Pete Townshend and Child Porn on the Internet

On January 13, 2003, The Who guitarist Pete Townshend was arrested on suspicion of possessing child pornography on the internet. He was released after being interrogated and has not yet been charged. He allegedly used a credit card to enter a child porn site to obtain research for his autobiography, as he feels he may have been abused as a child. UPDATE!: According to The Smoking Gun, "London police today (May 7, 2003) cleared Pete Townshend of kiddie porn charges. But the rock star will still spend five years on a U.K. register of sex offenders because the co-founder of The Who visited a web site containing child porn images."

Here's the law in the United Kingdom, from CNN:

"Even so much as clicking on a Web site featuring child pornography could result in a jail sentence of up to five years in the United Kingdom. And if you host a Web site or forward an e-mail containing images of children -- who are or seem to be under the age of 16 -- being abused, you could face imprisonment of up to 10 years.

If you receive and view an unsolicited e-mail -- or spam -- of offensive material and immediately delete it, then that counts as a reasonable explanation, according to Peter Robbins, chief executive of Web campaigners, Internet Watch Foundation (IWF)."

According to an article in Celebrity Justice, Mr. Townshend said he did break the law, but was doing research into possible child abuse in his own life. Officials said that he is telling the truth, but, as stated above, simply viewing this material is against the law. Mr. Townshend has been 'cautioned', which goes on his record and can be used against him if any wrongdoing is brought to light in the future. He has also been placed on a British sex offender registry.

This news bulletin caught my interest because of the huge amount of email spam that is sent out every day that contains pornography and child pornography. There are things you can do to help protect children and keep your own home safe.

The laws are so strict about child pornography because simply viewing this material means you know that laws were broken in order for these pictures to appear at all, and if you don't report the crime, you are allowing these criminals to escape prosecution.

I recommend making a report to National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Reporting Site if you ever receive an email with this type of content.

I also recommend using a mail filtering system on your computer, such as MailWasher that allows you to delete spam before any images appear on your computer. This program is so good because it allows you to bounce back spam so the spammers think your email address isn't valid. Whatever you do, do not click on any links that appear within these emails, even those which promise to remove you from mailing lists. Clicking on the links proves to the spammers that they have found a valid email address.

Knowing how to report this crime allows you to help yourself too. You can help stop this exploitation and empower yourself at the same time. Any time you take positive steps to protect yourself you are taking another step on the road to recovery and a healthy, full life.