[quietbritishjim]

Something slightly different but very related happened to a senior police officer in the UK. She got sent a WhatsApp message by her sister containing a horrific CP act. It was captioned with a message asking people to circulate it to identify the adult in it, and probably those who sent it around (including the sister) were acting in good faith, but actually it was still illegal to send or even possess it. No doubt the originator of the caption was a deliberate troll.

She was found guilty of "possessing an indecent image of a child". [1] She tried to argue that she hadn't noticed the message, but it's not surprising that wasn't believed given that she had immediately replied to her sister saying "please call". She was sentenced to 200 hours community service, and originally sacked from her job but recently reinstated after appealing. [2]

It seems that she wasn't immediately in trouble when she received the message ... so long as she had immediately reported her own sister for distributing it, even though it's clear that she hadn't deliberately done anything wrong. (In fact the sister had contacted her to ask what she should do about it. Probably her answer was "don't have already sent it me!")

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-50476166

[2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-57501764

[zimpenfish]

> a senior police officer in the UK

To be fair, this is partially because the laws in the UK are, I think, fairly bonkers strict about CSAM - mere possession, whether you've looked at it or not, whether you downloaded it or not, whether you even know it's there or not, etc., is counted as criminal.

[quietbritishjim]

As I mentioned in the last paragraph, it seems that she would've been cleared if she'd been able to convince the jury that she didn't know it was there. And would've been clear even if she had seen it so long as she'd reported it (although that would of course have got her own sister in trouble even though she was acting in good faith).

[zionic]

The US is the same.

[wutbrodo]

I believe this is incorrect.

> At the same time, because of the First Amendment, child pornography offenses are not "strict liability" crimes like statutory rape: in order to convict a defendant, the government must prove that the defendant knew the material involved the actual abuse of a child

https://www.zmolaw.com/child-pornography-faqs#

I've found similar claims on the websites of a few law offices. For some reason, the official DoJ materials are pretty cagey on the topic.

[Zak]

> "strict liability" crimes like statutory rape

That varies by jurisdiction. Some US states require criminal negligence or offer affirmative defenses with regard to the defendant's belief as to the victim's age.

[vagrantJin]

Off topic

I think its surprising that society does not want to talk about CP and just content locking up whoever they find and throwing away the key. Pretty shambolic response for something so common - no offense but we spend way too much time and resources undoubtedly useless social issues instead if hard questions like CP and what causes it. Even the academic literature is sparse but I would argue we need more people finding answers and we might learn something about the human condition - rather than putting so much money and intellectual capital on crap like cyber bullying or transgender pronouns or mental health. Not that those aren't important but they are low hanging fruit. We need to get our priorities straight. Tackle the hard questions instead of this absurd head in the sand approach to uncomfortable topics. FFS.

Rant over

[IshKebab]

This will cheer you up - they're trying to fire her again!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-58072822

This is another instance:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-57156799

[quietbritishjim]

Thanks, I hadn't seen that. How soul destroying.

(It's a pity your comment was downvoted when it was the only meaningful reply. As always, we'll never know why. Maybe the downvoters didn't get the sarcasm. Or maybe they think handing your sister to the police when she asks for your help is the right thing to do...)