I'm up and runing with my new cam and having a ball. It's way more fun than I thought it would be. Last night I was on for about 4 hours jackin and edging and chatting. I cam on Yahoo and always have an open cam so anyone can watch.


This was dicussed on another message board I like but no one seemed to know for sure. The qustion was if an underage guy was viewing your cam could you be tracked down and prosecuted for exposing youself to a minor? It's an open cam so I have no control who watches, I'm also in the adult chat rooms so no minors should be there in the first place.

Every now and then I'll get an IM telling me what a great cock I have and then they will go on to say they are 16 or something like that. Most I think are bullshiters but I'll cut them off and not let them view anyway.

Is this just paranoia on my part? I never gave this a minutes thought until I saw it on the other message board.

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GWT,

I'm not a lawyer, and I don't even play one on TV.

The following is my understanding of the issue. Frankly, if this really bothers you, get a lawyer in your area to spell it out in writing what your real risks are.

What's the verbage of the User Agreement on the site where you cam? If it specifically states no one under 18 and that users may be exposed to images that offend them, then you are somewhat covered.

As long as you cam in a designated "Adult" area where users have been warned that nudity may be viewed, and as long as you break contact upon learning the person you are talking to is a minor, you are covering your ass, so to speak.

Those that get in trouble are those who upon learning they are speaking with a minor, continue to engage them on a sexual level. Yes, there are a lot of people posing as youngsters on the net and they are purposely trolling for perps. Since there have been several successful convictions of people who have propositioned adults posing as minors, more people have gotten into the act.

This whole entrapment issue alone deserves a thread all its own. But suffice to say, what you are doing is good. Even better would be a statement to them as you sign off basically stating that you don't engage with minors, they have no business being where they are and you are reporting them to the governing body of the site. If nothing else, you are helping keep the site available for your fun as it is intended.

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I assume you are in an adult area of Yahoo cams. If so, you are protected somewhat by the adult sign-in procedure that Yahoo insists on.

Recent court rulings against Internet pornographers have suggested that the only, for sure, accepted way to filter out underage people is to have them pay to enter your site with a credit card. (Underage people do not have credit cards unless they are stolen.)

Given the moral panic over corrupting underage kids with videos of gay sex acts, it would not surprise me if some prosecutor came after you to make himself look good just before an election. Even if you won in court, the hassle factor would great because you would have to get a lawyer and pay to defend yourself.

However, I would guess that a prosecutor would want a higher profile target than you. (Something that would play well in the press.) Therefore, I think your chances of having no problems is probably pretty good.

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There is that word "entrapment" again. This would definitly not be entrapment in the legal sense. Entrapment is when a law enforcement officer persuades you to do something you had no predispositon to do, almost to the point of pressuring you to do it. A mere suggestion is not enough. Just look at all the drug dealers in jail (can you get me a pound of marijuana?). In this case, you went to the web site on your own, not at the invitation of someone else. The classic definition of entrapment is "planting the seed of the crime in an innocent mind".

Men have been convicted of "transmitting pictures of a sex act to a minor". But the only time I have seen it is in connection with other charges where the older male pursues the contact. I really think you are safe by doing what you do, cutting off the contact and barring any further contact/viewing. But I don't know if there is a case yet to address your specific question. It's kind of along the lines of a minor using a fake ID to get into a bar or ABS. As long as the proprietor took reasonable precations, a prosecutor isn't usually going to pursue a charge.

And finally, I've done the same thing (open cam) so we'll go down together

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GWT ~ There is no need to worry about whether you are paranoid so long as the voices in your head are on good speaking terms with each other.

However, as an afterthought, you are questioning your judgment in broadcasting video content in an "Adults Only" area of Yahoo's service. To gain access to this "Adults Only" area, a person must be at least age 18 or older and have provided their date of birth when their Yahoo membership was established which gives them access to the Adults Only area.

Since you are only broadcasting video to only those within the Adults Only area of Yahoo's service, you are neither criminally nor civilly liable for the content of your video if you observe the laws and regulations of all local, national and international governments and agencies having jurisdiction. So long as the content broadcast within an Adults Only area does not violate those laws and regulations, you can alleviate most of the doubt you might have.

This is probably not the definitive answer you might have been seeking, but it should put you more at ease if you are questioning your judgment. Given the circumstance you were in an Adults Only area of Yahoo and only adults age 18 or older may have access to the video content broadcast within that area of Yahoo's service, an individual who represents themselves to you as a Non-adult or Minor Child via an IM within that same Adults Only area is probably either attempting to intimidate you or they may be using the tactic of "Phishing" to troll for online internet child predators.

My advice is to report these types of contacts to Yahoo since a violation of the Yahoo Terms of Service (TOS) may have occurred on the part of the person who initiated contact (IM) with you within an Adults Only area of the Yahoo Service. So long as you don't violate Yahoo's TOS and you observe the laws and regulations of all local, national and international governments and agencies having jurisdiction, you are neither criminally nor civilly liable for what others may do or represent to you.

I would caution everyone that the tactic of "Phishing" or trolling for online child predators is an active and aggressive measure some individuals and/or organized groups use in outing or the unmasking of online child predators. These individuals and/or organized groups operate as Cyber Vigilantes or self-annointed vanguards of morality. Law enforcement agencies, already badly strapped for scarce resources, are increasingly reliant upon these people and their organizations to do the job they (Law Enforcement) are duly charged and authorized to do by the controlling authority -- The Law. This, for the most serious of all reasons, is a prescription for disaster and demonstrates why people are increasing mistrustful of law enforcement and investigative agencies. Vigilantism or self-annoited vanguards of public morality is not the solution to the problem of online child predators.

The issue of entrapment is important and relevant, but only if an individual was coerced, intimidated, or the threat of force was used to commit a crime they would not have committed under any other circumstance. In legal proceedings, it is the legal definition of entrapment that forms the basis of an active defence which obligates a defendant to prove his/her innocence of a criminal charge.

__________________
Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves. And, under a just God, cannot long retain it.

-- Abraham Lincoln

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Thanks guys, I really never thought I had anything to worry about but it was nice to have a little confirmation.

When I went back to the other message board I mentioned that was dicussing this same topic I learned that the naked guy in question was NOT in a adult chat room, he was in the general area and anyone could have seen him. That was his whole intent, to flash unsuspecting women and children. Someone had reported him to Yahoo and he wanted to know if he would be spending the next few years in prison.

BMG- ALL the voices in my head are on speaking terms, it just gets a little crowded in there sometimes.

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I was a member of Camcocks but when I tried to find the page today it was gone. Can anyone recomend a good Yahoo Group substitute?

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