Reporting questionable online activity (sexual)
 

I had trouble thinking of a title for this thread. How to describe the situation in a few words is eluding me. First my situation then my question.

A person contacted me on chat and I began talking to him. Before we'd had much of a conversation he sent me a pic of a topless woman. It was appealing. Next he sent a pic of a two women kissing but dressed. Fine, no problem. Then he sent a pic of a little girl in a bikini. The girl was probably 10 yrs old. I asked if any of these people were SO's or his own children. None were. Just pics that he'd found and liked. Fine. I didn't respond to the pic about the girl. Till he asked what I thought of her. I said that she looked cold. Finally he came back with the comment. "why are her nipples sticking out"? I thought this was odd since the girl didn't look to be more than 10 yrs old. I just said that I thought she was cold because she was hugging herself. Finally he sent several messages in a row that I didn't respond to because I wasn't sure HOW to respond. He said. "shes pretty", "she has a pretty face", and finally "she looks good in those bikini bottoms, she has nice legs".
At that point I responded that I felt the last comment was inappropriate because she was so young. He responded with "well i have seem some kids nude and found it interesting and there are certain girls that seem to be more pretty, like that one."

I just felt very uncomfortable with the way he was talking and wonder if I should report this kind of conversation. This guy doesn't know a thing about me besides what is in my profile. He was very open about his interest in someone so young and it was inappropriate. It makes me worry about what he would do if he was talking to a young girl online. How far would he take that. If he would be one of those online stalkers.

My questions are - What would you do? and Where do you report something that's questionable like this??

I think your first recourse should be to report him to whatever chat service you were using. Clearly this guy has issues, whether it's pedophilia or trying to get a rise out of someone with inflamatory behavior. Unless you're absolutely sure of who this guy is, letting the authorities know probably is a waste of time. The provider should be able to track him down, flag him, and hopefully notify the right folks.

This is incredibly creepy though.

You can try to get more information from sites like http://www.perverted-justice.com/ but it's more than a little creepy, I'm with you though that this guy needs to have somebody looking into what other improper things with young girls he's been doing.

kah-reeeepy....

Took the word right out of my mouth.

I would reporthim.I do not go so far as to believe anyone who likes to look at pictures of children,is a potential danger to them in real life situations.

BUT the fact is if this guy is one of the minority who is a potential danger, then we should do anything and everything in our power to make sure it does not happen and that would include reportin him to the chat service.I know he is not someone you know personally but imagine if he was convicted of a related offence and you found out it was the person you had once spoken to on the internet...#
also, as you said...peodophiles are majorly hated, and every 'normal' person knows that..the fact that he is willng to discuss it openly is worrying.

just my two cents!:)

I don't think any agency would care since this guy can talk about whatever he wants to. It's called freedom of speech.

Unless he's done something wrong, then there's nothing to report

Excellent point, feelgood. At this point, all he's guilty of is being creepy (and that's certainly within his rights), but I do feel that further investigation is warranted. He may not have done anything wrong, but he has certainly drawn the suspicion of more than one person here and most likely anyone with the authority to conduct a real investigation.

You were probably chatting with a police officer or someone from perverted justice trying to trap you. If they send you an illegal image be sure to completely erase all traces since I think possession is the crime not how you got it.

Thanks for the link liquidlight.

I was thinking I should report it too but there was no place to report 'suspicious comments' or something like that. He hasn't technicaly done anything. After reading some at some sights. Especially some that attempt to get more concrete information from these kinds of people, I believe it might be useful for me to play his game a little while longer as annonymously as I possibly can. Then once I have something more concrete, there are a few places where I can turn over his information.

Still, at least this has opened my eyes a little. You hear about stuff so often but it never happens to you, or you never hear about it first hand. To see someone say those things makes me realize how risky things could be for my daughter when she's old enough to be chatting. Being made to face that reality was helpful to me at least.

Are you saying that they can initiate contact with you, send you illegal pics that you didn't ask for and then arrest you for having the pics on your computer? How is that legal?

I too think it may be a cop.
He is being too open.

If it were a cop it would be entrapment here in the US and the charges would be thrown out.

Yeah, that's what I told her. The two women together was cool. The other one...while not risque or anything, really, is just over the top. Combine that with his comments, and it's definitely not right. I would hope that it IS a cop, and that they WILL find the true criminals. Thankfully...we're not them.

I would be surprised if it was a cop. I avoided making ANY postive comments about the obviously underage girl. The pic was not pornagraphic in nature either. It was only his comments that were crude and inappropriate. I corrected him regarding his comments and did not support him in any way. YET he persisted. What cop or groomer hunter would keep pushing someone to 'admit' that they liked child porn when they're obviously objecting to it.

Besides, what in the world would draw them to me? My profile on yahoo is benign. I keep it so because I have family on yahoo as well. I'm a former teacher, a mom, and self employed. What could 'profile' me as an online predator to someone who is hunting them?

Besides, from what I understand the groomer hunters go to chat rooms posing as underaged girls or boys, and WAIT for the predators to approach them. From what I understand, pming a predator FIRST is not allowed in some organizations.

Probably not the police and I don't know about others. I would be a little suspicious of a complete stranger sending me pictures of children and asking me to comment on their physical attributes. My first thought would be that someone (perhaps a vigilante) is trolling for violators.

I think you should contact your local PD and file a report. They may or may not send a vice detective to investigate. The little girl picture could constitute child porn, based on the description.

This is probably not a cop, a cop would not initiate contact.

I wouldn't draw attention to yourself. I read of a family here that contacted the police because someone sent their son some child pornography. The police confiscated the kid's computer, as well as all the computers in the house, and he is presently awaiting trial for possession of child pornography. The family is spending a fortune on legal fees and it looks like even if they take a deal that's being offered to keep him out of prison, the poor kid will have to register as a sex offender his whole life.

He went straight to his parents about it, and they went straight to the police. Everyone thought they were doing "the right thing."

I'd forget about it.

There are no laws against entrapment in New York State IIRC, definitely not in NY City. I forgot what the exact wording of the laws are, but again, police can use very loose stings and entrap people and it's all fine by the criminal justice system.

found it:

§ 40.05 Entrapment.
In any prosecution for an offense, it is an affirmative defense that
the defendant engaged in the proscribed conduct because he was induced
or encouraged to do so by a public servant, or by a person acting in
cooperation with a public servant, seeking to obtain evidence against
him for purpose of criminal prosecution, and when the methods used to
obtain such evidence were such as to create a substantial risk that the
offense would be committed by a person not otherwise disposed to commit
it. Inducement or encouragement to commit an offense means active
inducement or encouragement. Conduct merely affording a person an
opportunity to commit an offense does not constitute entrapment.

Is this person another member here, or just someone from online in general?

If it's a member here, we'd like to know about it. You can PM me if you like.

Can you post details on that?

No it's someone on yahoo. Not on here for sure, I would have mentioned it to a mod.

Yeah...I'd like to see that, myself.
Not saying that your story's not true...but I would like to see a little more background. There has to more to that. And, if there is not...then that is beyond fucked up.

I agrre that people like this should be at minimum watched for further actions on their part, but as far as using "perverted Justice"? I wouldn't trust them with anything. I watched the specials that were on "Nightline" and thought " How interesteing, a group of people out there trying to help keep our kids safe out there!" Then I started doing some checks... I found several cases of misrepresentation on their part, as well as a total lack of proper investigation. One specific case I remember reading was of a guy who was a regular Joe type, had his computer in for service, and evidently the computer technician stole his online password,(this was revealed later during the actual LEGAL investigation by police) and had been trolling all over looking for girls to chat with. Several of the discussions were VERY graphic, and one time he happened to fall onto a "Perverted Justice" member, who instantly flagged the name and contacted the owners ISP. Of course the OWNER had no idea what was going on. Perverted Justice used their "investigative skills" to get a contact name and driver's license photo(didn't know you could do that???) Then posted his information on their website, and told his local newspaper about it. Of course the guy was totally confused and had no idea what was going on. After POLICE did a proper investigation into what happened, they found out the guy was of course innocent, and it was the computer tech who was doing this. Too late for the guy who lost his job and had been pretty much ran out of town during the investigation. I will try to see if I can find the information from an actual news site. I was looking on the "perverted truth" website who is actually doing an investigation of "perverted Justice's" practices. and to this date I believe that perverted justice has not apologized for their mistake, and STILL has his photo and information on their webpage.

I think that ANY investigation should be made by the POLICE DEPARTMENT or city/government personel. Just my $.02 worth!

That's what came to my mind. If it's a cop it's a dumb cop. And I doubt a pedophile would want to bring attention to themself. But then again, there's no limit to human stupidity...

lol very true:D