Archangelsk,

It is quite easy to unintentionally come across underage images while surfing for porn, especially on sites where users can upload images directly.

StevenM32,

Without corroborating evidence, your admission would not be enough to criminally prosecute you. However, it is entirely possible that a criminal referral has been or will soon be made in your case, and police may seek a search warrant for your home, including your electronic devices and media.

There is probably nothing that you could say that would undo the damage your admission has done. If you're applying for a job or a security clearance, you are going to have a bad time.

There are, however, things you can do to protect yourself from criminal prosecution. If any underage images still exist on any of your electronic media, for example in your browser's cache, or even in files that have been deleted but not securely wiped, these could be used against you in court.

To protect yourself from that risk, you could securely wipe your hard disks using a tool such as Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN).

A less radical solution would be to clear all browser caches, delete any questionable downloaded files, and use a tool such as Eraser (for Windows) to wipe unused disk space.

If you have a Macintosh computer, you can securely wipe free space using OS X's Disk Utility.

After deleting any potentially incriminating files, you can encrypt your hard disk(s). In Windows, this can be done using BitLocker. If you don't have BitLocker, you can use TrueCrypt, which has been discontinued but still works.

On Macintosh, disk encryption can be done using FileVault. Use a long passphrase (ideally more than 24 characters) and include some non-alphanumeric characters.

If you have an iPhone or Android phone, encrypt it using a strong password rather than a PIN code.

Finally, don't grant police permission to search your premises or any of your electronic devices. And don't agree to be questioned by police. If the police wish to speak with you, don't try to talk your way out of anything. Remain silent and get a lawyer.

Good luck.

Quote:


Normally illegal pictures do not just pop up during searches. Sometimes you "didn't shy away" from the images means you looked at them. I think most interrogators would surmise this to be searching for and viewing images of underage people. Whether they were illegal or not would depend on legal definitions of which I am not qualified to make a call. I doubt if you would be prosecuted simply for viewing the material, but having the images stored in your computer's memory could be a serious crime. I think your admission would be damaging to employment possibilities in most cases where a polygraph exam is required.

I should note I think I made it sound worse to the examiner than it was. I never sought out ilegal images and I'm not sure anything I saw was illegal. I just said it came up every so often since then on some sites and I go away from it. This is was because they kept saying I am hiding something and even if I wasn't thinking about this during the questioning my brain made me question myself even more. I will have a 2nd interview some other time and I'm not sure what to say. I'm worried first about prosecution and 2nd if there is anything I can say to undue the damage.

Sometimes in my searches underage images have come up and years ago I was at a bad time and sometimes didn't shy away from these images. For some reason I admitted this in a polygraph. Should I fear prosecution and is there any chance things will.end up ok in terms of employment