Illegal Porn
Q: Am I breaking the law by watching and/or downloading porn online?
A: With a few notable exceptions, possession of material which is offensive (as defined by your local community standards) is illegal in most places in the United States. If your community is Las Vegas, or Tahoe, Nevada, or even New York City, you have little to worry about. However, if you live in a conservative community, and the local authorities confiscate your computer for some other reason, you can technically be hit with a violation of local decency laws. Of course, few people are prosecuted for this activity.

If you are watching porn online, or receive it through your cable or satellite TV provider, you are arguably not in "possession" of the illegal material. However, if minor children are involved, either viewing pornography with you (or if you consume pornography where they can see it), you are in very real danger of being prosecuted (and for good reason!). For these reasons, it is generally unwise to view or download porn on a shared computer, even in the privacy of your home. Unless your computer mates also share your porn interests. To be totally safe, Sir Randy recommend you use a browser cleaner or manually clear your web cache after looking at online porn. Better yet, buy a copy of Evidence Eliminator.

Q: What qualifies as child pornography?
A: That's a complicated question. Obviously, any material showing people under 18 actually engaged in sexual activity qualifies as child porn. Things get a bit fuzzy beyond that. The government has tried to treat content with performers who are 18+ (but posing as under 18) as child pornography, but nobody has yet been convicted. Nude photography of under 18 models may be legal, if it's sufficiently artistic. However, if the main purpose of the content appears to be inspire sexual arousal, a photo of an under 18 model can be considered child pornography even if the model is clothed. This is a complicated area of the law and Sir Randy suggests that great caution is in order. Under no circumstances should you ever sign up for a membership for any site that purports to have content that might be interpreted as child pornography. And, for sure, don't download anything questionable. Do you want to find your picture in the paper if the techies at Best Buy stumble on your cache of twink pictures while do some needed maintenance.

Q: What do I do if I stumble across child pornography?
A: Confused guyFirst, ask yourself if you really "stumbled" across it. If you're actively seeking out that kind of material, you've got a big problem and should immediately contact a reputable therapist before you ruin your life. Do you really want to end up in a cell with a big guy named "Bubba" who gets horny every morning? OK, so maybe that wouldn't be tooo bad. But, if you were cruising borderline legal twinks, Sir Randy questions if "Bubba" your type.

That likelihood aside, it is possible (especially if you dabble with "free" sites) to run across banners for sites that might qualify as child pornography. What to do? Some people (including one of Sir Randy's competitors) think that you should send an e-mail to the FBI, warning them about the site. In Sir Randy's view, that would be insanely stupid! Unless, for some perverse reason, you want to get on the FBI's list of possible pedophiles.

The only reasonable response, when you encounter anything on the Internet that you think may qualify as child porn, is to run a program, like Evidence Eliminator, which will scrub your system of all vestiges of your Web surfing activity. And then forget about it. Chances are, if it's real kiddie porn, that the FBI already knows about it. (Believe it or not, they actually have Internet access and can click a mouse button as easily as you.) In fact, the FBI has even sponsored child porn sites in order to entrap offenders. Best to keep your distance from the entire situation.


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