93c Venner Road,
Sydenham,
London SE26 5HU.
020 8659 7713
E-Mail A_Baron@ABaron.Demon.Co.UK
December 11, 2003
Dear Sir,
I am writing to you on a matter of some concern. Like most
Internet users I am deluged with spam and unsolicited E-mails.
Many of these are of a sexual or even pornographic nature
advertising penis enlargement formulae, photographs and hard core
videos. Some of these "porno-spams" have no headings, some come
apparently from known users, some have innocuous or misleading
headings. Most, fortunately, do not contain actual photographs but
simply links to websites, or advertisements. A while ago I
received an E-mail which advertised under-age boys engaged in
sexual activity. I clicked on it and it contained a photograph of
what could have been an under-age boy performing fellatio. I was
concerned about this and immediately contacted my ISP. The Demon
helpline told me to forward the headers from the message to
abuse@demon.net, but not to forward the actual image, and under no
circumstances to save it.
I posted a message about this to Usenet and was informed by one
correspondent that I probably wouldn't be breaking the law by
receiving the E-mail, something I found less than reassuring.
I would be most grateful if you could clarify the legal position,
not just for my benefit but for the benefit of all Internet users.
In particular, what should people do if they receive such
photographs? Should they save them to hard disk and forward them
to the police? Should they delete them at once? Should they report
them to their ISP? What if an apparently innocuous E-mail contains
one? Is one committing a criminal offence by opening an E-mail
under any circumstances, and if so what?
It is estimated that a third of all British households now have
access to the Internet; in practice Internet users are probably in
the majority. This is therefore an extremely important legal
matter. I have enclosed a page from a recent issue of the Times
weekend magazine. Although horrific, this extremely well-known
photograph of a naked girl from the Vietnam War is not construed
as pornographic. Occasionally too we are assailed with naked
children on TV and even on advertisement hoardings, usually
advertising toilet roll or some such. As ignorance of the law is
no excuse and as we have recently had media hysteria over
paedophiles, it should be possible to lay down clear and
unambiguous guidelines about what constitutes a criminal offence
under these circumstances, and I would be most grateful if you
could do this.
Yours Sincerely,
A Baron
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