new window. Just as I though I was going to click on another link, the new window opened and I happened to land on a link on that page. _That_ took me to the kiddie porn site.

At the top was a photo from Penthouse magazine of a 21-year-old model that they had a pseudo-contest to guess her age. (This was from a mid-70’s issue.) Besides her pubic hair, she looked about 12. Remembering this, I thought the site probably just had other pics of young-looking models. But when I scrolled down, there were pictures of girls that could only be 7-10 years old. I quickly noted the site and closed all my IE windows (difficult, because all these stupid web pages had on-exit scripts to open even more windows).

First thing this morning, I called the FBI and gave them the URL.

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**Author:** ![Homer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df788c/32.png) [@Homer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homer)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2000, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-report-kiddie-porn/34398/23 "2000-09-28T05:00:46Z")

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We all know I’m a pervert to some degree, as I make relatively common references to “Uh, gotta go use UseNet now!” and shit like that. Maybe I’m just a stereotypical 19 year old.

But this stuff makes me sick.

In one newsgroup I… uh… read, the same picture gets posted every week or so, with a different return address, a different title, a different file size, everything, so I have no way of knowing it’s the same one. It’s always… well… I can’t even describe it and not feel dirty. Let’s just say she can’t be more than 5 or 6.

Sick fuckers. Burn in hell.

One time, though, after a spate of kiddie porn, someone stepped out of the shadows and flamed the SHIT out of the guy posting it, and it hasn’t shown up again. Sadly, they’ve likely just moved to a different group where another group of perverts can get their jollies off to little kids.

Oh, and if I’m going to add anything of substance to this conversation, I might as well say that Norton makes a “file shredder” program that guarantees file destruction so complete that it cannot possibly be recovered. If you’re worried about residual evil stuff, delete it with this program.

–Tim

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**Author:** ![MannyL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MannyL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MannyL)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2000, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-report-kiddie-porn/34398/24 "2000-09-28T05:18:09Z")

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Just out of curosity if your US based ISP carries a newsgroup along these lines isn’t that illegal too?

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**Author:** ![Homer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df788c/32.png) [@Homer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homer)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2000, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-report-kiddie-porn/34398/25 "2000-09-28T07:56:30Z")

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Probably. I do not believe my ISP censors or monitors newsgroups. Hell, judging from the quality of my service, they’re not even aware they offer newsgroups. Or internet service, for that matter.

I do not believe it is easy to access uncensored newgroups lists from larger ISPs and high speed connections.

[note: list deleted. -manhattan]  
There’s alot of perversion out there and sadly, there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of stemming the tide.

Mods, since this is pretty much a public list I’ve copied, I personally don’t feel I’m out of line, but I would not be offended if it were deleted, censored, or trunicated, nay, I would be completely and totally understanding.

I apologize if I offend.

–Tim  
[Edited by manhattan on 09-28-2000 at 08:17 AM]

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**Author:** ![Homer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df788c/32.png) [@Homer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homer)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2000, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-report-kiddie-porn/34398/26 "2000-09-28T07:59:17Z")

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Aw, hell. I just realized posting that list is liken to posting a list of child porn websites, and I _know_ the Straight Dope doesn’t allow that.

Chronos, Manny, please make the bad list go away.

–Tim

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**Author:** ![Running\_with\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@Running\_with\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Running_with_Scissors)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2000, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-report-kiddie-porn/34398/27 "2000-09-29T15:16:48Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> _Manny writes:_  
> Just out of curosity if your US based ISP carries a newsgroup along these lines isn’t that illegal too?

I wish I could give more information than this…This very same subject has been the object of discussion on Usenet and various other places more times than I can count.

I believe the general feeling (and I don’t know if there’s been a legal decision handed down, but I doubt it) is that if you (as an ISP) make no attempt to censor your newsfeed, or censor by name (for example, remove all alt.binary.\* groups), you’re in the clear, since you’re just acting as a carrier. If you censor individual groups, you may have a harder time explaining why you don’t carry alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.nasalsex but you **do** carry alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.sickpeopleabusingchildren (both groups fictional AFAIK).

Being prosecuted for having a child porn picture that someone posted to an inappropriate group is (to me) unthinkable, but I could imagine an overzealous FBI doing just that. I’ve heard reports of nudists being prosecuted for having (imagine!) naked pictures of their own children, by people who don’t know the difference between nudity and sex and/or pornography. I think you’ll find that actual child **porn** in the newsgroups is **relatively** rare (not unheard of, just rare) compared with child **nudity**.

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