Arrested for watching porn?

[branman2000]

Ok, so im 16 and i occasionally watch regular porn. I don't watch child porn or anything else. Is it illegal to just simply watch porn on the internet and not distribute it? and can i be arrested?

[IrishWristWatch]

Technically you do need to be 18. But who's gonna arrest you? And basically every guy would be thrown in jail then

[Jupiter]

well, i don't believe you can be arrested.

[StoppingTime]

Just saying, based on your IP, your ISP (Internet Service Provider), know what sites are visited, (but I doubt they even check). They don't know who visits them though. As for being arrested if they found out you were watching it, I'm not sure what may happen.

[AVDG]

The only way you can be arrested in most countries in the West for watching porn is if it is child porn you are watching. As far as regular porn, you should be fine. I think the only countries where watching porn is illegal is the Muslim countries, especially Saudi Arabia, and then maybe some of the Communist Countries like Vietnam and North Korea.

[Tonebone88]

Technically you're supposed to be 18 to watch porn but everybody does it.

[Electra Heart]

Technically you have to be 18 but pretty much every guy has watched porn under 18 so it's VERY unlikely...

[Stronger]

Should be 18, hense why I try not to watch it >__> Will they arrest you? Probably if you click on the wrong site...

[crustbag]

i would laugh if i got arrested for that

[AHSboy]

You're really supposed to be 18-21, but in some areas, it's not allowed at all and you could be arrested. But places like that are not very common.

[Biscuithead13]

You cant get arrested for watchin it

[Luke2]

There's probably some law that could get you or your parents in trouble in someway but it is never enforced

[crustbag]

seriously though cops should be worrying about more important stuff that that

[dantheman5000]

you have to be 18 and if you have any kind of kiddie porn and some place like FBI or CIA were watching your activity they could shut down your computer and lock it. im sure you'd see a big symbol and a lot of words then you would have like 5 min to live before jail time.

[unnamed94]

just avoid porn.gov and you will be okay

[mfupi2]

If you're watching porn in the privacy of your own home, and not producing it yourself, your risk is really really low.

There's some laws that occasionally get people in trouble:
- Child porn, which you mentioned.
- Masturbating to, and watching porn in a public place. Many states around the USA have laws prohibiting "gross indecency" which could include jerking off in public to porn.
- certain anti-gay laws. Some states have laws that are used to target gay guys, but generally this falls into the above category. If you keep your pants on in public, you should be ok.

[mfupi2]

Technically you do need to be 18. But who's gonna arrest you? And basically every guy would be thrown in jail then

That's to *buy* porn, and that law really exists not to lock up horny 16 year-olds watching porn, but to stop sleazy bodegas from *selling* porn to horny 16 year-olds.

If you're just watching free porn, I'm not sure it's illegal. I would guess you may have been violating your ISP's terms of service, but again, those exist to stop people from illegally distributing porn, and are really not there to stop individuals from looking at it.

[kimuratk1]

.,.,

[LuckyLuke]

No. You're not going to be arrested.

The police would have to have probably cause to receive a warrant to get track you and your IP address and even then, who says it's you using that computer?

Pursuing your porn use and the horny teens that all of us here are would be an insult to all of the people who can really use the billions dollar in taxes it'd take

[Stronger]

you have to be 18 and if you have any kind of kiddie porn and some place like FBI or CIA were watching your activity they could shut down your computer and lock it. im sure you'd see a big symbol and a lot of words then you would have like 5 min to live before jail time.

If you have child porn in your possession, you can get arrested, jail and probably registered as a sex offender

[Hermes]

Finding the person who accessed a particular website is certainly possible. The police would need the exact date/time and the IP address used, then they'd have to jump through whatever process there is on your country to get a warrant so the ISP will tell them which customer was using that address at that time, then they'd have to visit your house, take your PC(s) away for examination and finally interview everyone in the family to see who was using it.

That's a lot of work and I'd be very surprised if they routinely did that just on the suspicion that someone under 18 was watching regular porn. It is just like drugs - the police are more interested in the supplier than the users.

Child porn would be a different matter - that is actively investigated,

[Silicate Wielder]

Its illegal to watch porn untill your 18, but they say even though you can have sex once your 16 the government still doesn't want people to have sex, and that porn causes people to have sex. if that were true, no-more babies would be born, and it would be the end of the United States for that matter. but I think the law should be that once your 13 you can watch porn of people with in a 1 year difference of age than you untill your 18, then once your 18 you can only watch porn of people 18 years or older. but you can watch porn once your 13 in the UK