New Mexico is seeking an injunction to permanently block Snap from practices allegedly harming kids. That includes a halt on advertising Snapchat as “more private” or “less permanent” due to the alleged “core design problem” and “inherent danger” of Snap’s disappearing messages. The state’s complaint noted that the FBI has said that “Snapchat is the preferred app by criminals because its design features provide a false sense of security to the victim that their photos will disappear and not be screenshotted.”
Well, that’s somewhat different, and you have a very good example.
They were TOLD the person was underage, and they continued. They had no reason to think that the images were fictional. They were purposefully trying to find REAL images—a crime to possess, distribute, and create.
That is a situation where I would think some kind of legal action could be warranted because a person is asked: “do you want illegal content?” And even though that content is not real, they still engaged.
When you hear those stings where adults are busted trying to meet up with a kid but out pops the cops, that was the adults thinking a REAL thing was going to happen. Obviously the punishment for that is less than if they got caught for doing it, because one is solicitation and one is abuse. However they both get you on a list.
To elaborate, two adults arrange a role play scenario where one adult would meet another adult pretending to be a child where real ages are known, but fictional ages are “illegal.” Thats not a crime. If “fiction” was a crime, then anyone who likes to be called “daddy,” or “mommy” as kinky role play would be in jail because incest is illegal. All those ridiculous “step bro, nooo!” videos would be illegal too!
Finally, all this comes down to intention. Just like murder vs manslaughter. If someone goes to a website to get FICTIONAL content, that’s not a crime. But if they truly think they are getting the real thing, then lines begin to blur and legality could be in question.