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Fighting Porn Vs. Ruining Innocent Lives

After news of the conviction of a substitute teacher for endangering minors — because porn popups, possibly initiated by adware, had appeared on her computer during class — comes the even sadder story of 16-year-old Matt Bandy. His family's life was turned upside-down when he was charged in Arizona with possession of child pornography, even though the family computer was riddled with spyware and Trojans. After the intervention of ABC's 20/20, Matt finally was allowed to plead to a lesser charge (namely, sharing a Playboy magazine with friends) and just barely escaped being labeled a sex offender for the rest of his life.

6 of 815 comments (clear)

  1. they still dont see it by FudRucker · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    popups, spyware, viruses, trojans & worms are all part of the microsoft windows experience...

    they blame everything but the vulnerable system that propagate this kludge...

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    Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
  2. This has affirmed my aversion to windows by greg_barton · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Are my kids EVER going to use windows?

    Hell. No.

    I'm not going to allow such uncontrolled events as described in the post to happen, if I can help it. The only way I can help it is to have an OS running in my home that can be secured. That means MacOS or Linux. That and a hefty firewall. :)

  3. Re:your country is fucked by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Pretty insightful to insult the US for no reason. Because it's unthinkable that any European nation has any obsolete "Blue Laws" which can be used to prosecute people like in this case.

  4. Re:your country is fucked by BgJonson79 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Yeah, but none of the other countries count. Most are third world nations and the one that's not still has a monarch as head of state.

    Living in Oz must mean you're a criminal, right? I mean, is it still a requirement?

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    There are four boxes used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order.

  5. I'm kinda divided on the subject by Opportunist · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    On one hand, I find it insane to charge someone with something they could not even possibly do. I'm actually waiting for hacking charges against some complete computer illiterate 'cause his computer was used as a relay.

    On the other hand I'm kinda 'happy' that the attitude of "aw heck, let's click on everything, what bad can happen" backfires on the people doing it.

    Computers are no toys, and the internet is an unsafe place. If you consider everyone but your REAL friends your enemy, you're not far off. Nobody makes you rich fast, nobody sends you a few billions of some late president's wife 'cause you're such a trustworthy person, nobody gives you anything for free.

    Yes, I know, this is unpleasant news. Yes, everyone started at some point. But I do have zero sympathy with people who don't even want to inform themselves of the dangers that wait for them and are incredibly surprised when the sh.t hits the fan. It's not like trojans, viruses and mailworms are such novel ideas and so incredibly secret that nobody's heard about them yet. The info is there, and it's about time people read and use it!

    "But I just want to use my computer to surf and mail" is no excuse for behaviour that would label you unfit to live if you exhibited it outside of the net. If you let some stranger into your home and let him peruse your belongings, you'd be a moron. And if you do it with your net and some app, you're one, too.

    Get a clue or get out of the 'net. I can't stomach it anymore. If people behaved in traffic like they do on the net, the average news wouldn't even mention a pileup anymore, it would be the everyday occurance.

    So, now label me troll and let's go on with our lives.

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    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  6. Re:your country is fucked by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    And in that country, one cannot say ANYTHING about WW2 or Nazis.

    Wow, if sexual laws suck in one country, freedom of speech sucks in the other.

    I like Sealand... I might try for citizenship considering how out-to-lunch Euros and USians are.

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