Whodathunkit Again

An Associated Press investigation found cases in which innocent people have been branded as pedophiles after their co-workers or loved ones stumbled upon child porn placed on a PC through a virus. It can cost victims hundreds of thousands of dollars to prove their innocence.

Their situations are complicated by the fact that actual pedophiles often blame viruses — a defense rightfully viewed with skepticism by law enforcement. AP Story

What’s disturbing about this story is the fact that it’s being presented as if hardly anyone – other than pedophiles looking for an alibi -- has seriously considered this possibility before. A strong whiff of nervous justification runs through it, even from those defending unjustly accused computer users. Phil Malone, of the Cyberlaw Clinic at Harvard compares the claim that child porn was downloaded by a virus to the “It’s an example of the old `dog ate my homework' excuse,” and observes that “The problem is, sometimes the dog does eat your homework."

That’s a rather poor analogy. As a part time teacher I’m skeptical about the old “dog ate my homework wheeze, but not just because I’ve heard it before. I’m skeptical about it because, as an ex-student who did homework and lived in houses that had numerous dogs, I have never seen a pet dog deliberately ingest someone’s homework – or any other kind of paperwork. No doubt it’s happened, but not nearly as often some students would want their teachers to believe.

I have more than once, had computers completely bollixed up by viruses. I have also – more than once – found myself the unwilling recipient of pornographic pop-ups, not to mention pornographic emails. It takes no great stretch of the imagination to imagine a lot of nasty, unwanted things – including pornography -- being added to someone’s computer without his or her knowledge.

So when I read this AP piece, I’m reminded of all the “whodathunkit!” articles that began coming out in the mid-to-late ‘90s in the wake of McMartin Preschool debacle. Suddenly, it apparently dawned on the media that, yes, children do sometimes tell fibs (or say what they think the adults around them want to hear), and yes, adults can sometimes be mistaken/vindictive/crazy when accusing other adults of worshipping Satan and ritually abusing preschoolers at busy and crowded daycare centers.

Suddenly it occurred to the press and various people in law enforcement that the fact that actual child molesters are prone to say, “I’m innocent” does not make saying “I’m innocent” an indication of guilt.

And now, we’re beginning to grapple with the fact that a healthy portion of those people who have been reviled as pedophiles, faced death threats, vandalism and ostracism because of images found on their computers, might not actually be pedophiles.