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Combating Child Pornography

Started by Runic, July 19, 2013, 11:54:22 AM

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Deaks

Child Pornography is an extremely serious, and growing, issue, which the Team, and I'm sure the whole community, takes very seriously.  Over the last few weeks, we have been working with the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, and have registered ourselves with this amazing agency.

What this means, for you, is simple. If you find a site that promotes, indulges or in anyway encourages this unpleasant and illegal activity, we ask that you report it to the "Cyber Tip" Line. Even if you do not live in the USA, many sites based elsewhere are hosted in the states and it is better to report these horrific sites, than not.

To report such a site, simply go to the site linked below, click on the red button that says "Make a Cybertipline Report", and fill out the fields, giving as much information as you can:

http://www.missingkids.com/cybertipline/

Our staff have been asked to be extra vigilant, when providing support, and we will also be reporting any suspected sites to the agency. Unfortunately, the nature of open source prohibits us from adding requirements when people download the software, and, even on such forms, people can and will lie.  So, this, for us, is the next best thing and one that we hope that the community will help us combat.

We must take action to prevent this activity, and we would like thank everyone who helps in this regard.
~~~~
Former SMF Project Manager
Former SMF Customizer

"For as lang as hunner o us is in life, in nae wey
will we thole the Soothron tae owergang us. In truth it isna for glory, or wealth, or
honours that we fecht, but for freedom alane, that nae honest cheil gies up but wi life
itsel."

Looking

Agreed. Down with the pedophiles.

kat

Yay! @ us!

This crap rather hit home, a while back.

A family down the hill, from us, suddenly vanished, a few weeks back.

Turned out they fled, when it got out that the sixteen year old son had been having sex with his sister...

...who's eight!

As you can imagine, people have been somewhat stunned.

MrPhil

Quote from: Runic on July 19, 2013, 11:54:22 AM
Our staff have been asked to be extra vigilant, when providing support, and we will also be reporting any suspected sites to the agency. Unfortunately, the nature of open source prohibits us from adding requirements when people download the software, and, even on such forms, people can and will lie.  So, this, for us, is the next best thing and one that we hope that the community will help us combat.

Certainly a laudable goal, and I won't quarrel with it, but Simple Machines and its members needs to be careful about this. We don't want to give the impression that we're becoming deeply involved with the authorities (especially after the NSA revelations), or that SM is in any way legally responsible for the content of SMF sites other than this one (to whatever extent it is). Some people seem to be of the impression that SM runs all SMF-using sites, and SM needs to do more (what?) to make it clear it doesn't. Certainly any illegal material found on this site should be reported to the proper authorities and removed/hidden as they request.

The US has been fond of witch hunts since the early 17th century. All too often though, pedophilia/child porn accusations have turned out to be way overblown, causing much misery to innocent people. Who can forget the McMartin Preschool scandal, where a mentally unbalanced mother accused the school of all sorts of crimes (including flying children to the far side of the Moon on witches' brooms for group sex)? The owners were actually arrested, and a mob torched the school (or their homes, I don't remember which). I remember a case where a family sent some film to a processor (the local Wal-mart?) and there were pictures in there of Dad giving his infant daughter a bath. Nothing evil, the kind of cute pictures every family has dozens of. The store reported them to the police and they were arrested on child porn charges. It happens. Be very careful about reporting something (this site, your site, a third-party site) unless it's very clear and obvious what's going on. The police are always a bit too enthusiastic about being heroes for taking down someone who would have no supporters among the public.

SM is going to have to have an answer ready when authorities come to them asking for help in reading Personal Messages and such exchanged between members. Even though it's Open Source, a local Police Department probably doesn't have the cyber skills to find the requested material, at least in a way that would pass muster in court as properly gathered evidence. Are you ready to assist in this, even if there is no search warrant at that point (it's a fishing expedition)? How about requests to crack passwords? How about requests to impersonate another member in a sting operation? It will happen. It's one thing to do this on your own system, but aid in snooping a third party's site? These issues are bound to come up, so think about it and be prepared with a policy.

There's nastiness on both sides of this issue. One side is unarguably bad, but the other isn't always shining white.

CountryLady

What an important decision the team has made. Way to GO~!

There is no such thing as ignoring this depraved practice of sex abuse, especially involving children. Any time we observe this criminal activity and choose to take NO action to stop it, we become part of the abuse. We are either part of the problem, or part of the solution.

Regarding MrPhil's post... He brings up some valid points, but let's remember that there are MANY sides to most issues and reported concerns are not always found valid. Those who report concerns aren't lawyers, law enforcement officials, judge, jury or warden and shouldn't carry the burden of those roles. I would rather ask someone who has the knowledge and the tools for the discovery of crimes to check out something that may be questionable than for anyone to turn a blind eye to this kind of perverted abuse.

Thank you Runic & SMF Team for choosing to publicize the link for reporting concerns about this type of abuse.

All the best,
...CL

GravuTrad

On a toujours besoin d'un plus petit que soi! (Petit!Petit!)


Think about Search function before posting.
Pensez à la fonction Recherche avant de poster.

MrPhil

While certainly no one should ignore such abuse of children, all I'm saying is that one should tread carefully. I would want to be very certain there's something awful going on, before reporting it to the authorities. Not only could I end up ruining someone's life (like the two examples I gave) by reporting such things on slim evidence, but potentially the wrongly accused could bite back with a massive lawsuit against me. You may be comfortable running to the authorities on just a whiff of scandal, but I'm not, and would want to be quite certain I could defend my actions should it turn out my suspicions were wrong (i.e., my reporting the suspected abuse was a reasonable and defensible thing to do, even if it turned out I was completely wrong). And remember, once you tell the police about suspected abuse, they'll make life hell for the suspects until the matter is thoroughly investigated and dropped. Let's not even talk about innocent people tried, convicted, and executed in the popular press.

Yes, sexual exploitation of children is a horrible thing. But let's be careful not to commit even more horrible crimes in our zeal to stamp it out. If you should stumble across pictures, etc. in the legal and reasonable exercise of your administrative powers (or they are reported to you), you have to ask yourself if there is a reasonable explanation that doesn't involve a criminal act (is that a man sexually abusing a child, or could it be a family snapshot of a father giving his daughter a bath?). If there isn't, it might be reasonable then to report the member(s) to the police.

LiroyvH

#7
Working together with the authorities or private organizations for something like this is nothing bad. And in case you worry: no (even potential) personal details we might ever have of anyone would be given without a warrant. We extremely value the privacy of our users!


This post is intended not so much to say that we will constantly be on a hotline with this organization but to note that we do have a easy way to report things there should we notice it and the post is actually more to encourage users to report it to the proper authorities/organizations rather than to us (this happens a lot) and inform the users on where they should report it so something can be done quickly.
  We can't do anything about it other than report it to the same agencies/organizations the users should report it to. Reporting it directly to them is much better than to us, but if we DO get a report: we are now registered with them so we can forward it to them without any hassle. :)
We're merely stating that if we *do* get a report, we know where it can go and will try to do our best to forward it and can do it easily thanks to our registration, but it's crucial that users attempt to inform agencies/organizations like this on their own first.

I agree MrPhil on some points, but please keep in mind that reporting *potential* child abuse to this organization doesn't mean it's destroying someones life.
Better safe than sorry, and such agencies will thoroughly investigate before taking any action or even filing a police report. :)
Merely reporting it is not destroying anyones life if it turns out it's all legal and wrongly mistaken for child abuse/pornography.
You can better make one report about website content you find that doesn't turn out to be anything bad than to not file any because you're not sure and then it turns out children are being abused and it could go on longer because it wasn't reported...
Keep in mind that when reporting it to this organization: it will be private, not public, and all they will do is investigate. And if it turns out to be illegal content: *they* will ensure the proper authorities are informed and put on to the case...
Remember: all you are reporting is a link to a website where you think, or perhaps even are sure, you are seeing child abuse. This organization will pick it up, verify it and if needed: forward to the proper authorities. :)

So if you make a report: it will simply be investigated, privately in a closed organization. It's not like you're telling the neighbors or a newspaper that someone is a child molester while he is completely innocent; it can absolutely not be compared to that. :) In fact, you don't even directly accuse someone of anything, you're just reporting your suspicion if you think you potentially encountered child abuse/pornography.
So basically your bath example: this agency/organization is operating to actually identify whether it is or is not abusive. If YOU have to be the judge, that might be very hard. It's **NOT** the same as filing a police report!! That's a direct accusation if you file a police report and I fully agree with you that you have to be 1000% sure before ever doing that and accusing someone of committing such crimes... That can indeed destroy someones life, even if only for the shame. This is really nothing compared to that, please read their info. :) These people can be used if you see a, or a lot of, picture(s) and you have a suspicion, but you're not sure. They will investigate it. :) And they're highly skilled in doing that.

And indeed, we are not responsible for any website using our software.

I'm not sure how the NSA got dragged in to this, but it's nothing like that. :)
It's merely being pointed out that we have registered with this great organization just in case we need it and to inform members what they should do if they see, or highly suspect, child abuse on a website.
And mind you... Not only websites using our software! :)
((U + C + I)x(10 − S)) / 20xAx1 / (1 − sin(F / 10))
President/CEO of Simple Machines - Server Manager
Please do not PM for support - anything else is usually OK.

LiroyvH

Topic cleaned up, RR trolling moved to Chit Chat.
Please guys, do not respond to this thread if you don't know what it is that this organization does/tries to do.

Thank you. :)
((U + C + I)x(10 − S)) / 20xAx1 / (1 − sin(F / 10))
President/CEO of Simple Machines - Server Manager
Please do not PM for support - anything else is usually OK.

braddd

Ill try my best to stop this horrible nature.

bacanzito

the best are the αиσиyмσυร who fought with child pornography deep web

Skhilled

As a father of 3, I thank you for taking a stand against this. :)

choloman05

Quote from: MrPhil on July 19, 2013, 01:14:43 PM
Quote from: Runic on July 19, 2013, 11:54:22 AM
Our staff have been asked to be extra vigilant, when providing support, and we will also be reporting any suspected sites to the agency. Unfortunately, the nature of open source prohibits us from adding requirements when people download the software, and, even on such forms, people can and will lie.  So, this, for us, is the next best thing and one that we hope that the community will help us combat.

Certainly a laudable goal, and I won't quarrel with it, but Simple Machines and its members needs to be careful about this. We don't want to give the impression that we're becoming deeply involved with the authorities (especially after the NSA revelations), or that SM is in any way legally responsible for the content of SMF sites other than this one (to whatever extent it is). Some people seem to be of the impression that SM runs all SMF-using sites, and SM needs to do more (what?) to make it clear it doesn't. Certainly any illegal material found on this site should be reported to the proper authorities and removed/hidden as they request.

The US has been fond of witch hunts since the early 17th century. All too often though, pedophilia/child porn accusations have turned out to be way overblown, causing much misery to innocent people. Who can forget the McMartin Preschool scandal, where a mentally unbalanced mother accused the school of all sorts of crimes (including flying children to the far side of the Moon on witches' brooms for group sex)? The owners were actually arrested, and a mob torched the school (or their homes, I don't remember which). I remember a case where a family sent some film to a processor (the local Wal-mart?) and there were pictures in there of Dad giving his infant daughter a bath. Nothing evil, the kind of cute pictures every family has dozens of. The store reported them to the police and they were arrested on child porn charges. It happens. Be very careful about reporting something (this site, your site, a third-party site) unless it's very clear and obvious what's going on. The police are always a bit too enthusiastic about being heroes for taking down someone who would have no supporters among the public.

SM is going to have to have an answer ready when authorities come to them asking for help in reading Personal Messages and such exchanged between members. Even though it's Open Source, a local Police Department probably doesn't have the cyber skills to find the requested material, at least in a way that would pass muster in court as properly gathered evidence. Are you ready to assist in this, even if there is no search warrant at that point (it's a fishing expedition)? How about requests to crack passwords? How about requests to impersonate another member in a sting operation? It will happen. It's one thing to do this on your own system, but aid in snooping a third party's site? These issues are bound to come up, so think about it and be prepared with a policy.

There's nastiness on both sides of this issue. One side is unarguably bad, but the other isn't always shining white.

Agreed. I also think it's terrible that CP even exists, but I also found this announcement of a particular relationship with a government agency to be kind of weird and out of place.

French

What could be the role of hosting providers reselling those criminal website containing child abuse............it should be legal for hosting providers to close such a site by law


LiroyvH

It is legal for them to close it.
In fact, it's a legal obligation. And they have to collect data on who owns it, who paid for it, etc.

The only problem is: they need to know it's in their network first.
That's why abuse reports being sent to the providers are very important! :)
((U + C + I)x(10 − S)) / 20xAx1 / (1 − sin(F / 10))
President/CEO of Simple Machines - Server Manager
Please do not PM for support - anything else is usually OK.

DoktorThomas™

The disdain published here maybe laudable, however, there are serious implications when individuals take on the practices of police. How so? Well the Internet is world wide. Therein lies a danger, a trap for the unwary and unknowing.  That which may be criminal in Wisconsin, USA may or may not be considered child pornography in the Netherlands or Pakistan. Not so you think. Parents who have taken the classic picture of their child in her/his first bath or on a blanket (nude in both cases)  have been prosecuted (wrongly, of course, but still convicted) within the militant state of Wisconsin for possession of such child pornography. There it is a rather serious crime that comes with a life long listing as a child abuser. Is this the devious action you are seeking to crush?

As a reasonable person I find that result is rather draconian. Yet, zealous thought dumb police agencies all over the planet over-react to certain button words: sex, pornography, escort, slept and a myriad of other innocent until proven otherwise terms. With the power of the state behind them, they are gangbusters at the drop of a report however flimsy often without any validation or corroboration.

Chatting with a minor online, even if you are unaware of the true age, can be prosecutable without complaint by the non-adult even if she/he has slept with their entire high school population. Jurisdictional rules regarding child enticement are just as draconian, unforgiving and virulently prosecuted without regard to commonsense. In some places having your scared child no longer of "tender years" (whatever that vague term means) sleep with you is a felony. Ever done that? Or shared a tent while camping? Glass houses and stones.

It is a wise move then that child pornography enforcement be left to professionals, not geeks and emotional surfing citizens. If you find it, or any other commercial practices such as GM asking for taxpayer money and repaying it at pennies on the dollar, then you should do that, only that, that is within your power: simply do not support it and rebuff those you know who do. Anything more is most likely going to get you involved in a legal quagmire. For example, in order for you to see an item long enough to be able to identify it as child pornography makes you guilty of use and possession; some jurisdictions have no exceptions to the law, except for police officers who notoriously hold huge private collections.... So there can be serious revelations in even reporting ... Rest assured, police and federal authorities are not your friends when suspicion is high. ©2013


kat

Yes, various people have been ridiculously over-zealous, about this stuff.

Authorities have been alerted, here, to photos of people's own children, playing, nude, in a paddling-pool. Fortunately, our authorities are more sensible than those of Wisconsin. Different cultures have different values.

But, child pr0n is child pr0n. If we find it and report it, the authorities in the country where it's found, will take their appropriate action.

I agree that it's sad, the way things have gone. When I was a kid, a few of us used to hang-out at an old man's home, which was on our way home. He had "peg" legs, coz he'd had the shot off, during the second world war. He used to give us lemonade and stuff, whilst we climbed his tree and generally played about. We all loved that old guy, as did all of his neighbours.

But, if that kind of thing was being done, now, you can just imagine what the "Wagging tongues" would be saying.

It's VERY sad, that that innocence has been lost. I agree, that in too many cases, people have put two and two together and come-up with five million.

Would I rather that one person get wrongly accused, than one child suffers abuse? Difficult one. My guts say "Yes". But, of course, that one person could be me... I tend to have a great rapport with young kids and have been known to play, with them, quite a bit. Not, always, with their parents around. But, there's always been a period, beforehand, where the parent HAVE been involved and a certain level of trust has been attained.

Unfortunately, it's a sad, old world, out there.


I have to say that I find it somewhat odd that you registered with this site, just to post that, though. Perhaps, even, a bit disconcerted.

Kindred

it also should be noted that - whatever you seem to believe, SMF is not acting "as police" in any way shape or form.

SMF frequently gets reports from users that X site has images of my daughter... or variations on that.
Previously, there as not much we could do about it.
Now, we have an open channel to forward the report on to the appropriate agency for investigation.

That is THE ONLY THING that this announcement means.
We are not doing investigations
We are not doing enforcement
Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

sangham.net

* Johann B feels the need to give a compliment to the increasing of feeling responsible. Sadhu!

To help MrPhil a little out of what he tries to say is that, the last responsibility could also not be handed over to any authority but will be always at least in you own sphere, even through (in some countries for example) you would have the explicit duties to report violations to the authority. 

There are some points in which you lastly damage others but mostly at least your self (aside of any legal usual). So a quarantine that one does it wrong is:

Without understanding and without having proved, he/she praises whom should be rebuked;
without understanding and without having proved, he/she rebukes whom should be praised.
Without understanding and without having proved, he/she approves what should be disapproved;
Without understanding and without having proved, he/she disapproves what should be approved.


This is one important point, that could come back to you. Whether it is overreaction or ignoring, both have effects. So it is very good to stay somehow soberly, even if heard to bear, but on facts. Driven by emotions you can be sure to act with backwards.

And another point is, that you need to take care if you do not act out of a traumatic experience of your self. If you are traumatized, it is really better if you stay away for all of this stuff, till you have solved the problem within your self. Otherwise you can be sure that you will be nothing but a hysterical Don Quixote and even go trough hell for your imaginations. So don't project your own movies on others.

At least, on a very fine level, not on a raw (be careful!)

"Friends, these two are fools. Which two? The one who takes up a burden that hasn't fallen to him, and the one who doesn't take up a burden that has. These two are fools."

Finally but not unimportant, people tend to seek for bad people to have a possibility to hide their their own disability and own faults. "If there is a bad, I could be a good..."

So much more effective and much more helpful in any case is when you watch out your self, seriously. As long as you are not a saint, you are capable to make any fault for your self. That is what you should not forget.

So there is a very good sample, the sample of a Bamboo Acrobat and his assistant, the Lady Frighting Pan:

Once upon a time, friends,
a bamboo acrobat, setting himself upon his bamboo pole,
addressed his assistant Medakathalika:
"Come you, my dear Medakathalika,
and climbing up the bamboo pole,
stand upon my shoulders."
"Okay, master" the assistant Medakathalika replied to the bamboo acrobat;
and climbing up the bamboo pole
she stood on the master's shoulders.

So then the bamboo acrobat said this to his assistant Medakathalika:
"You look after me, my dear Medakathalika,
and I'll look after you.
Thus with us looking after one another,
guarding one another,
we'll show off our craft, receive some payment,
and safely climb down the bamboo pole."

This being said, the assistant Medakathalika said this to the bamboo acrobat:
"That will not do at all, master!
You look after yourself, master,
and I will look after myself.
Thus with each of us looking after ourselves,
guarding ourselves, we'll show off our craft,
receive some payment, and safely climb down from the bamboo pole.
That's the right way to do it!"


Which means:

Just like the assistant Medakathalika said to her master:
"I will look after myself," so should you, friends, practice the establishment of mindfulness.
You should (also) practice the establishment of mindfulness (by saying) "I will look after others."

Looking after oneself, one looks after others.
Looking after others, one looks after oneself.

And how does one look after others by looking after oneself? By practicing (mindfulness), by developing (it), by doing (it) a lot. And how does one look after oneself by looking after others?

By patience, by non-harming, by loving kindness, by caring (for others).

(Thus) looking after oneself, one looks after others;
and looking after others, one looks after oneself.


So one thing is that we, if we are really not perfect our self, tend to play the leader of the mob ruler (see links in the signature, the tendency of believers and those who like to manipulate people with believes) and the other thing is, that we are mostly very little real responsible in regard of our own feelings and addiction.

Sexual desire is like a drug addiction. Some of those drug uses are agreed by a certain society, some are not. While a consuming of drugs needs a dealer and a costumer, some business are on agreement, and some are simply violent. But at least it all comes down to be addicted. Once you are strong addicted and cut of your supply, it could be easily happen, that you will overstep a common agreed level. So it is very good, to look after the own addiction and even try to get rid of it rather to seek for common agreement on this or that common addiction.

People today are very addicted on sexuality, and very ever the supply gets down, or the satisfaction calls after a even higher satisfaction, things are growing out worse.

So there are "Five faultless gifts" you could give every being and will help as effective an honest as you can:

"There are these five gifts, five great gifts — original, long-standing, traditional, ancient, unadulterated, unadulterated from the beginning — that are not open to suspicion, will never be open to suspicion, and are unfaulted by knowledgeable contemplatives & brahmans. Which five?

"There is the case where a disciple of the noble ones, abandoning the taking of life, abstains from taking life. In doing so, he gives freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, freedom from oppression to limitless numbers of beings. In giving freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, freedom from oppression to limitless numbers of beings, he gains a share in limitless freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, and freedom from oppression. This is the first gift, the first great gift — original, long-standing, traditional, ancient, unadulterated, unadulterated from the beginning — that is not open to suspicion, will never be open to suspicion, and is unfaulted by knowledgeable contemplatives & brahmans...

"Furthermore, abandoning taking what is not given (stealing), the disciple of the noble ones abstains from taking what is not given. In doing so, he gives freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, freedom from oppression to limitless numbers of beings.....

"Furthermore, abandoning illicit sex, the disciple of the noble ones abstains from illicit sex. In doing so, he gives freedom...

"Furthermore, abandoning lying, the disciple of the noble ones abstains from lying. In doing so, he gives freedom from danger, freedom...

"Furthermore, abandoning the use of intoxicants, the disciple of the noble ones abstains from taking intoxicants. In doing so, he gives freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, freedom from oppression to limitless numbers of beings. In giving freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, freedom from oppression to limitless numbers of beings, he gains a share in limitless freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, and freedom from oppression. This is the fifth gift, the fifth great gift — original, long-standing, traditional, ancient, unadulterated, unadulterated from the beginning — that is not open to suspicion, will never be open to suspicion, and is unfaulted by knowledgeable contemplatives & brahmans. And this is the eighth reward of merit, reward of skillfulness, nourishment of happiness, celestial, resulting in happiness, leading to heaven, leading to what is desirable, pleasurable, & appealing; to welfare & to happiness."


And there are rewards:

"Five blessings"

"Five blessings, householders, accrue to the righteous person through his practice of virtue: great increase of wealth through his diligence; a favorable reputation; a confident deportment, without timidity, in every society, be it that of nobles, brahmans, householders, or ascetics; a serene death; and, at the breaking up of the body after death, rebirth in a happy state, in a heavenly world."

And as it might be that you do not like to believe in something afterwards...

...his mind thus free from hostility, free from ill will, undefiled, & pure — acquires four assurances in the here-&-now:

"'If there is a world after death, if there is the fruit of actions rightly & wrongly done, then this is the basis by which, with the break-up of the body, after death, I will reappear in a good destination, the heavenly world.' This is the first assurance he acquires.

"'But if there is no world after death, if there is no fruit of actions rightly & wrongly done, then here in the present life I look after myself with ease — free from hostility, free from ill will, free from trouble.' This is the second assurance he acquires.

"'If evil is done through acting, still I have willed no evil for anyone. Having done no evil action, from where will suffering touch me?' This is the third assurance he acquires.

"'But if no evil is done through acting, then I can assume myself pure in both ways.' This is the fourth assurance he acquires.


Thanks for your attention and don't be afraid to do well. No need to shame of being a person of integrity, first and most important, for your self.




Deaks

dude please cut back on the poems, we arent all into literature :P
~~~~
Former SMF Project Manager
Former SMF Customizer

"For as lang as hunner o us is in life, in nae wey
will we thole the Soothron tae owergang us. In truth it isna for glory, or wealth, or
honours that we fecht, but for freedom alane, that nae honest cheil gies up but wi life
itsel."

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