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Comment by gcb0 | Hacker News Reader

but after the creator is in jail, it's 100% the fbi that host and promotes the site.

there are law against entrapment. but when fbi agents get on a chat room anonymously and send someone a link "want to see this illegal content?" now the person who could have zero interest in the matter will just want to check it out to see if it's true, for whatever reason, which could very well be to report to the authorities if it is true. but now, since the person was entrapped, the fbi can just deny the anonymous entrapment and prosecute the person for arriving on the site by their own means and drive.

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You have to be more active than just stumbling across it. If you stumble onto CP accidentally and either report it to the police (only) or delete it and show no one, you're fine. Read the USC if you're curious about the details, but no, you can't get busted just because you ran into it.

Entrapment only comes into play if you convince someone to commit a crime they weren't already predisposed to commit. So if you give them a link that says "here's CP" and they download half the site and add it to their collection, it's hard to argue that the cops made you collect CP. In general, if all the police did is provide you a chance to commit a crime and you did so, you were busted, not entrapped.

I suggest this as an entertaining introduction to the law on the concept: http://lawcomic.net/guide/?p=633

> If you stumble onto CP accidentally and either report it to the police (only) or delete it and show no one, you're fine.

Please do not assume you'll be fine if you self-report to the police.

You would normally just send an anonymous tip:

http://crime.about.com/od/childporn/qt/porn_report.htm

> when fbi agents get on a chat room anonymously and send someone a link "want to see this illegal content?" now the person who could have zero interest in the matter will just want to check it out to see if it's true, for whatever reason

Yeah, sure. I see a link saying 'child porn click here' and I click that link just out of curiosity. Sure.

> which could very well be to report to the authorities if it is true

You can report it to the authorities without needing to click the link (as any sensible person would do).

so everyone who is a little dumb should be in jail? nice.

remember that there was a famous uk singer that was entrapped just like that since 4 years or so ago. can't remember the name though... he had a foundation to fight child abuse. he spent years reporting links he found to no effect, so he started to collect hard evidence and was busted for possession of that material. he had a hard time fighting the charges, and he might very well be really guilty after all, what I'm telling if just the news as I've read at the time.

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