The internet has opened up a world of possibilities for information and entertainment, but you shouldn’t be careless when you are online just because things are available via your computer, tablet or smartphone. It is still possible to engage in illegal activities even when they are readily available.
Internet sex crimes is one of the newer categories of criminal activity because the internet is still relatively new. For this reason, there seems to be some significant confusion about what types of sexual activities are legal online.
Sex trafficking is a huge problem across the country. Remember that is fully illegal to use the internet to meet up with someone who is involved in this industry. It is difficult to determine what types of ads are related to sex trafficking, but federal law does allow law enforcement to close down sex-related sections of certain websites.
It is also illegal to try to collect naked pictures in dishonest methods online. For example, you can’t pretend to be a female teen just to get nude pictures from other teen females or any female in general. Speaking of teens, you can’t ever sext or exchange sexually explicit messages with minors. Any exchanges of this type of media can lead to child pornography charges.
Some people think that their activities online don’t matter. While this is true to an extent, you can’t ever think that you can bully people online. It is illegal to use bullying tactics or extortion to get sexual pictures from victims. You also can’t keep lists of sexual escapades or other personal sexually explicit information online in a public forum or website.
All of these charges can lead to a long battle in the criminal court system. If you find yourself facing these, be sure to evaluate what defenses you can use against them so that you aren’t trying to throw something together at the last minute.
