Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to Destroy Someone's Life or They called me a child pornographer

salon.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 216 posts

Re: How to Destroy Someone's Life or They called me a child pornographer

#21

Post by [deleted] »

mkramlich wrote: post #16
logic wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My parents had childhood pictures of me, developed through the local grocery store, completely naked aside from a few layers of mud and a huge grin on my face. My teenage self might not have appreciated the opportunity to grandstand in such a manner quite as much. (I honestly thought I'd found and destroyed all of the copies. My parents were much sneakier than I gave them credit for.) My adult self thinks it's all ra…

I didn't say we want to live in a world like this. I'm saying this is the world we live in. A reasonable, non-naive person would think twice about taking pictures of a kid naked, if they had any knowledge of the current state of society & laws in the US. This position should not terrify you. If there's no upside to it, but a pretty significant downside, then don't do it. Exercise willpower. To put it another way, it'…

[deleted]

Re: How to Destroy Someone's Life or They called me a child pornographer

#22

Post by dotBen »

I read this story, and it's very sad. But I just feel the need to ask... why is this on Hacker News? Surely this is Reddit type content?

I read loads of really interesting and eye-opening posts about all sorts of non-tech subjects... but I don't feel they should be on Hacker News to the detriment of other tech stories that could be on the front page.

Re: How to Destroy Someone's Life or They called me a child pornographer

#23

Post by caf »

mkramlich wrote: post #16
logic wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My parents had childhood pictures of me, developed through the local grocery store, completely naked aside from a few layers of mud and a huge grin on my face. My teenage self might not have appreciated the opportunity to grandstand in such a manner quite as much. (I honestly thought I'd found and destroyed all of the copies. My parents were much sneakier than I gave them credit for.) My adult self thinks it's all ra…

I didn't say we want to live in a world like this. I'm saying this is the world we live in. A reasonable, non-naive person would think twice about taking pictures of a kid naked, if they had any knowledge of the current state of society & laws in the US. This position should not terrify you. If there's no upside to it, but a pretty significant downside, then don't do it. Exercise willpower. To put it another way, it'…

It is deeply terrifying that we should not just self-censor completely innocent acts, but that you think it should be second nature to any "reasonable, non-naive person".

Avoiding completely normal behaviour because of a fear of constant surveillance and being turned in by those around you? This does not strike you as completely f*cked up?

Re: How to Destroy Someone's Life or They called me a child pornographer

#24

Post by holdenc »

This kind of story is indicting of our culture.

Outside the US nudity is not so taboo. In my daughter's kindergarten (a nice private school in Southeast Asia) boys and girls share the same bathroom, with no private stalls, and no door on the entrance. Everyone sees everything -- passers-by included. Meanwhile, in the US, nudity is synonymous with sex, and good people have to worry about things like this.

Re: How to Destroy Someone's Life or They called me a child pornographer

#25

Post by scrod »

siculars wrote: post #9

Wait until some enterprising district attorney confiscates your hard drive, surmises you frequent HN, subpoenas your voting history from pg, finds this thread and examines which anti-governement/pro-common-sense comments you up voted. Everything you say (and/or write) may be used against you. Have a nice day :)

>Wait until some enterprising district attorney confiscates your hard drive, surmises you frequent HN, subpoenas your voting history from pg, finds this thread and examines which anti-governement/pro-common-sense comments you up voted.

But don't worry, because the web is the future of computing and one day all our information will be stored in giant central databases outside of our control. Isn't the cloud great?

(And by the way, "common sense" is not always the same thing as "good sense".)

Re: How to Destroy Someone's Life or They called me a child pornographer

#26

Post by danbmil99 »

btilly wrote: post #4

It saddens me that for every ridiculous story like this, there is someone out there who really thought that trying to bring the case was a good idea. Some things have improved in recent years. The incidence of bad therapy leading to false memory syndrome has been reduced, and with it the rate of false accusations. (There are also now improved odds for abused kids to be able to get information on what abuse is actuall…

> there is someone out there who really thought that trying to bring the case was a good idea.

Really? Sounds more like there's some cynical jerk with no sense of ethics or boundaries who gets their jollies by randomly victimizing normal families with the excessive powers bestowed upon them by paranoid CYA legislation and an army of deranged ideologues who see abuse everywhere.

Re: How to Destroy Someone's Life or They called me a child pornographer

#29

Post by dotBen »

mkramlich wrote: post #6

Horrible story, and I totally empathize with their situation. yes, the US is practically insane sometimes in how they deal with sexuality and minors, and yes there's a history of witch hunts in this area. all horrible. That said, they did make 2 very big mistakes, and if they hadn't done either or both of them, none of the rest would have happened. first, they took pictures of the kids naked. two, they let those pict…

Yes, I completely agree with the naivity aspect.

As I read this I thought to myself "if you've bought a disposable camera that will need to be professionally developed why are you taking naked photos of your children?". Use a digital camera or skip the nakedness.

It's like me (a pasty faced white geek) taking my sports car out for a cruise around Bay Shore and Hunters Point here in San Francisco (big crime, gang and drug activity). Sure there is nothing illegal for going for a drive in any part of the city, but I'm going to get stopped by a police cruiser on the suspicion of looking to score drugs or prostitutes.

Even if I'm not doing anything illegal whatsoever, it's naive to think it isn't going to raise suspicion and investigation.

Re: How to Destroy Someone's Life or They called me a child pornographer

#30

Post by thwarted »

logic wrote: post #12
mkramlich wrote: post #6

Horrible story, and I totally empathize with their situation. yes, the US is practically insane sometimes in how they deal with sexuality and minors, and yes there's a history of witch hunts in this area. all horrible. That said, they did make 2 very big mistakes, and if they hadn't done either or both of them, none of the rest would have happened. first, they took pictures of the kids naked. two, they let those pict…

My parents had childhood pictures of me, developed through the local grocery store, completely naked aside from a few layers of mud and a huge grin on my face. My teenage self might not have appreciated the opportunity to grandstand in such a manner quite as much. (I honestly thought I'd found and destroyed all of the copies. My parents were much sneakier than I gave them credit for.) My adult self thinks it's all ra…

We're shaping a society that's cynical and distrustful, and it starts with reasonable people associating behavior like this with phrases like "they should have known better".

The problem is that the cynicism and distrustfulness is directed toward the wrong things. There should be more cynicism toward the busybodies and the wolf-criers. We need more innocent until proven guilty, which means not hassling people just to find something, anything to support a case against them.

Post reply on HN