Internet exhibitionsim?

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People having sex or masturbating on a webcam. Especially in chatrooms with names like "girls watch guys slapping the salami here". Obviously there will be a lot of men on there posing as girls. More importantly there could be people under 18 too. Any cases of people getting in trouble for it? I'm not talking about pedophiles trying to arrange meetings with underage girls, I'm talking about people who show off anonymously and that's it. A person could say they are 15 or 30 and you'd never know. Does it matter?I know it goes on, I'm just wondering how it could be so common unless its not illegal (or is never enforced).

it is enforced occasionaly, but it is enforced by good folks more often

I didn't get what you meant by "enforced by good folks more often". Like normally laws are enforced by bad people?

well there are some laws inforced and created by some bad folks as well as good folks

In places like Miami, New Orleans, Houston, and Los Angeles, the laws are enforced by bad people. But I digress.I never heard of anyone getting busted for doing things on camera. I've only heard of police going after adults who prey on children. Otherwise the police would spend a lot of time going after things that are hard to prove, and may or may not be illegal.

here's what i feel... 2 things make all the difference in sexual contact... adult and concent.

If only this were a perfect (libertarian) world. But the real world is more complex. You really do need to keep track of what's legal and what's not, in certain locales, even among consenting people.What about explicit sites that underagers can access?

How would you find out what the laws are? Also, doesn't the fact of the internet crossing state and national borders affect this?

Sort of related to the question of sites with adult content that underagers can access, if someone states that they are 18 (like on a profile or if they have to click a statement to get in) then is anyone liable if it turns out they were just lying?

I agree though that it seems that the police would be pretty busy if they went after the benign cases (if you belive that a young'un seeing a penis is benign). Hopefully they are spending their time tracking down the people who try to lure kids to danger.

In reply to:How would you find out what the laws are?Statutes for all U.S. laws, state, federal, and local, are published and generally available in law and major public libraries...and possibly, on-line. Of course it would be ridiculous to expect anyone to sit down and read all the books, but ignorance of the law is not an acceptable excuse for breaking the law, according to the judges.In reply to:Also, doesn't the fact of the internet crossing state and national borders affect this?It just makes things more complicated, not better. The U.S. Supreme Court established this doctrine a couple of decades or so ago that "local community standards" would determine what is legal in a given locality. Therefore, could have strip joints would be legal in LA, but in Knoxville, an adult bookstore might not be allowed. Then the Internet came about and screwed up everything. But the "local standards" thing seems to have effectively gone out the window.In reply to:Sort of related to the question of sites with adult content that underagers can access, if someone states that they are 18 (like on a profile or if they have to click a statement to get in) then is anyone liable if it turns out they were just lying?What happens if someone buys beer with a fake ID? Both parties are violating the law, but the beer seller is in much bigger trouble.In reply to:I agree though that it seems that the police would be pretty busy if they went after the benign cases (if you believe that a young'un seeing a penis is benign). Hopefully they are spending their time tracking down the people who try to lure kids to danger.I think that is the case. The problem with having unenforced laws on the books, however, is that they're dusted off from time to time and used against people that the authorities don't like. The sodomy statutes are an example of this.

In reply to:I know it goes on, I'm just wondering how it could be so common unless its not illegal (or is never enforced). It's an interesting topic, and it definitely doesn't have clear boundaries. In most countries, exhibitionism or exposing yourself publicly, is illegal. One could argue that exposing yourself on a publicly accessible webcam is exhibitionism too, and should be illegal. But willingly exposing yourself on a webcam viewable by the public is not illegal. I'm not sure if someone under the age of 18 exposes themselves on their own webcam vieweable by the public is considered illegal, since they are voluntarily doing so. I don't think the law is clear on this. I haven't heard of any cases of minors getting in trouble with the law for exposing themselves on webcams. What's also not clear is if a minor views another minor on a webcam masturbating or naked is illegal? It would be illegal for an adult to view such a webcam (assuming the adult knows its a minor), but would it be illegal for another minor to view it? Not clear. What is illegal is for an adult to view a webcam of a minor who is exposing themselves, when that adult knows it is a minor on the webcam. It becomes more tricky when the minor lies about their age (saying they're 18 or older when they're really not), and the adult viewing the webcam doesn't know they are really viewing a minor. These cases can be almost impossible to prove either way. My guess is law enforcement doesn't bother with these cases, and instead focuses on trying to nail sexual predators who are asking minors to do sexual things on a webcam, trading pictures or videos of minors, or trying to meet minors in person for sexual acts. Which I agree is where the focus should be. There is a real threat to kids with sexual predators trying to get them to do things through their webcams. But is there a threat to kids when there is a minor masturbating in front of their webcam willingly (i.e. no one asked them to do so), and having fun doing so?

In reply to: perfect (libertarian) That's an oxymoron!

i like having webcam fun on the internet... lol its fun and anonymous

It's anonymous until somebody recognizes you.

small, small chance... lol

well...if it's a chance you're willing to take...

yup. def'nately worth it

In reply to: perfect (libertarian) that's an oxymoron! So is perfect capitalism, communism, etc, etc... They are all good ideas until you bugger them up by adding people to the equasion

Hey, I'm being dissed to the second degree.By "perfect (libertarian)", I was rhetorically referring to a world where, if two adults consent to do something with each other that won't harm others, and the consent is informed, no one would bother them. The real world is a lot more complicated than that (outside of Holland). There will be endless debate over the word "harm" (e.g., to society?). And some people will find some acts so distasteful that they don't think anyone should be allowed to do them (e.g., sodomy in Georgia).And of course children can't give informed consent.unsupervised, a word maven like you must understand that "perfect" is not a synonym for "really, really good"; e.g., "perfect evil".

SteveA you a teacher???? (just being nosey)

Are you kidding? I'd piss off the school board and get fired inside of five minutes.

Nope, just a pedantic, didactic engineer who specializes in such dry subjects as digital signal processing, rhythm guitar, Swedish massage, and political musing.

I don't actually know anything. I just read a lot.