U.K. Fears Camera Phones� Use By Pedophiles

from the fear-mongering dept

Joe Schmoe writes in with a story about folks in the UK being worried about camera phones being used by pedophiles and asks the question: "I suggest this not so much for this particular article, but rather note a trend and to pose a question. What is it lately with the recently new and growing fear that all new tech will go pedo? GPS... Thumbdrives... Phonecams..." It's true. As terrible as pedophilia is, this is a case where people are blaming the technology, and not the sick criminals who are the problem. Pedophilia is a crime. Use of a camera (or some other technology) shouldn't be banned just because it can be used for criminal purposes.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 20 Jun 2003 @ 1:24pm

    No Subject Given

    This is ridiculous - everything in existance can potentially be used for illegal purposes, so are we going to have to ban the use of anything?!

    Oh dear, I could potentially hide chemical weapons in a bottle of water - lets ban water!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Joe Scmoe, 24 Jun 2003 @ 1:20pm

    For the curious

    If you were curious as to what [very cool looking] phone was in the picture for that article, it appears to be a Sony Ericsson SO505i

    http://mobile.burn.com/review.jsp?Page=1&Id=368

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    anonymous, 2 Jan 2004 @ 3:33pm

    pedophilia

    pedophilia is not a crime acting on it with an unwilling partner is a crime. educate yourself first before spouting off all of what you have heard the media say & print.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    anonymous, 2 Jan 2004 @ 10:53pm

    pedophilia

    sex is not just for grown ups here take a look at this site.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/child/story/0,7369,1075927,00.html

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    anonymous, 4 Jan 2004 @ 11:57am

    pedophilia

    I wish a distinction were more often made in the media between �paedophilia� and �child sex killing.� After Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) is the English author who is best known world-wide. Though a leading mathematician and Oxford academic of his day, Carroll not only wrote many stories with young girls like his �Alice in wonderland� in mind. He also took photographs of such girls as scantily clad as he could arrange; he told his sister that he spent 50% of his waking hours planning, undertaking and reflecting upon his assignations with these girls; and he eventually proposed marriage to his long-standing favourite, Alice Liddell, when she was seventeen. (For reference, see: History Today 46, 5, 1996, 'A picture of innocence', Charles Townsend; and Observer, 8th March 1998, Natasha Walter.) (However, some represent Carroll more as an ephebophile, saying that his relatives played up his liaisons with under-14's because 14 was in those days the age at which girls were first expected to excite sexual interest -- http://www.thecore.nus.edu.sg/landow/victorian/carroll/dreamchild/dreamchild2.html.)

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.