sniperwarrior92
New Member
- Jurisdiction
- Pennsylvania
Hello! I am a resident of Pennsylvania. I also happen to be in school for computer networking and have been instructed to report any and all crimes relating to child pornography to law enforcement should I ever encounter it. Sure enough I encountered it before I even had the chance to graduate.... I was working on a research paper regarding online anonymity when i discovered a program i had heard of before.... the 'tor' browser. Yes, I knew this program was shady but I downloaded it feeling I was more than competent enough to sort the legal from the illegal.
I quickly discovered a 'hidden wiki' service that featured links to many different sites within the dark net. I am (or thought i was) smart enough to steer clear of the obvious illegal content.... please spare me the trouble. However, when i saw a site called "magic kingdom" I had figured it had material relating to magic tricks... perhaps magicians tricks that were exposed. This sparked my interest so i clicked on the link... needless to say it was not what i expected. Instead it was a pedophilia forum that included a post that had an illegal image and a reply that requested more content be published from said thread poster. My obvious response was to close the browser... which quickly ended up with me reporting the incident to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
After some research I am now questioning whether I should have reported this incident in the first place. Several state laws across the US state that simply viewing child pornography (whether intentional or not) is illegal. I voluntarily reported this incident to the NCMEC but am now reeling from the thought that I could be prosecuted for accidentally accessing this website (no matter what my purpose).
I am wondering what the chances are of the NCMEC prosecuting me for coming forward with this information. Please advise.
I quickly discovered a 'hidden wiki' service that featured links to many different sites within the dark net. I am (or thought i was) smart enough to steer clear of the obvious illegal content.... please spare me the trouble. However, when i saw a site called "magic kingdom" I had figured it had material relating to magic tricks... perhaps magicians tricks that were exposed. This sparked my interest so i clicked on the link... needless to say it was not what i expected. Instead it was a pedophilia forum that included a post that had an illegal image and a reply that requested more content be published from said thread poster. My obvious response was to close the browser... which quickly ended up with me reporting the incident to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
After some research I am now questioning whether I should have reported this incident in the first place. Several state laws across the US state that simply viewing child pornography (whether intentional or not) is illegal. I voluntarily reported this incident to the NCMEC but am now reeling from the thought that I could be prosecuted for accidentally accessing this website (no matter what my purpose).
I am wondering what the chances are of the NCMEC prosecuting me for coming forward with this information. Please advise.
