File Sharing Case

Before we hear the excited "See, I told you the internet was full of child porn" calls from the "moral majority", let's look closely as what the police found and how they found it. This guy was using a file sharing program to source and redistribute illegal, child abuse material and he was caught by old fashioned policing.

Bear in mind too that his is child abuse material, not normal porn which is consenting adult people shagging with a camera in the room. Predominantly, Conroy's filter will block normal porn.

Conroy's filter will not block the layer that file sharing software runs on. It's a program not a website. Conroy's filter can only hamper good old fashioned police stings. So, don't chalk this up to the need to filter, chalk this up to the need to not filter.

Before we start stacking up the wood for a burning at the stake (I'm looking at you fundamentalist christians) let's look at what happened here. Is this guy going to get any help to bring his sexual orientation under control? How can anyone do that anyway? Sure, he's got his punishment but where is his help now? What are we going to do to help him avoid the crime that he is headed for? Does the court imagine that a penalty is going to cause his sexual orientation to go away? What psychiatric help and tools does he have to divert him away from these thoughts just as an alcoholic is forever diverting himself away from thoughts of drinking alcohol? For his jail term he cannot come into contact with children but he can't be jailed for ever. Many people want paedophiles jailed forever but the idea is not gaining traction with law makers. We need a holistic solution not more knee jerk reactions.


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