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Westler Emblidge

FBI ran child porn site for two weeks in attempt to identify over 5,000 pedophiles - 32 views

started by Westler Emblidge on 30 May 13
  • Westler Emblidge
    #1 Westler Emblidge on 30 May 13
  • Jonah Amargi-Levy
    #2 Jonah Amargi-Levy on 30 May 13
     
    This is quite disturbing to know the FBI has actively facilitated the sharing of child pornography. regardless of it being ethical (which it is not) it is deceitful. The logic behind the scheme is justifiable in theory, but in reality the FBI is distributing child porn, which brings up the question of where its coming from in the first place, and in my opinion that question is more important than who's watching. The FBI should actively be trying to prevent child porn rather than facilitating it.
  • Cody Duane-McGlashan
    #3 Cody Duane-McGlashan on 30 May 13
     
    I think that this is just as ethical as posing or a drug dealer or many of the other things that the FBI does. It does bring up an interesting debate though over internet privacy and surveillance. It will be interesting to see how cases like these develop and I anticipate that they will become more commonplace.
  • Veronica Russell
    #6 Veronica Russell on 30 May 13
     
    I think this is ethical. I agree with Cody, it's like posing as a drug dealer, but instead of catching people who want to buy weed, they are catching people who want to kidnap and rape little children. They found 5000 pedophiles who posted pictures and were in discussions about how to lure a child into your car. By letting that porn site stay up, they found pedophiles that could have harmed many children. In my opinion it was smart and helped stop sickos from stealing and raping kids.
  • Kenny Rosenberg
    #7 Kenny Rosenberg on 30 May 13
     
    The only way this is ethical is if they catch a large number of pedophiles. If they kept the site available and running with child porn everywhere for 2 weeks without catching anyone, then obviously they made the wrong decision. But if they were successful in catching a relevant amount of weirdos then yes, I think that what the FBI did was ethical and in fact quite resourceful.
  • Chris Yip
    #8 Chris Yip on 30 May 13
     
    There's a specific department of the FBI that focuses on catching child pornographers/pedophiles. I can't remember if they're a separate department or internet crime overall, but it'd be interesting to see what code of ethics they follow. I feel like its different posing as a drug dealer because the children in the planted videos are victims. I think it's a clever, effective way to catch criminals, but I'd like to see how the FBI addresses the issue of redistributing footage of child victims.
  • Tandis S
    #9 Tandis S on 21 Nov 13
     
    I believe that when it comes to catching pedophiles, ethics aren't as important, and I don't morally question the actions of the FBI. Many sites similar to the one created exist already anyway,with the same content, and to provide just one more site for two weeks in order to identify and hinder thousands of pedophiles from actual intentions of sexually assaulting a minor is an ethical action. Enabling child pornography for two weeks is better than letting thousands of pedophiles with intentions of sexual assault off the hook.
  • Hannah Chorley
    #10 Hannah Chorley on 03 Dec 13
     
    Although it is disturbing that the FBI did run a child pornography (any kind of child pornography is extremely disturbing) I agree with Tandis. It is completely ethical, because they were able to catch thousands of people who could have kidnapped and raped little children. Obviously, it was an effective method.
  • Sarah Asch
    #11 Sarah Asch on 04 Dec 13
     
    Child pornography is completely disturbing but everything the FBI did was legal and I believe the cause justified the means. They didn't create new child pornography or create a site to share it, they just grabbed control of an existing site and tried to identify users. This was totally ethical as long as they were able to come through and actually catch people, which the article itself was unclear about.
  • Jordan B
    #12 Jordan B on 05 Dec 13
     
    I think that as long as they are making arrests using this method, they can validate it. Two weeks is not an absurdly long time, and its more important that they are putting these people away and stopping the consumers and hopefully the producers forever than merely shutting the website down. The child pornography is wrong, but it's just as wrong to give the people perpetuating the pornography a chance to move to a new location rather than be punished for their actions.
  • weston lazarus
    #13 weston lazarus on 06 Dec 13
     
    I think this is very ethical, its just like a drug deal sting. Its a little weirder but it worked. There just trying to help and protect people, and by doing this they did, so in the end it is ethical because the only people who think that is unethical are the pedophiles being caught.
  • Austin Peck
    #14 Austin Peck on 16 Dec 13
     
    Sounds very questionable indeed! I think in a bizarre situation such as this, the end justifies the means, as thousands of child predators were removed from our city streets and our parks!
  • Johanna Wong
    #15 Johanna Wong on 16 Dec 13
     
    Although the FBI was involved in the facilitation of child pornography, I think it's an effective way to deal with pedophiles. The issue of child pornography can barely be looked at as ethical, so how can the solution be? I think that although it may not be the most ethical way to find pedophiles, it does seem effective, and that's what the goal should be. It's important that these creeps are caught so they can't lure more kids into their vans, and this seems like a decent way to do that.

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