NationStates Jolt Archive

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian police apologized on Thursday after inadvertently sending Internet images of child pornography to 1,800 schools while trying to warn principals about children at risk of abuse.

The mistake came during a police crackdown on child pornography that has so far resulted in more than 200 arrests, including police, teachers, clergy and the owner of a child-care center, after more than 400 raids.

Police assistant commissioner Graeme Morgan said human error had resulted in "partial images" of child pornography being sent to 1,800 government-run schools across New South Wales, Australia's most populous state.

"This is a very unfortunate incident and we deeply regret it happened. A full internal investigation is underway," Morgan said in a statement.

Morgan said the images of three young girls had been sent to the state's Department of Education (news - web sites). The photographs sent by police and found during the arrest of a man suspected of possessing child pornography, had been cropped to show only the girls' faces.

However, inadequate software had been used in the cropping process and the full images remained embedded in some files, which were later opened by a handful of recipients, he said.

"This resulted in pornographic material being accidentally sent to the department for distribution to school principals in an effort to identify the children at risk," Morgan said.

He said police have made an urgent request for all unopened files to be deleted and for printed images to be destroyed. About 80 percent of the e-mails have had already been opened, he said.

Morgan said police have so far been unable to locate the girls who were in the photographs.

Source: Yahoo News (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=757&e=6&u=/nm/20041126/od_nm/australia_pornography_dc)

:shock:

Seriously, though, doesn't everyone know what child porn is? I don't think you need to send pictures, in the first place, to explain it...

Seriously, though, doesn't everyone know what child porn is? I don't think you need to send pictures, in the first place, to explain it...

From what I read, the pictures were sent to try to identify the girls who had been used in the porn so the school officials would know who to look for. I certainly would want my child to be found so they could testify in court against the people who made the child porn.

From what I read, the pictures were sent to try to identify the girls who had been used in the porn so the school officials would know who to look for. I certainly would want my child to be found so they could testify in court against the people who made the child porn.

It still defeats the purpose.

If I found out that police were sending pictures of my child to the public, even eduational institutions, I would sue them quicker than the drop of a hat. Perhaps, if the police would go after those that are taking the pictures and the pedophiles themselves, then, they could more easily identify the children in the pictures.

My question is: What if someone at those 1,800 institutions is a pedophile? Well, they just got one heck of a show...

It still defeats the purpose.

If I found out that police were sending pictures of my child to the public, even eduational institutions, I would sue them quicker than the drop of a hat.

Perhaps that is the difference between us, Tuesday. I would not sue them. They are trying to find the victims of a crime. I would not protest such a thing unless they were trying to find the victims so they could put the victims in jail for lewd conduct or something. Now *that* would piss me off.

It still defeats the purpose.

If I found out that police were sending pictures of my child to the public, even eduational institutions, I would sue them quicker than the drop of a hat. Perhaps, if the police would go after those that are taking the pictures and the pedophiles themselves, then, they could more easily identify the children in the pictures.

My question is: What if someone at those 1,800 institutions is a pedophile? Well, they just got one heck of a show...

The evidence will be underneath the desk then.

http://www.nbizz.com/yourgrandmothersattic/listings/13.gif
Australians wear cool hats.

It still defeats the purpose.

If I found out that police were sending pictures of my child to the public, even eduational institutions, I would sue them quicker than the drop of a hat. Perhaps, if the police would go after those that are taking the pictures and the pedophiles themselves, then, they could more easily identify the children in the pictures.That is absolutely insane.

That is absolutely insane.

Care to elaborate?

I'm getting a bit tired of people on these forums throwing out absolutely nothing but dribble to up their post counts.

I can see where my logic is faulty, yes, because I, too, would be subjecting my child to a public debauchle, and I can as such, retract my statement.

Seriously, though, Spof, if you aren't going to add anything constructive, go away.

if trying to find the identity of the girls they should have croped it to just the face. to avoid legal action and moral problems.

i dont think they ment to send those pictures but rather some compleetly differnt pictures. it seems the kiddy porn was not ment to have any thing to do with thie child abuse awereness

My question is: What if someone at those 1,800 institutions is a pedophile? Well, they just got one heck of a show...If such a person is a paedophile, then they'll just add it to their many thousands of images they've already collected, and eventually they'll be caught. Frankly though, it was gross incompetence, and the people responsible ought to be fired.

if trying to find the identity of the girls they should have croped it to just the face. to avoid legal action and moral problems.
That's what they tried to do, but apparently they weren't too successful. I'm not entirely sure how one can really fuck that up, but I guess you should never underestimate the police.

* T.R. Kom kind of wonders how many people here are actually in Australia and actually know anything about Australian police or in any way are at all valid to judge Australian police, by which I mean how many people who see fit to judge them are actually Australian. Like me, heh.

We are not quite part of America yet, you know, :rolleyes:

Now, I'd have to say this is a sad accident. While I applaud my police force for trying to identify young victims of such abuse, I am sad to see that a cock-up has sprung from this worthy attempt. And no that was not some kind of sick pun back there. I can only hope the method is applied more carefully next time so as to be more effective in identifying victims of crime so as to aid the tracking down of perpetrators of these ... vile acts.

I also bloody well hope they use software with a better bloody crop feature, too. Who the hell did we buy that from ? :D

That being said, yes, our hats are pretty bloody cool, ;)

If such a person is a paedophile, then they'll just add it to their many thousands of images they've already collected, and eventually they'll be caught. Frankly though, it was gross incompetence, and the people responsible ought to be fired.

I concur with your sentiments exactly. You don't even need a decent knowledge of photocropping to do it properly...