RE: Steemit Pedophile Ring Exposed
Now hold on just one minute...
Before we start throwing around SERIOUS ACCUSATIONS I think it's important to get something clear before the torches are lit and pitch fork wielding righteous indignation fully takes over...
- Following does not necessarily indicate support, neither in whole or in part.
- Following does not necessarily indicate agreement, neither in whole or in part.
- Users should not be required to make sure there's no objectionable content in someones posting history before they hit follow.
- You are not responsible for the actions of those you follow.
- Users gain followers for any number of meaningless impersonal reasons
(following can be automated, following can be calculated, following can be strategic, following can be frivolous) - Even upvoting doesn't necessarily imply anything.
(voting can be automated, voting can be calculated, voting can be strategic, voting can be frivolous)
PS:
Standard of evidence vs level of accusation...
May I suggest that the "proof" fit the level of accusation in future.
"Child sex ring" is a serious claim and demands a high level of evidence. Please watch that, you can't take something like this back. Only claim what you can support or you risk making someone look better if it's determined you over-accused them.
More on that evidence...
I had to go look for the single image presented as evidence as there was no link to it (no the title doesn't prove anything). On it's own the photo wouldn't be sufficient to meet the burden of proof. There nothing pornographic about it neither is it a certainty that the subjects age is under 18.
If I didn't keep looking and it were just this image as was claimed as "proof" I would have accused you of being guilty of unconscionable slander, but I did keep looking and it's the combined collection of images that a pattern is clearly formed, especially the voyeristic nature creepiness and sexual titles.
THAT is the evidence.
Evidence, mind you, not "proof".
FACT:
The image was not child porn
The image was not even porn
I'm not sure why you chose such a poor example as "proof" but in any case one shouldn't be congratulated in presenting one photo of a girl that could be easily over 18 and claiming it as "proof" of a child sex ring on steemit!
All of the ones I saw were not directly pornographic (all clothed in public and most late teens with some possible mid-teen) , there was one exception which was one of a topless girl which cannot be argued reasonably looks over 18. The ages of the others ranged from uncertain to really pushing credulity. Mixed with that are a number of posts of young legal professional photos.
There's a lot of porn posted here that's perfectly legal (maybe not from a copyrighted sense) and we don't need every young looking image or those labelled as "teen" (age 18+ is legal) being accused of being child porn and all those who upvoted and followed the user as part of a pedophile ring because someone doesn't want their young 14 year old son finding porn here.
Speaking of which, I mean... really? A mother says they saw child porn and asks, what if their 14 year old son saw it? Quite a strange remark... It implies they actually saw a totally different photo than the one cited as "PROOF" in this post. If not, then they must be saying they're okay with their 14 year old son seeing hardcore legal porn on Steemit and NOT okay seeing a photo of a girl his age or older taken in public, clothed and which is only sexualised by the title. Which is it?
This is a post that led to various members of the community being attacked as "guilty by association".
Shame on the accuser!
Here is the "🔥🔥🔥 Helping Daddy With Dinner 🔥🔥🔥" photo
I won't be trusting anything from sensational @titusfrost again.
Just curious.. why have you chosen to display this particular picture. Why not highlight the pictures in this post: https://steemit.com/nsfw/@iamgod/beautiful-metart-girl-jasmina? Or is that too, okay according to you and fit for Steemit?
This may or may not be considered a paedophile ring, but is that really the question here? Under any definition, a girl exposing her vagina and posing for the camera, with or without her consent, whatever be her age, is PORNOGRAPHY. And porn should have no place on any social network.
If you want to get rid of all porn, you can have that debate. Accusing people of being part of a paedophile ring shouldn't be part of that...
There is no scope for a debate on this issue. Steemit is open to anyone over 13 years of age and having porn circulating, when a minor can easily access it, is blatantly wrong.
And stop getting stuck on a word , "peadophile ring" ... those images maybe of adult girls, but they are intentionally made to appear young, with the sole purpose of attracting those who like child porn. The question here is not, if this a peadofile ring. It should simply be, is the content that was uploaded acceptable? Is it ok for a 13 year old to stumble upon it?
Freedom of speech and expression, is great, as long as it doesn't offend someone else's sentiments. Make a private group of something, if you wish to trade sexually explicit content, but to protect minors on this platform, we need to put a stop on obscene, objectionable ,content.
There's going to be lots of porn on this platform. Hope it doesn't bother you too much.
There is always going to be lots of crime in the world, by your reasoning it shouldn't bother one too much. Everyone should just accept it as a flaw in humanity and do nothing about it. No?
All those who are actively trying to do something about spam on this platform, should stop. I mean it shouldn't bother one too much. Right?
I don't agree and praise those who at least try and do something about these issues.
Just because people will post porn, doesn't mean that it is ok and no one should do anything about it.
My reasoning was not included in the post. My reasoning is that the anti-porn view is a minority position with little power on the platform compared to the anti-censorship position.
Most movements start with a minority only, they just need to get traction. The words used in the title of the list, may not be perfect, but the basic idea behind it is sound and that's what one should focus on.
You mean the one where @steemcleaners found the original source on an ADULT porn site?
The girl is young, but could easily be over 18.
Why are you advertising these pictures now? This girl could be easily under 18 as well.
Not sure how is this going to prove your point that these pictures are considered okay.
please refrain from advertising such contents. This is clearly to test the waters and see if there are people approving of these things, using tantalizing pictures of maybe 18 maybe not. This could easily accelerate rapidly to becoming child porn site if gained enough support. Beside the guy is plagiarizing all his contents as I understood. This is something frowned upon in steemit.
I just cant understand what you were thinking posting these pictures here!!
I'm not proving she's over 18. I'm arguing that these accusations are incredibly harmful, and @titusfrost should be careful that he doesn't get sued for slander. The people he has accused have had their reputation ruined. That means money lost due to accusations that have no proof! The @iamgod guy probably is a paedophile, based on his crude comments on the clothed girls, but we're talking about young clothed girls out in public sitting in a park or just wearing hot pants. That is not porn! That's just a pervert! And an upvote doesn't signify agreement.
Are you accusing me here of being affiliated with this?
You think I'm endorsing and "testing the waters" for child porn???
I am not defending @iamgod. I would downvote him myself simply for being perverted in his remarks on the women. I am defending the others who are accused by association of being paedophiles! And to do so, I want people to see the innocence of what they actually upvoted, because I believe most people are assuming the worst and are too afraid to actually look at the posts.
You forgot I mentioned that most of @IamGod's content is stolen copyright material from adult porn sites, I said that right in the article and the Met Art post you linked to was never mentioned in my post because it was of an adult. Now the two posts of girls underage CLEARLY showing their nipples is Child Porn. Furthermore the girl in the thong post looks about 14 to me. Which would make that child porn as well.
Then there is the borderline posts, but with comments like "pedo bear seal of approval" see:
Thank you for your reply.
I was not accusing you of anything in my remark. What I meant by that remark "This is clearly to test the waters and see if there are people approving of these things" is that @iamgod is testing the waters to see if there will be people interested in what he offers. However, I certainly didn't appreciate you putting pictures I didn't chose to see. f I wanted, I would have done it without being forced to see it shoved into my face.
If you think "The @iamgod guy probably is a paedophile, based on his crude comments on the clothed girls, but we're talking about young clothed girls out in public sitting in a park or just wearing hot pants. That is not porn! That's just a pervert! And an upvote doesn't signify agreement."
if he could possibly be a pedophile and certainly a pervert, then this is the more reason to be aware of his actions and flag him out of steemit as you indicated.
As for the possibly innocent people that upvoted and got involved in the accusation. I said in my replies before and I will say it again. I invite them to build trust with steemians and build their reputation again. They will be supported if people find they are sincere.
Yes, I agree with the flagging. It is the "guilty by association" post I am disputing should not have been endorsed. They didn't get involved voluntarily as far as we know. Their upvotes could be automated as said by others and labelling these things as "child porn" makes people scared to look, which means who was to know that the "helping daddy with dinner" post was actually a grown woman!
Why do you believe somebody accused of such slander should have to rebuild trust that they should not have lost in the first place had it not for being misled by this sensationalised post!? It is @titusfrost's responsibility to issue an apology to his followers and admit that he exaggerated the nature of these posts. He is responsible for the witchhunt.
It is his responsibility to call off his dogs!
I agree that @titusfrost should probably apologize for using strong words in his post. However, I still support his stance of condemning a bad behavior and depending on how much he believes in what he did, his strong feelings appeared in his actions and words.
About the people you spoke of making automatic votes. They still have responsibility for their votes (automatic or not) as well. Everyone is responsible for their actions or lack of it. I say this because I feel strongly against pedophilia as well.
We are all working to build trust and reputation anyway. Nothing is wrong with that. If they don't want to, it's up to them. However, I don't see how @titusfrost apology will change much if they just pretend to be victims of their own choices without proving themselves to be sincere.
@therealwolf himself said that he found other "unacceptable contents" but he upvoted one he found acceptable, which was not child porn! This means he made a voting choice fully aware of the other contents. No?
Good job you found one of many of these:
she looks 12-13
She's actually a cover girl for MET-ART
http://met-art.adultimages.org/met-art-jasmina-presenting/
Unlikely that they would be publishing underage girls
The last few pictures of this post were disgusting. And looking under 18 or young, is generally preferred to satisfy those who enjoy child porn. So even if she is technically 18, it still doesn't change the fact that she looks like a young teen, and these pictures will attract those who get aroused looking at young naked girls (not adult women)
That's funny you are not posting the other two posts I marked which are child porn.
Fine bye. See ya.
They're not child porn. Go ahead and call the police to have me arrested. I live in Ireland.
Even if these did constitute porn, which they don't, not all the people you accused upvoted these. The majority of the posts are even tamer than this.
Dude are you fucking kidding me!
Those images show clearly under age girls nipples clear as day, that is fucking child porn you disgusting fuck.
So call the police.
I can easily find photos like this on facebook, and even they have an irrational no nipples policy. Just because you see a nipple doesn't make it porn.
Genitalia and sexual activity with children was what I was too afraid to see in those posts. That would suggest serious child abuse! Not a nipple we can see on any man on a hot day or woman at the beach!
What you implied with this post were serious accusations that led to a witch hunt. I'm sure I'm not the only person who feared the worst after reading this post!
Cherry picking to suit your argument.
Thanks for proving my point.
Where is the explicit description? Where is the sexual activity?
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1998/act/22/section/2/enacted/en/html
“child pornography” means—
(a) any visual representation—
(i) that shows or, in the case of a document, relates to a person who is or is depicted as being a child and who is engaged in or is depicted as being engaged in explicit sexual activity,
(ii) that shows or, in the case of a document, relates to a person who is or is depicted as being a child and who is or is depicted as witnessing any such activity by any person or persons
I will have you note, no where in the Irish legal definition does it require "genitalia" to be shown, and had you not removed those images from my blog I was going to call the Irish National Police Force this morning. You post any more content like that and I will be calling and I have your car's license plate number. 172-KE-313.
You want to call my bluff again go ahead I dare you.
What sexual organs or activity is shown in the photos??? Note that nipples are not genitalia.
Why are you so worried about then? Because you know that authorities would agree that is fact child porn, by definition.
And for people being so worried about money generated from this post that he's said he'll donate, how much money have y'all made on your child porn? Sick f@cks! People really need cut the pedophile sympathy bs, that's a sickness itself.
For one this is complete libel, you are referencing one person, not "various members".
The One person you are referencing, up voted on a post of that girl that looks about 14 years old standing in a thong. I stated the evidence against him clearly above, I showed people the post, and I did not include the picture of the girl I believe is under age. For you to re post that content without knowing the age of the girl, is despicable. Just leave the link if you must.
Furthermore the account @IAmGod was the main object of the story and thus the shame should be on them not me. Seriously shame on the accuser? GTFO of here.
What basis do you have for this?
While I fully accept your reasoning, in the UK you could potentially be accused of being part of a 'ring' by virtue of your follow. I would suspect the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) would see your upvote as an indication of participation in that group even if the upvote was for a benign post. I've just had a quick read through the "Joint Enterprise" law (Section 48) https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/assets/uploads/files/Joint_Enterprise.pdf which deals with social media specifically, Facebook gets a mention. While it talks about violence and robbery it repeatedly states "Crime" and child porn is a crime. I'm no lawyer but I suspect anyone associated with those accounts might come under a spotlight somewhere down the line.
It's great that people make the community or at the very least the moderators aware of this kind of thing, my only worry is there are idiots out there who will go and have a look if only to see what all the fuss is about.
#TwoPenneth
Did you ignore the rest of my post?
Or are you just being technical?
You're wrong of course otherwise being subscribed to a youtube channel or following someone on Twitter would also implicate you in the same way. There's no way they would take that argument seriously. I see you didn't think that Steemit holds an even greater potential legal responsibility and not to mention all the bots set up to send upvotes for SBD you could claim are funding them. They aren't implicated but potentially numerous bot driven upvotes and followers have been and which you've argued could be technically justified when such "direct" funding and hosting is objectively far more serious. You can't defend the idea that they can be said to be a "ring" without implicating Steemit and the whale vote bots even more.
And if you want to get technical, as I said, the image was not actually child porn. It wasn't even porn, and it's absolutely NOT clear the girl is under 18 anyway. What was nsfw about it? The headline.
Umm? I think PC Plod would disagree with your "You're wrong of course" any self-respecting rozzer will use communications with criminals as evidence of complicity. Ignorance is no defence in the UK and many European countries too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignorantia_juris_non_excusat so saying "We'll yeah, detective. I follow them but I'm not involved in any of that stuff." possibly won't be believed.
I've read what I suspect is your second paragraph starting "I see you didn't think that Steemit holds an even greater potential legal ".... three times now and I still have no idea what you're talking about.
TBH. I don't care. I've not looked at the accounts, I have no intention of looking at the accounts. I'm not sure why, but you seem to be coming across as aggressive IMO so I'll leave you to it.
The thing is @dickturpin - someone on a site like steemit, doesn't even need to click on the article to upvote it. Not only that, even if they had clicked the article, seen the photo - who is to say that they believed the photo was of an underage person. The photo in question looks like someone who could be of age. A third argument I would like to make is that on a site like steemit, I personally would never imagine someone posting child pornography. This is not that type of site, and people are not stupid enough to post such harmful things on the internet, where they can be linked to their account. Someone who enjoys posts of nudity, could have upvoted the article, with the assumption that content posted on steemit is safe and legal.
This is why people should not just blanket upvote. They should give their voting some thought before clicking on the button. Most sensible people read a document before signing it, upvoting is no different IMO. :-)
Do you honestly think paedophiles care about what social media platforms think is acceptable? Given they are aware their activities are illegal they will always use a service until they are closed down.
Upvoting an signing are completely different things - Thats not my opinion that's just a fact.
And yes, I absolutely do think pedophiles care what media platforms they use, given how it is highly illegal and they most likely will be investigated by a body of authority and a legal case will be started against them. Pedophiles post their content through the black web, with VPN software that will help mask their identity.
Not to mention this platform is completely based on creating content, gathering a following, and maybe making some money. Nobody in the right mind would jeopardize their blogs that they have arguably put some effort into for a simple upvote.
Why would they upvote? They could secretly like it without upvoting if they were indeed pedophiles and then nobody would know that they liked it, and they wouldn't be getting shit on because someone wanted to make a fluff piece shock article to make some cheap money off the irrational and emotional responses to this.
I thought the point of voting was an endorsement of the work produced? Upvoting is no different to the 'Like' button on Facebook. If anything it's potentially worse as there can be a financial reward attached to your vote if you so choose. You're basically saying "I like your work so much I want to give you some money."
Most of these pedo's use social media platforms for pretty much the same reason as you and me. To make new contacts and exchange everything from ideas, viewpoints, story's and of course images. A lot of these individuals are pretty computer savvy. I've already seen some people on Steemit have been 'outed' for creating fake accounts by using friends and aquintances photos as proof of reality. It would be trivial for some low-life to create an account that was potentially untraceable.
Just what I was about to say. I'll write another answer to first post.
I have to agree! Freedom from the matrix does not give anyone permission to live without a good conscious. Anarchy does not make it okay to exploit. We have to self-govern and make sure we are still protecting children, protecting each other, and having some type of moral and un-harmful convictions. Many will see and think that decentralizing life means ways around what is right/wrong. Yes, the post could have been written less accusingly, but the titles kind of spoke for themselves, they were trying to attract pedophiles or people who view underage kids in a sexual way. I don't care if the pics were pornographic or not, it is what it is and certain things do NOT need to be picked apart. I believe if authorities saw those posts, a house would be raided asap......we are not the judges here. But, I like the saying "if it walks like a duck" ........
Well thought out an level headed comment. You have a point. Hopefully more people read this. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to reflect on my stance with rational insight.
Thanks. I was all ready to take it at face value but something about the claim that it was a "child sex ring" made me go and check to see just how bad it was. After all it would be unlikely I figured that those known for their secrecy would choose to make an ultra open and public platform like Steemit their home and use very busy public tags at that. It actually took me a number of posts to find some potentially problematic images as initially all I clicked on was obviously regular porn.
The mother in the linked post saying they'd just seen this child porn really got me suspicious since they said they don't want their 14 year old son seeing it.... which doesn't make the least bit of sense to say unless the images in question were of a substantially more serious nature. It does on the other hand make sense to say for a sensitive sheltered conservative mother that will quickly call almost everything "child porn" even if it's perfectly legal and is outraged at finding porn itself being on steemit that their 14 year old son might find. (could it be that she saw it because it had the photography tag?)
The cited image was hardly the sort you'd worry about 14 year old boys looking at. In fact the images for the most part aren't even the problem, it's what they imply that's the problem. If a photograph or video is only sexual by someone putting in that context, then it's not the photo or video that's sexual. In other words, if you take pictures of your newborn baby that's not child porn even if they're naked.
The photo claimed to be "proof" is technically NOT EVEN PORN much less child porn.
Someone with lots of creepy NON-pornographic pictures of underage teens and children may POINT to a crime. They can potentially aid an investigation and gain authorisation for further action, but the photo itself doesn't suddenly become child porn because someone gets off on them. You aren't looking at child porn if someone grabs a school photo you also own and posts about how the girl has nice tits or something.
To me this thread was either caused by an attitude of anti-porn "won't someone think of the children!!", or it's someone trying to get that sweet steem dollar by seeing an opportunity to capitalise on outrage and accuse a lot of people of a very serious thing
Neither options are good for different reasons. :/
Yes you definitely make valid arguments. Accusing someone of being in a child sex ring is a very serious thing. I believe the best course of action is to flag content that you believe to be harmful - In this case, the content believed to be "child porn" and to let the proper channels take care of the issue.
That being said, the page in question did have several photos of what seemed to be underage voyeurism. Something I find to be unacceptable.
It seems like everyone is posting valid concerns and can learn from what each other has to say through a logical and tamed discourse.
I think this post is more harmful than the perverted posts by @iamgod. I agree with you his posts are unacceptable just because of the comments which do seem to endorse paedophilia. Still, a post accusing anybody who upvoted or followed as being potentially part of some "ring". I fucking hate sensationism. This post has freaked people unnecessarily.
Not only has it freaked people unnecessarily, it has created victims that most likely had no bad intentions. Nobody is judge jury and executioner. You see people spamming their page and telling them to get therapy because they are endorsing "child pornography". This is actually insane.
Are they a body of authority who has the right to make such accusations?
Their thorough investigation of seeing who upvoted is somehow enough to accuse them of being part of a "child sex ring". ?
And they are somehow in a position to recommend they seek mental help now too?
These are serious accusations with serious implications. Sensationalism for the sake of one's own profit, or adhering to the script of their personal agenda is disgusting.
Absolutely, I pointed that out. The OP I suspect didn't even bother to look further than that one image before he cracked his knuckles and typed out a tabloid shock piece. Otherwise he wouldn't have claimed the "proof" to be something which absolutely wouldn't be if that is all it was. That's what's so frustrating, something real hijacked by someone who seems as if they saw $$$ raining down from heaven with the opportunity that he could post about "exposing" a "child sex ring".
What's even more unconscionable is that in order to support this "child sex ring" he implicated all the followers and it seems people have just assumed they're all pedos as if they've forgotten how Steemit works. It just shows how easily manipulated people are if they accept someones initial premise.
Thats why we're all sheep... tug at a heart string, or better yet at a fear and all of a sudden you control the masses. What a shame.
Clearly this guy's is doing it for some easy bucks - He won't back down even if he realizes he was being irrational.
No matter how irrational you think the accusations are, the way I see it is a call for solidarity against something that we like-minded-people who find child porn (or even porn on Steemit platform) is offending.
If you don't agree with that, then thats your business. That doesnt mean you can call the rest of us sheep or wrong just because we believe otherwise.
Perhaps I could have chosen my words more carefully. However I didn't exclude myself from the sheep comment.
I am just trying to say, that people need to go over their response in a rational matter before they act.
Publicly accusing someone of being involved in child pornography is a very serious matter and it is a matter for an authoritative body. Not one blogger starting a sensationalist witch Hunt.
Furthermore, accusing the people who follow them, and the people who upvoted the post of the same thing is even worse.
There is no evidence asides from personal judgement that the person in question is under age.
There is no evidence that the people who upvoted even saw the post.
There is also the question of why?
These people all made blogs in hopes of providing content that allows them to be profitable. Why on gods little green earth would they publicly endorse this content? They are very much aware that their name becomes linked to this content by upvoting. The motive here is just not there.
Anyways, I just hope people realize how serious some of their actions are, before allowing an emotional response to guide their behavior without taking a moment to think rationally.
Thank you for your response.
Being rational is important of course but being aware is important as well.
This platform has thousands if not tens of thousands of people posting. I am new here and I know that I tend to follow people without checking their content.
If for nothing else, reading this post made me understand that I need to be more vigilant in my choice to who I follow and upvote. There are plenty of people that shares amazing posts, pictures, art and other stuff. why on earth, those 4 chose to upvote these pictures that could easily be identified as type of "porn" even if it was not child porn?
The reasons could be:
1- They don't know what they voted. In this case I say, why you waste your vote power (which we all know its valuable) on something you don't know?
In this case, I invite those accused to come fourth and state what they thought to build trust with the rest of us again (if they want)
2- They know what they voted and wanted to vote it. In this case I can conclude that they support/encourage these types of posts. Something other steemians don't agree with, especially that the contents are plagiarized and there are many other contents that are worth noticing and voting for.
I do hope as well that people realize how serious some of their actions are. As bad as it may sound the accusations made. I find it equally bad upvoting posts with shady or unacceptable contents, even if the upvote was for an "OK" content as @therealwolf stated.
I understand that none of you or us want to be accused of a serious issue without proof. But as far as I see, they could have chosen to stay clear from such contents like many other steemians probably did.
Nice work edb1984. I'm sure many of the flaggers were afraid to actually check what they were flagging (not that it wasn't worth flagging - it is perverted enough to be flagged). I was afraid to look but all I saw was a girl whose age is questionable but could easily be 18+ photographed nude, then a bunch of clothed girls with perverted comments on their appearances.
Not even porn.
With some you can see nipples through the shirt but that's something anybody can see at the beach on children of all ages. Why criminalise people who happened to be on the beach?!
Personally I don't even call naked pictures porn. Whether something is considered erotic or not is subjective but we don't use that word to describe the sculptures of Ancient Greece.
The guy posting does seem to be endorsing paedophilia with his crude comments, whether he be a paedophile or not. (Most of his posts are pornographic with consenting adults) So we can say there is an issue that somebody would be so shameless, but really it's not our problem and it's not a paedophile ring. I would question the people who leaked these photos onto the internet, but that's because I'm old fashioned and still hate the facebook nature of the world where people freely post pictures of their children nowadays and their friends without prior permission. Pornographic or not, I still resent that norm.
This post was pure sensationalism and I've flagged for overpaying a post of radical accusational nature. Thank you edb1984 for disclosing this. I was genuinely afraid to look for fear of seeing a child being raped!
What moderators?
"Child porn ring" may be an exaggeration, but it is not unwarranted. Without such a title, it was very much possible for this post to have gotten lost like the million others uploaded everyday. Naked images posted for sheer shock value, is PORN. Whether it's child porn, or adult porn, it should have no place on Steemit. There are enough platforms to satisfy ones urge to jerk off, and everyone is more than welcome to see it, but in PRIVATE. It should have no place on a social platform.
Secondly, this post is simply asking other likeminded people to help prevent Steemit from turning into another porn site. You don't agree, that's perfectly acceptable, don't do anything about it. No one is asking anyone to blindly convict someone, it merely expresses the authors opinion and her suggestion to rectify something that offended her.
So read, assimilate and then take your action. I saw the posts in question, and I feel they are offensive, so they need to be flagged. I am not flagging followers, for punishing anyone other than the wrong doer is equally wrong. But, as offended as I was with the naked pictures, I was equally offended by @wix 's comment of calling it sexy. So yes, I flagged that as well.
Lastly, today what you are calling "not even child porn" and or just some "topless" pictures, are how it will start. Accept this today, and soon we will have our feeds flooded with pornographic spam. And I personally, am not ok watching crap like this, on Steemit.
More than 1 person involved. I exposed a poster and three voters. That would make four accounts thus a ring.
It is child porn, it is underage girls showing their nipples, and an underage girl in thong in a post marked nsfw. Never mind the countless other posts I did not mention of girls camel toe shots who are well under 18 including a famous under 18 year old tennis player. It is child porn.
Topless photos of underage girls is the definition of child porn.
Do you know what people think when you say "Paedophile Ring"? It's not "three people may have innocently or maybe knowingly upvoted some ambiguous potentially sexualized images of older teens".
Totally agree. Thats how it all start. accept it near the boundaries first, then it explodes out of control.
Also @therealwolf, if you found other unacceptable pictures in the same blog, wouldn't it be better not to upvote at all? There are plenty of posts that deserves your upvote on steemit. These posts get forgotten or ignored because they have nothing that catches your eyes. Yet, here you are upvoting a picture that sits among many "unacceptable others as you call it", and now you are complaining that you were accused of supporting child porn.
The way I see it that, even if @titusfrost didn't bring your name as an accomplice, someone else eventually will flag you one way or another and it could have become worse.
I say, you should be thankful to @titusfrost for bringing up the subject now so you can have a chance to unvote, unfollow and defend yourself here, with people that maybe willing to listen to you now. However, using insults and attacks will not get you anywhere. Neither appealing to people think that something close-but-not-yet-enough-to be-child-porn is okay will help.
Who says he found the other pictures?? That's a baseless assumption. Not everybody checks a bloggers previous posts before upvoting.
I copied this from one of @therealwolf replies:
(Oh you "exposed" someone - what the actual fuck? How often do I need to tell that the picture I "upvoted" was not child porn. The other pictures are not ok - BUT I DIDN'T FUCKING VOTE FOR THEM. How often do I need to tell you this so you understand.)
He says here that the other pictures are not ok but he didn't vote for them.
I am not accusing him of pedophilia or anything. All I am saying is that he made a choice to vote something while he knew other contents were not ok. For all I know, he could have veered off that blog altogether without voting anything. Upvoting some of the contents will only give @iamgod more incentive to post more. No?
He probably checked that after he was accused of being a paedophile! If you read his post asking for mercy from the accusers and self acclaimed jury, you would see in his comments he says he did not see those posts.
Downvoting was the right thing to do to discourage @iamgod. That doesn't mean those who upvoted should be sentenced by association. I believe in innocence until proven guilty. There is evidence against @iamgod, but upvotes are not evidence of anything. They could have been questioned in private for their upvotes, but instead they were publicly slandered, shamed and potentially shunned if they have lost followers. I know if I was accused of something like that just for a careless upvote I would be mentally distraught right now as @therealwolf is. It can be traumatising to lose your reputation to something so shameful especially when innocent!
I absolutely agree with you on the latter part. That would be a horrible experience to live through.
I can ask @titusfrost to accept and upvote @therealwolf, that doesn't mean it will be done since I have no power over him or anyone else. And even if @titusfrost did honor my request, that doesn't mean other steemians will trust @therealwolf without him actually working to gain that trust back.
I think that, despite whether you believe that what @titusfrost did was right or wrong, attacking him or flagging him will not solve the issue. It will only make him and others who believe in him to stand stronger with him in his stance. This will only cause separation and hatred. I say this because, if I let my emotions rule over me now, I would distrust all those saying that those pictures are not child porn. Because I honestly see them as such. I abhor pedophilia and I was angry that some pictures which I didn't want to see were posted on the comment section to force me to see them.
I emphasize, this is only if I let my emotions rule over me. But I am trying to think from your perspective or @therealwolf perspective to be more precise. I certainly wouldn't want to be in his place. That is why I am trying not to take a too strong stance against him and I want to giv him and other upvoters the benefit of the doubt. Hence, I still suggest @therealwolf to work on building his reputation again with the others that are willing to accept him, such as yourself. I am also happy to help his reputation grow by upvoting him if he posts quality contents.
Something has to be done here to solve the issue. Attacking each other is not the solution anymore. An apology from @titusfrost for using strong words against the voters may be needed. But also an apology from those attacking @titusfrost will be needed as well. Finally, an apology from @therealwolf for making wrong voting decision and a lesson learned to upvote quality content in the future will show his sincerity to everyone.
This is just a suggestion!
I didn't flag as any kind of attack. I disagree with the rewards on the post. I don't think posts accusing people of being paedophiles should be paid for even if it's true. It only encourages people to accuse people of ludicrous things to bring attention to their profiles and get paid despite the damage they cause to the people involved.
I don't expect titusfrost to apologise. Righteous people are stubborn. And since I have not posted anything slanderous or personal against him I don't know what we would be apologising for. None of us posted to our followers calling for people to flag. We acted independently to ensure that anybody reading this post can see by the comments that all is not as it seems.
I disagree that @therealwolf owes anybody an apology. He has already expressed it was a misunderstanding. Nobody should have to apologise for upvoting porn. All it was was a little bit of bum. I wouldn't even call that NSFW.
I appreciate your opinion and the opinion of others.
As for the rewards for this post, maybe @titusfrost could share them with the voters (if he wish), so he won't be making a lot of money out of it.
Again, just a suggestion!
Users should not be required to make sure there's no objectionable content in someones posting history before they hit follow.
No, I honestly think that users should be vigilant to know who they are following or at least if they know they are following someone shady, then they should do something about it.
there was one exception which was one of a topless girl which cannot be argued reasonably looks over 18. The ages of the others ranged from uncertain to really pushing credulity. Mixed with that are a number of posts of young legal professional photos.
Being uncertain about the criteria of those girls used in these pictures is not a valid reason to defend the contents. It is actually more of a reason to be vigilant and block such contents to prevent further distribution and further encouragement. If today they are posting pictures of girls that are in the limit of being teenage or legal age for porn, next they will push the limits further and further. Makeup tend to make kids look older than they are. And anyway, I sure hope he will not start posting porn pictures of 10 years old or younger just to convince you that they are posting pedophile porn.
I think that instead of attacking @titusfrost the person who is trying to make us aware of this situation, we should support each other against such posts and warn those in the follower list, in case they don't know about the contents.
Pedophilia should never be taken lightly.
Thank you for making a very valid point! Upvoted and followed! =)