Seriously, what would you all do if this happened here?

I am very curious about honest answers to this. What would you do if a new member here posted things of a criminal nature. Such as abuse against a child, huge robbery or something really serious....would you ignore it or feel compelled to contact authorities?

I spoke to a friend of mine this evening and she was telling me about her mom's neighbor who is into online forums (she's obese, has few real life friends, and basically lives online). Well this lady saw posts by a man who is really into minors sexually and has had impulses. Supposedly the guy has never acted on them.

Anyway, my friend looked on this particular forum and read the posts.

I told my friend to absolutely not send me the links she read from this particular forum as I don't want anything like that on my computer. But she did read them on her own and I asked her if she felt like she should do something. She acted like it was nothing. Granted, it probably is. But this guy apparently went into great detail about how it is getting more and more difficult to process the urges and he is staying with his brother and pre-teen niece.

Honestly, if that ever happened on a fourum I was a regular at, I would probably do nothing out of fear of being an alarmist. But I would never visit that forum again.

If I came across something that didturbing I would probably do pretty much what Shale said about reporting it to whoever ran the site.

hell yeah report them....

I have never come across that in a forum honestly. BUT... i was a phone sex operator..and I heard A LOT of crazy crap... but there was one guy who used to call me and tell me that he had to talk to me and pretend that i was his daughter so that he did not attack her!!! It was REALLY freaky. I tried to report him to the service, but because in that situation it is indeed a fantasy situation, law enforcement will not act on such declarations. NO matter how upset I was, or how graphic his fantasies.

wants2laugh wrote:hell yeah report them....

I have never come across that in a forum honestly. BUT... i was a phone sex operator..and I heard A LOT of crazy crap... but there was one guy who used to call me and tell me that he had to talk to me and pretend that i was his daughter so that he did not attack her!!! It was REALLY freaky. I tried to report him to the service, but because in that situation it is indeed a fantasy situation, law enforcement will not act on such declarations. NO matter how upset I was, or how graphic his fantasies.

My goodness, that is quite the situation. That had to be so difficult for you.

wants2laugh wrote:hell yeah report them....

I have never come across that in a forum honestly. BUT... i was a phone sex operator..and I heard A LOT of crazy crap... but there was one guy who used to call me and tell me that he had to talk to me and pretend that i was his daughter so that he did not attack her!!! It was REALLY freaky. I tried to report him to the service, but because in that situation it is indeed a fantasy situation, law enforcement will not act on such declarations. NO matter how upset I was, or how graphic his fantasies.

I feel so dirty after reading that. I need a shower.

Shale wrote:It is the Internet. We know nothing for certain about anyone we encounter on it.

But there are cops out here cruising as underage boys & girls looking for ppl stupid enuf to believe anything on the Net. Usually if I find something that looks borderline illegal on a forum board, I send a report to the Webmaster. Usually others do the same and the thread is removed as well as the person.

I honestly wouldn't do shit. The forum manager reads the forum, he can take care of it.

I would have had no clue what to do. I never knew there was a forum manager, would that be Chris? I'd let them take care of the issue.

Cheaps wrote:I would have had no clue what to do. I never knew there was a forum manager, would that be Chris? I'd let them take care of the issue.

Most forum boards have a 'Report' button to make complaints about a specific post. This goes to the 'moderator' or 'Webmaster' who have permissions to delete posts.

I would suspend their account, hide their posts and – depending on what it was they posted – alert their ISP. Fortunately that hasn't happened here; let's hope it doesn't.