Connecticut man consults Apple Genius and gets arrested

External hard drives are your friends.

My neighbor asked me to look at his computer and get it fixed a few years ago, and I agreed since back then I was nice to people.

On the desktop was a folder called Kazaa Downloads, so naturally I expected that to be the location of the malware and virus's that were plaguing his system.

After cleaning up everything and getting it working, i stupidly opened that kazaa folder. It was full of preteen and teen boys having sex with each other. I called the FBI and they came out and inspected it, etc and since they couldnt prove who downloaded the pictures no one was charged.

I dont touch anyones computer anymore, that screwed with my head for a long time.

So Geniuses open your image files when looking for problems huh?

This sounds like the very thing that happened to British 'glam rock' star Gary Glitter!

For all you people crying about child mosters and child porn, did you ever stop to think that maybe that the pictures are of girls 15-18? In some states 16 is legal. Perhaps the guy is maybe 18 -20? I think you guys should get the facts before you judge. I'm sure a vast majority of men in the United States under the age of 21 have at least 1 nude picture some girl sent them. Hell, some probably think the girl is 18 or older because, you know, girls lie about there age a lot. Im not saying its right, if it is actual child porn, but for all you know it could be like 3 nudes from some random girls he knows. It doesn't even specify how many pictures were found. I hate how we are so quick to judge people.

this is why you should have a second admin account with a strong password of course, on your machine just for tech support.
and use file vault so no matter how your mac is booted your account cannot be accessed because music, pictures and files will be looked at by tech people. it is human nature. spotlight makes searching so much easier remember.
pretty female brings her mac/pc for support her pics will be looked at.
person with lots of music will have it copied.
you have an idea or project you're working on, keep it secret.
start with the idea of security and you won't have to remember to enable it.
if you have a laptop, does it require password to login? if not easily stolen and resold.
does your laptop enable password lock when screensaver or sleep are enabled? if not easily searched when you are away.
have you enabled firmware password so your mac cannot be booted by dvd or attached disc? if not your mac can be searched.

I'm not saying anything. I'm just saying.

Child pornography is wrong. Period. But, given the way the data was obtained and the potential for error, I think it's messed up that the author mentions the guy's name and location in the post when he hasn't been convicted. That's damaging to anyone with the same name in Fairfield.

Shame on you Mel. Uh, isn't this supposed to be a tech site? If so, why does your article go from "allegedly" to publishing the guys name within 2 sentences? All you ninnies who want to jump on the "kill the perv" bandwagon, fine. I agree... Once he's convicted.

In the meantime this is TUAW, not USA Today or Fox news, so lets respect some boundaries here. What if the guy doesn't have kiddy porn? What if it turns out the girls were just young-looking and actually consenting adults? What if the pictures were installed by malware? (Oh, that's right, no malware on Macs). Now the guys name is forever associated with being a perv, & he hasn't even been convicted.

Shame.

"Pictures of naked juvenile girls in suggestive poses" is NOT child pornography! There are 100% legal "nude modeling" websites all over the internet for anyone to join. Unless there is a sexual act going on, its not pornography.

If "suggestive poses" is porn, then every modeling/beauty/popularity/teen magazine on the shelf is pornography.

I'm glad his pictures weren't of boys!

OK. You just killed your spouse and are trying to shove them in the trunk of your car, only, their arm keeps getting stuck. So you go to a mechanic and ask him to help you fix the trunk so that it will properly close. Does the mechanic have a legal obligation to report you or does he just fix the trunk and collect his fee and move on? Hmmm.

The guy must be retarded or he wanted to get busted. Did he not understand that the pictures were wrong? I mean, seriously.

If you see something as SICK AND WRONG as child pornography, ANYWHERE, regardless of whether or not you have a legal reason to do so, you have a MORAL obligation to report it.

We live in a society and with that we are beholden to one another to ensure each others safety.