“This is why I am skeptical about authorities “finding” child porn on people’s computers.”
Absolutely. Something no talks about is that the content doesn’t even actually have to be physically in your files. A user can be deceptively lured into clicking a text line/URL that forwards to a porn source unintentionally. And once your browser “downloads and renders” that site it has now legally been “downloaded to your computer” whether you actually meant to or not. So just having that URL page load logged is enough to hang you even if nothing from the source has been intentionally downloaded to your files.
“it has now legally been “downloaded to your computer” whether you actually meant to or not. “
But consider that for most laws to be prosecuted, there has to be willful intent. If the link was titled “Click here to view child porn” and was clicked, that is proof of intent. If it was titled “Click here to see Washington cherry blossoms in springtime”, that shows there was no intent.
If I take the wrong umbrella when leaving a restaurant, although technically I did indeed take someone else’s umbrella, I don’t get charged with stealing if I can show I accidentally took one that looked like mine.
I go one such site when I tried to go to coasttocoastam.com maybe 25 years ago. I missed the am part of the url and got a naked bodies site. Fortunately it was adults which could ding up in the unlikely event that I were to run for office but wouldn’t get me arrested by feds. Now I have software that blocks these sites and emails with porn urls.