http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/10320.html
Given the frequency in the real world of prostitution arrests of undercover officers in sting operations I wondered how long it would be before the various law enforcement authorities discovered that most kiddie porn was pushed by legal authorities. I didn't expect this. For one thing, how many net users claiming to be 17 year old women would you expect really are?
So 4 police officers around the country were "lured" into explicit talk with this 17 year old, one of the officers sent her a "photograph of his genitals". She then contacted her mother, who then blew the whistle on them.
In the words of the attorneys of one of the officers caught:
"This young woman has gone around the country, as best we can determine, and made contact with a very vulnerable element of our society --- police officers --- and then drawn them in and alleged some type of sexual misconduct."
I believe that we need a new addendum of the Communications Decency Act, one which provides a mechanism to clearly denote underage participants in the online community so that vulnerable police officers aren't lured into relationships with these perverts.
Or perhaps the better solution would be some mechanism to clearly identify members of the law enforcement community online so that we can avoid showing them material which might disturb them.
http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/10320.html
Tuesday, March 03rd, 1998 danlyke@flutterby.com