<p>Nope, not me; nor any of my kids (thank goodness). My oldest has a very good friend from college who is going in a few weeks to a Federal Penitentary. They met during freshman orientation and were really good friends all through college.<br>
He had a good job, owned his own home and had a girlfriend when he was arrested for possession of child porn (among other charges).
He has been on house arrest at his parent’s house as the case proceeded and they plea bargained. He will serve 8 years, can earn time off for good behavior and will serve the last year or so at a half way house.
My d has been in touch since she found out - via another college friend who saw him on the news. She is going to visit him this weekend, it’s his birthday.
It is the saddest thing for her to see her good friend go down this path, have made these bad choices and now to pay the price. He has lost everything.<br>
He will be in his early 30’s when released, and educated man with a BA and MA and a registered sex offender.
What does the future hold?</p>
<p>What does the future hold?</p>
<p>It will be up to him-
he will have certainly lots of time to decide what he wants to do with his life - ( assuming he has some sort of therapy in prison and it is successful-)
Many people are still deciding what they want to do with their life when they are in their early 30’s ( or 40’s)</p>
<p>I hope he uses the time to get straightened out.</p>
<p>Well as a registered sex offender he will/may have trouble finding a place to live or someone to hire him. He had previously a professional job that required him to be around children. Obviously, that will not be available to him.
Who will hire a registered sex offender?</p>
<p>He comes from a “good” church-going family. He was a good student and all around nice guy. I don’t know what caused him to go down this path, surely he had to know the consequences. From what I can tell he is maturely facing them now.</p>
<p>Furthermore - I don’t know what advice to give my daughter on her visit. I don’t know anyone who ever went to prison. All his other friends and his girlfriend dropped him. I suspect she will maintain contact with him - they have known each other for over 8 years.</p>
<p>I’m curious about what the other charges were.</p>
<p>It may sound warped, but I really feel for some of the guys who get caught with child porn. The computer makes it way too easy to see and obtain child porn. In days gone by, a lot of people cared too much about their reputation to be seen in the type of places where you’d buy such stuff. Now, you can get it in the privacy of your own home and “no one” is the wiser (or so you think). Under past conditions (when it was harder to get), lots of these people would have never even SEEN child porn, so they wouldn’t have desired it. </p>
<p>There was an article in the local paper about a guy who was eventually acquitted of a child porn charge because it was determined that the porn was attached to a computer virus. He didn’t serve jail time but his reputation and personal finances were ruined.</p>
<p>Yep, that’s why I asked about the other charges. If the child porn charge was just incidental because they found an image on his computer while investigating, say, tax evasion, I’d think very differently about the guy than if the child porn charge was coupled with molestation, corrupting a minor, or something else that indicates the guy is really sick.</p>
<p>Oh I don’t know once they get you on a big one they tack on a bunch of others. There were federal and state charges. The state agreed to drop their charges since he plead out but he has to have good behavior etc. The plea also included a drop on distribution. He was not involved in creating it.
It was basically on the computer and he was involved somehow with foreign websites - hence the Federal charges. He hasn’t been able to say much because of the ongoing investigation his and others. Not a lot was made public. </p>
<p>This subject is so taboo that it is not discussed openly enough with our young adults. The computer is an open door and it is very easy to walk through it. There doesn’t appear to be anything "stereotypical’ about the perps and it could be your son or friend’s son next.
After this happened my youngest and her bf were over and we were discussing it. I gave him a good warning and told him to pass it along to his friends. He was genuinely under the impression that child pornography procured from a foreign website is not illegal.</p>
<p>since googling a few other child porn cases netted much lower than eight years in prison, I would also be curious as to the other charges and the circumstances involved.</p>
<p>We cross posted.
He admitted that he did it. Again I don’t know all the details but I believe there is/was a big ring he was a part of and got caught up in.</p>
<p>EK - he was charged federally. being found guilty was a min of 30 years - selling/buying.
[Child</a> Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS): Child Pornagraphy Statutes](<a href=“http://www.justice.gov/criminal/ceos/childporn_stats.html]Child”>http://www.justice.gov/criminal/ceos/childporn_stats.html)</p>
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<p>It’s hard to sympathize with this, of course, because child porn is no less wrong just because it originated overseas. That’s a bit like saying that I thought murder was okay as long as I didn’t get any blood on the floor.</p>
<p>Along the lines of what missypie said, what really bothers me is how easy it is to come across really wacked-out stuff on the Web without even trying. I shudder to think that someone could go to prison simply for being unlucky or careless. And child porn is exactly the kind of thing—a moral transgression that no one could support with any credibility—that tends to ensnare people in witch hunts.</p>
<p>Hence, I’d like to know what the other charges are, to make myself feel better that the guy deserves eight years. Then again, maybe he’s in Texas, where you can be executed for jaywalking.</p>
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<p>I don’t see that on the page you linked to. I see a minimum of 30 years for selling or buying children.</p>
<p>I do not have any sympathy for anyone who watches child porn. My father knew someone whose career was ruined for similar reasons and he felt sorry for the guy and said he had not done anything to a child. I disagreed completely - the reason these children are abused to make the porn is because of the market - that is the people who buy it and/or watch it. The people who watch it are are as guilty of, and responsible for, the abuse as the person actually committing the abuse in my opinion. My only sympathy here would be with the victim - the child. </p>
<p>I know I would not remain friends with someone like this. There are many things I find forgiveable, sexual abuse of a child is top of my unforgiveable list. Your daughter may want to consider whether this person is someone she will want around her children in the future.</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone would get such a sentence for accidently running across porn. I remember several years ago coming home and turning my computer on to find my home page was now a porn site (adult). I almost killed my son but he showed me how he had ended up on the site - he was googling for game cheat codes and it took him to this site that then hijacked my home page. Poor kid was frantic and did not know haow to get rid of it.</p>
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The saddest thing ever is the children who are destroyed by no choice of their own. The words I would use to describe the people responsible for those children’s destruction are probably not ones I could put on CC.</p>
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<p>That may be the smoking gun I was looking for. A “big ring” suggests a circle of people using the Internet to trade child porn, intentionally and fully aware of what they’re doing. Not some poor schmuck who clicks the wrong link and ends up seeing something he never wanted to see. If that’s the case, then I feel better about the eight years the guy got.</p>
<p>I see, yes selling images and video of children being sexually abused is much different than " accidentally" viewing it.</p>
<p>I don’t buy the " caught up" excuse. Was this the man in Columbia, Mo? That man could be released after completing a sexual offender program of four months.
[Child</a> porn charges net 8-year term - ColumbiaTribune.com](<a href=“http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2009/may/19/child-porn-charges-net-8-year-term-0519/]Child”>http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2009/may/19/child-porn-charges-net-8-year-term-0519/)</p>
<p>the reason these children are abused to make the porn is because of the market - that is the people who buy it and/or watch it. The people who watch it are are as guilty of, and responsible for the abuse, as the person actually committing the abuse in my opinion.</p>
<p>I completely agree ^</p>
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<p>I would say those kids in the pictures have lost more.</p>
<p>Reality television, among other things, is creating a culture in which viewing something despicable for entertainment is considered somehow not as bad as actually committing the despicable deed, which of course is hogwash.</p>
<p>I also want to add- your daughter shouldn’t beat herself up because she didn’t see this in him.
Heck Ann Rule ( police woman and author) worked side by side with Ted Bundy on a crisis hot line.</p>
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<p>This is alarming. I hope he did not hurt any children before he was arrested.</p>
<p>If it were my daughter who wanted to visit him, I would advise her to (and hope she would) keep her distance. Makers or viewers of child porn are not people I would want in my or my kids’ lives.</p>
<p>He had previously a professional job that required him to be around children</p>
<p>That alarms me- it is well known that pedophiles may place themselves in positions to " groom" victims.</p>