Do You Call The Cops On Yourself If You're A Pedo?
Via Fathers & Families, the BBC reports that a man called the cops after he tried to download music but instead got kiddie porn, and was prevented from being alone with his daughter for four months:
A man who informed police when he found child abuse images on his computer has not been allowed to be alone with his daughter for four months.Nigel Robinson from Hull said he called police after trying to download music but instead finding pornographic images on his laptop last November.
As a result social services said he "should not have unsupervised access with his own or other children".
He said he was "totally innocent". No arrests or charges have been made.
Mr Robinson, 43, recalled how on discovering the images he discussed the situation with his wife and immediately called police to report the incident.
...The police took the laptop away for investigation and said it could be a year before it is returned, Mr Robinson said.
...Mr Robinson said: "It makes you feel as though you shouldn't have reported it in the first place."
He added it would have been "a lot easier" to just throw the machine in the bin.
Mr Robinson said the restrictions on seeing his daughter had come to a head after his wife had returned to work.
When his wife works late, as regularly happens, Mr Robinson's daughter goes to his mother-in-law's home.
Good advice at Fathers and Families:
Now, needless to say, Robinson has never been accused of abusing his child or any other. He's not been accused of any wrongdoing in this case and indeed, there's no evidence that he's committed any kind of offense. But a mistaken effort to download music is still enough to brand him with the scarlet letter 'A' for 'Abuser.'...Robinson should do what the vast majority of Americans and Canadians do; when it comes to family life, leave the government out of it. Robinson and his wife tried to be good citizens. I'm sure they thought that if they just came clean about what happened and demonstrated that they had nothing to hide, the authorities would see them for who they are - law-abiding citizens and fit parents.
Now they know better. The ridiculous exercise of police power at the expense of a father's relationship with his daughter was entirely predictable and to be avoided at all costs. Whatever the outcome of the case and whenever it happens, great damage to Robinson and his family have been done. As well, great damage has been done to whatever notion he might once have harbored about his rights as a father and himself as a member of a beneficent polity.
...Yes, there will always be parents who are so bad, so destructive of their children's well-being that state agencies must step in, take the children and place them in foster care or some other living arrangement outside their parents' reach. But child welfare agencies have taken that notion and made it a license to substitute their own decisions about how best to parent for those of parents. Government has a way of increasing its power over the governed. Grants of power tend to expand into realms unthought of by the original grantors.
That's nowhere more apparent than in the case of child welfare agencies that began with the very real need to protect abused children. By now they've morphed into all-purpose overseers of parental behavior.
Oh, and on a copyright note, if you pay for music you download you're less likely to get little unwanted files coming along with the tunes.
Note that this is England. RIAA has no rights over there. And the Brits have been nanny staters for years.
Jim P. at March 16, 2012 7:01 AM
Remember when if you think you should deal with the government - Shoot Shovel and Shut Up.
Or this guys case
delete files, block site/program, and shut up.
John Paulson at March 16, 2012 7:29 AM
"Note that this is England. RIAA has no rights over there." They have their own version, the BPI.
silverpie at March 16, 2012 8:26 AM
delete files
If by this you mean a "secure delete", then yes.
Most operating systems simply mark the "deleted" file space as available to be written. It doesn't actually remove anything, until something is written in that space.
These files can be recovered intact. As time passes, the odds of recovering these files to any degree decreases, but it may take a very long time to reach 100%.
A good secure delete will write over the space many times with varied bit patterns to make recovery difficult if not impossible.
Macs have this functionality built in: File > Secure Empty Trash. Windows needs help, and there I'm partial to Eraser as it adds an entry to
the right-click on the Recycle Bin, but there are others. So shop around, and find the one you like.
And when it's time to get rid of your old computer, you should securely erase the entire disk. This will take time, hours, perhaps days, but that easy peace of mind to know that your files won't end up in someone else's hands.
I R A Darth Aggie at March 16, 2012 8:56 AM
Glary Utilities has a file wiping program and free disk space wiper. It's not a bad idea to use it periodically.
Do note that with SSDs, the story changes. They do a load leveling algorithm that leaves entire files behind. This is why when getting rid of an SSD, you are advised to physically destroy it.
Joe at March 16, 2012 12:55 PM
In the words of the great Radley Balko:
"Libertarianism happens to people."
We can make compelling arguments, we can stand on our principles, he can be friendly and eloquent defenders of the idea of liberty...
But when it comes right down to it, it's people seeing (or suffering) the naked perfidy of the government that turns most people into Libertarians.
AMB at March 16, 2012 12:55 PM
And when it's time to get rid of your old computer, you should securely erase the entire disk. This will take time, hours, perhaps days, but that easy peace of mind to know that your files won't end up in someone else's hands.
It take me about 5 minutes, 3 or so to pull the hard drive from the tower or laptop, one to tape it to a tree and another to pick up a shot gun and pull the trigger
lujlp at March 16, 2012 2:01 PM
"It take me about 5 minutes, 3 or so to pull the hard drive from the tower or laptop, one to tape it to a tree and another to pick up a shot gun and pull the trigger"
You would be a great drinking partner (as well as providing good advice)!
Bob in Texas at March 16, 2012 4:26 PM
Yea I know about wiping files. My training is computers. Just trying to be brief.
If I was really worried, I will one day actually set up my computer self-destruct button with thermite charge. Would have lujlp beat in seconds.
http://hackaday.com/2008/09/16/how-to-thermite-based-hard-drive-anti-forensic-destruction/
John Paulson at March 16, 2012 9:39 PM
I save my thermite for assholes who park diagonally across two or three parking spaces
lujlp at March 16, 2012 11:22 PM
I'd bet there is more to this story.
whistleDick at March 17, 2012 12:07 AM
I'd bet there is more to this story.
Posted by: whistleDick
I doubt it, men are treated like crap by the CJ system, and then given the number of articles I've read, such as
A guy being ticketed for smoking in a public park, got a ticket in the mail becuase the cop took photos and sent it to his trucks company - turns out the guy was smoking one of those ecigarettes
A guy being threated with arrest under terrosrist statues for taking photos of his daughter in an ice cream shop in the mall
A guy being threatened with assult for taking pictures of his own kids in the park and when he called the cop the cops threated to arrest him
A suggested program requireing men in britian to submit to criminal background check in order to be licenece to take their own kids to the park
I seriously doubt there is anying more to this story
lujlp at March 17, 2012 2:42 AM
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