The Downside of Internet Porn

When you get off the highway and head for my apartment, you pass what must be the sketchiest adult bookstore in the entire Boston area. There is a red and white sign advertising books and movies, and no matter what time it is, someone a little creepy-looking is walking through the door.

I’m grateful that the advent of the internet has made it so the majority of porn connoisseurs can get their fix in the privacy of their own homes, cutting down on the skeevy guy population in my neighborhood. But internet pornography has a dark side. Just ask Michael Fiola.

The technology-illiterate former employee of the Department of Industrial Accidents was fired after his superiors found a stash of kiddie porn on his work-issued laptop. Naturally, his bosses didn’t believe him when he said he didn’t download it. But computer forensics experts (we smell a new CSI franchise!) say he wasn’t lying.

[Computer forensic analyst Tami] Loehrs, who spent a month dissecting the computer for the defense, explained in a 30-page report that the laptop was running corrupted virus-protection software, and Fiola was hit by spammers and crackers bombarding its memory with images of incest and pre-teen porn not visible to the naked eye.

As experienced internet surfers, we know how quickly an ill-phrased Google image search can give you an eyeful of something you had no intention of seeing, so we feel for the guy. And, as the Herald explains, we could also be doomed to Fiola’s fate.

“As soon as you type ‘breast cancer’ into Google, you may get a page you didn’t want to see,” [computer forensic analyst Kevin Ripa] said, “but now that page is in your computer.”

“I shudder to think how many people may be sitting in jail right now on a child pornography possession charge “who are completely innocent.”

Does this mean we might as well give in to our urges and look for hot young coeds during our lunch breaks? If we’re going to sit in jail or lose our jobs, we might as well be guilty. Right? (ed. note: No.)