<p>I would have to think his future is severley limited given societies view of sex offenders, especially when kids are involved.</p>
<p>There is, however, a difference between looking at child pornography and actually abusing a child. The person doing the former does not necessarily do the latter.</p>
<p>And yes, I agree that viewing pornography is in a sense abusing the child, but it’s not directly abusing the child.</p>
<p>Yes, it is, they are creating the market for it.</p>
<p>I don’t see how you can make the market argument about material that was obtained without paying for it. The moral argument is much stronger, in my opinion. Regardless, I’d feel better if the person arrested was the actual abuser.</p>
<p>No one has stated that he wasn’t paying for it.</p>
<p>I’m not paying for this website, but I am creating a demand for it.</p>
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swimscatmom - I completely agree with you. I hope I didn’t convey the message that I feel sorry for him and that it is somehow excusable. It is not. I absolutely abhor child pornography.<br>
As far as her remaining in touch with him - I don’t know. I think it’s easy to say that you would not be around someone like this, until it happens to be someone that you know well or someone you love. They never ‘dated’ but had a very close platonic friendship for a very long time. He is a big part of nearly every college memory she has. How do you erase that?
She is an adult and I won’t give her advice on their friendship. </p>
<p>ek - he is not in MO.
mantori - my apologies. It was a while ago we looked it up. I think it must have been the first on 15-30 years plus additional charges. i don’t know because nothing has been made public.</p>
<p>My apologies for using “caught up in” - like this was not his fault. My daughter asked him what happened and why he did it and he really didn’t have an answer. He was depressed (clinically) at the time. I don’t know much about the psychology of a sex offender. I do feel that some think it’s “harmless” since the contact is not direct - I vehemently disagree with this notion.
I don’t know it is possible to rehabilitate or how one would know if someone was rehabilitated.
More and more men are being caught and I don’t know what happens to them after they serve their time.</p>
<p>You can have sympathy for a person who has done wrong without excusing their wrong doing. </p>
<p>I hope your daughter’s friend can find his way back.</p>
<p>Wasn’t there a teacher whose career was ruined because she brought up a website in front of her class and it happened to be (without her knowledge) a porn site? Apparently some computer virus forced this to open up?</p>
<p>I know I’ve googled images for work and wound up inadvertently clicking on sites that had stuff I didn’t want to see. I had to google “Asian girl” once for a project for a client in China and … well, just never do that, ok? Just a bad idea!</p>
<p>An employee of mine was looking online for soccer nets for his son’s team and asked me where I thought he could find one. I suggested Dick’s Sporting Goods (a big chain east of the Mississippi, not sure about elsewhere).</p>
<p>He started typing and said, “So…I guess I’ll just try Dick’s dot com…”</p>
<p>I said, “NO! Don’t type that! Just Google it.”</p>
<p>I had this terrible vision of Human Resources demanding to know how my employees were using the Internet. We had a good laugh about that.</p>
<p>I have great sadness for this tragedy you write about here. First, the “young man” probably didn’t have any clue that looking at something on the internet could be such a life-turning event. He probably went on as a distraction and got caught up in it. The sad part is the gov. has particular sites that, when someone clicks on them, begins the federal tracking system. Then, the gov. “watches” for awhile before ensnaring the guy. What’s totally wrong is that the US government doesn’t do anything but arrest the guy. They don’t try to shut down the sites.</p>
<p>It is not illegal in the foreign countries where it is made, usually in Russia. In fact, they’re probably laughing at all of us Americans who lock up such “criminals”.</p>
<p>The charges are determined by the number of sites the guy had on his computer (possession) and the ages of the victims. They also add “time” because the site he found these photos on was a shared network, like…(I forget the name. Kazaa? oh no, it’s called LimeWire). Because it’s a shared network, meaning anyone who possesses the material is also a vehicle for others to get it. So, he was probably charged for distribution. [Side note: this guy probably did not actively distribute anything, but because he used LimeWire, the government doubles his prison time under a “distribution” charge. LimeWire is free, BTW.]</p>
<p>Now, don’t get wrong. I am a 2nd grade teacher, and obviously aghast that anyone would look at this stuff. I feel total sympathy for the victims, who hopefully got psychological help. But they aren’t the only victims: these men are ruined. I am appalled that we lock up these guys for such a non-violent crime; but it is our own fault. These laws were approved by Congress and we encouraged our senators to approve it. But, take note. The president of the organization of “Exploited Children” describes the men’s behavior as similar to someone watching a car crash. I ask you this: how much prison time should we give someone for watching a car crash? What if it’s a movie of a car crash?</p>
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Thank you for this. This is a tragedy not only for all victims of child porn but for this young man.<br>
I know him but have never met his parents. I can’t imagine the great pain they and his siblings must be enduring. I do know they are very nice people who did a great job of raising their children. I am sure they are at a complete loss. I am also sad for my daughter because she feels great sadness since she has, in many ways, lost a great friend. Even if they remain in contact, their friendship will obviously never be the same.
He did some very bad things but he will probably live for at least 50 more years after prison. I don’t know how that will play out.
I really urge all parents to not shy away from this when talking to their kids.</p>
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<p>lacking an updated definition( or a way around loopholes) for internet distributed child pornography is not the same as being legal. ( or moral)</p>
<p>[Philippines</a> battles child pornography](<a href=“http://www.upiasia.com/Society_Culture/2009/06/29/philippines_battles_child_pornography/8690/]Philippines”>http://www.upiasia.com/Society_Culture/2009/06/29/philippines_battles_child_pornography/8690/)</p>
<p>[Part</a> One: Russia and U.S. are bound in the illegal cyber-trafficking of child pornography](<a href=“http://www.buffalonews.com/339/story/182863.html]Part”>http://www.buffalonews.com/339/story/182863.html)</p>
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<p>Reading that an elementary school teacher is excusing a man who is sexually stimulated by child porn makes me ill.</p>
<p>I am appalled that we lock up these guys for such a non-violent crime; but it is our own fault.</p>
<p>Abuse of children is not a non violent crime .</p>
<p>Read this young womans story and see if you still have sympathy for those who are sorry they were caught
[Victim</a> of child porn seeks damages from viewers](<a href=“http://hamptonroads.com.nyud.net/2009/10/victim-child-porn-seeks-damages-viewers]Victim”>http://hamptonroads.com.nyud.net/2009/10/victim-child-porn-seeks-damages-viewers)</p>
<p>A good reason to avoid peer-to-peer file sharing networks is that you never really know what you’re getting. In mild cases, what you think is Madonna might turn out to be Britney Spears. In severe cases, what you think is Top Gun might be porn of the worst kind. I doubt this happens very often, but the fact that it could happen, and that you wouldn’t know until you had downloaded and opened the file, is pretty scary.</p>
<p>Child porn laws, drug laws, all of this is stupid crap.</p>
<p>Although I know nothing about the case of course, I doubt he was convicted simply because some child porn inadvertently showed up on his computer that law enforcement just happened to check (although maybe that’s what happened). Assuming he’s guilty of enough offenses to net him the 8 year sentence, if he were a friend/acquaintance of one of my daughters I would very strongly advise my daughter to cease any contact with the guy - not text him, email him, or see him. There’s something basically wrong with anyone who would involve themselves in child porn or other similarly illegal activities no matter how nice of a person they might seem on the surface. Who knows what else is lurking there but this sounds to me like enough giant red flags waving as to avoid the person from here on out. If your daughter plans to continue to contact him, which she shouldn’t, please warn her to be very careful because there is in fact likely something very wrong with this guy and in areas like this it’s better to overreact than underreact.</p>
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<p>Obviously you trust the government too much. Prosecutors will do ANYTHING, up to and including bribing a judge, to put you in prison. Overcharging is a part of their trick. Whether you’re guilty or not is irrelevant. They get promoted for convictions, not finding justice. They’re incentivized to lock you up, period, guilty or not. Given how much the government systematically abuses its powers (every second of its existence) I’m not willing to give any benefit of the doubt.</p>
<p>I’m 100% sure that’s what happened, I’m 100% sure the cops blew it out of proportions, I’m even MORE sure the prosecutors blew it even further out of proportion, and they used every trick they had to enflame any gullible grand jury that couldn’t get out of jury duty. Government is always guilty until proven otherwise. Period. If it’s so bad it needs to be made illegal, shut the bloody sites down, don’t lock up the people looking at it.</p>
<p>“It’s better to overreact than underreact.”</p>
<p>That’s the mentality that got this country embroiled in the Iraq fiasco too. And the war on drugs fiasco.</p>
<p>I am not a fan of child pornography but it seems to me that if all the guy was doing was buying and looking at child porn, 8 years in federal prison is overkill. If he had a clean record and simply made a mistake, a much shorter sentence would be appropriate. </p>
<p>Our society is deathly afraid of sicko child molesters (with good reason). Unfortunately, that fear means we assume that anyone watching child porn is also a child molester when in fact he may just like to look at child porn but would not otherwise act on it. I would rather see a shorter sentence and longer treatment and monitoring than an 8 years of taxpayer funded housing.</p>
<p>Thanks Emerald for your response to my post and to your research. I read the article from Buffalo Times and it said, “Here in Russia, where possessing child pornography is legal…” Even if creating p*** is illegal, it is legal to possess it. That’s where most of this comes from.</p>
<p>Then you said you can’t believe that I can forgive someone --who looked at pictures-- for making a mistake. I never said I could forgive someone for ever touching a child. There is a HUGE difference. Truth is, I wish our government would simply destroy all access to such sites, so this issue isn’t even possible. We could, but don’t. Somehow, those in charge of these decisions claim they’d prefer to lure and snag the criminals than simply removing all access. But, wouldn’t it be far better to get these young men a second chance than to see a college-educated young adult face 8 years in prison plus a lifetime of ruin?</p>
<p>The charge, I know, is called a violent crime. I struggle with that. I’m barely touching these computer keys. How is that violent? That is exactly why these guys get arrested, BTW. They are not aware, I’m sure, that looking at a photo is considered violent, since they’re probably in the quiet and isolation of their room.</p>
<p>Finally, I do have sympathy for the children. I’m sure their story is terrible. (The article you posted isn’t accessible on my computer!) It’s just I have sympathy for the 20-something year old too. I’m sure prison is terrible too.</p>
<p>Futurenyustudent, you would feel very differently if it was a child your life (niece, nephew, neighbor, your own child) who was abused in order to make this trash. I don’t wish bad things on anyone, but you sound like someone who needs to be victimized by a few crimes (I’m okay if they are just property crimes!) where you would want the goverment to enforce and prosecute the offenders. Might give you a little more empathy…</p>
<p>A mistake is something that happens once- if it happens more than once and if we involve others by our actions- it is not a " mistake" it is something we consciously did.</p>
<p>Part of growing up is taking responsibility for our actions , whether we are forced to do so with legal measures or whether we do so on our own.</p>
<p>Just because something has a legal loophole in another country- doesn’t mean it is legal in your own.</p>
<p>Sounds like it is being argued that " foreign children" are not equally as harmed as " American" children are. 
<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/19/us/19sex.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/19/us/19sex.html</a>
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