Risk vs. Privacy
Submitted by Ben on April 30 1999 at 19:30:39
In reply to remember that IRC idea? Submitted by scott on April 29 1999 at 17:52:17
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I'll jump in here guys since I've been involved in the BL community for a long time. I also was addicted to IRC for about 2.5 years in the general boychat type channels. Long before I began reading the bible, I learned to get out of what had become the worlds most incredible waste of time. Now I use IRC in the AM to hook up with another BL friend to talk about our day for a few minutes before work starts. Let me clarify a few things: If you configure your IRC client without your name and your email address, the only thing that can really be identified is your IP address. Presuming that you have a regular dial-up ISP your IP is static and it is HIGHLY unlikely (can we say impossible) that someone would go to the trouble to identify you based on the purpose of our IRC meeting. Consider in general that the lengths needed to trace the dialup logs are really reserved for people who are using IRC for very obvious crimes such as distributing or downloading child pornography. Furthermore, it is not illegal to be a pedophile or to discuss being a pedophile (otherwise the government would have long ago seized the boychat and cblf logs). Therefore, there is really no way to even obtain a subpoena unless we are clearly trading illegal material or claiming to commit a crime (or have committed one). The only other IRC issue is the "finger" a command which can sometimes give out your email adress but can be tested ahead of time. Most ISPs now block fingering. To test this out, go to IRC, and type /finger yournick. For instance if my nick is BEN I would type /finger BEN Note this is not the same thing as GIVING yourself the finger which is not nice but not harmful. People who are looking for pedophiles are looking for people who can be arrested. When you aren't committing a crime, as we would not be committing or even coming close to committing, you are a very boring target. Our chat would be wholly uninteresting to even the most nosy of spammers I believe. When are we doing this? Great idea! You are not alone. 
Ben |