How to keep a perv off of our forum?

September 5, 2007 9:46 AM

I own a forum where the majority of our posters are minors. What can I (or should I) do about a user who is sending sexual advances to other members via our PM system? He keeps coming back under new names after we ban him and we aren’t sure what legal obligations we may have regarding this.
posted by Mamapotomus to computers & internet (16 comments total)

Seek competent counsel now.
posted by Ironmouth at 9:48 AM on September 5, 2007

Have you tried banning his IP address?
posted by Count Ziggurat at 9:54 AM on September 5, 2007

Contact your local FBI field office or law enforcement. Let them set up a sting to catch the SOB and get him off the streets.
posted by worker_bee at 9:55 AM on September 5, 2007

Count Ziggurat, his posts are all from different IP addresses.
posted by Mamapotomus at 9:59 AM on September 5, 2007

Is there any common ground? Subnet mask? Email address provider?
posted by Solomon at 10:08 AM on September 5, 2007

If you don't mind associating with people who seem kind of douchebaggy, you could get in touch with these people.
posted by dersins at 10:17 AM on September 5, 2007

document/save everything and do what worker_bee suggested. this is a serious crime, and your tax money goes to pay professionals to take these scumbags off the street.
posted by bruce at 10:19 AM on September 5, 2007

Out of curiousity, do we know that the individual sending the offending PMs is not a minor? Since the "majority of" users are minors, I sort of assumed this was an annoying user rather than a pedophile, but I see everyone else feels differently...
posted by bunnycup at 10:34 AM on September 5, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

What IPs? Is it sweden one day and africa the next? Or is there a common subnet? It may be that this is a group of perverts.

Ask yourself if your board needs PM. I cant think of any board that really does. Writing "please email me over this" in the forum works just fine. If you do not need PM then disable it. This is probably a good idea for anything that has to do with minors.
posted by damn dirty ape at 10:47 AM on September 5, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

If you/forum/members are in Canada, you might try reporting it:

CyberTip

(and if you are not, it *should* funnel through to the right local agency 'eventually')

However - as others have said - are we sure this is a pedophile/adult predator? If it is simply another persistent teen, then I would not consider reporting them to CyberTip.

Believe me - CyberTip.ca is as close to having a direct line to criminal investigators that one can have.
posted by jkaczor at 10:51 AM on September 5, 2007

This isn't necessarily ideal but I have found it to be one helpful tool in similar message board situations: assuming you have admin rights on this board, change members' permissions to require that someone make at least 5 (or 10, or whatever) posts before they're permitted to PM anybody (or at least, anybody other than a moderator if you wanna make sure new folks can still get in touch with you with questions and whatnot). Particularly when you're dealing with random pigs who aren't necessarily stalking one particular person but rather are contacting whomever they can access, a constraint like this makes it more bothersome to keep hammering away at the same board rather than going somewhere that they can sign up and immediately start sending their scumtastic messages.

Obviously there are a few drawbacks (e.g., a) it helps to have an active mod staff to shut down anybody who simply spams 5-10 messages in a row to gain PM permissions, b) even if it does work it's just sending the creep elsewhere, c) it's annoying for new members who -aren't- spammers or perverts - though on the other hand, a genuinely new member probably won't have as much reason to be PM'ing other members until they get to know 'em a bit, anyway) - but again, it is something that -can- be helpful, especially if an IP ban just isn't feasible. Good luck, I hope you find something that works for your boards...
posted by zeph at 10:51 AM on September 5, 2007

bunnycup: Americans have such a Dateline mentality.

I agree with documenting things. You may be able to see patterns or get some identifying information from them. I would be very clear on the site that that kind of stuff is not allowed.

I would guess that if you are shutting down accounts that these are coming from, then you are doing what you can. But getting advice from a lawyer is a good idea.

How long has this been happening? And how often?
posted by strangeguitars at 10:52 AM on September 5, 2007

Since we don't know anything about the forum I guess it's hard to say whether it's a teen or an adult, but it seems like teenager-ish behavior.

If the IP addresses in use are all coming from a single subnet, perform a reverse DNS query and see if they're from a particular ISP. Then you can contact the ISP, forwarding them the information about the situation (preferably in writing, if you can get a dead-tree address), and let them deal with the user. They might not do anything, but they might pull the plug on them.

If the IPs are coming from all over, they might be using Tor. I suppose you could just block Tor endpoints from posting to the site, although if you have an international focus or discuss controversial issues (where people might want to have anonymity) this wouldn't be very nice.

And I agree with others that there is really no reason to have PMing turned on. It's a stupid feature and basically replicates via HTTP what should be done via email, or not at all. Just turn it off, and warn people against posting their email addresses. If they go ahead and do give out their contact information, it's less of your problem than if you provided a system for perverts to stalk kids.
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:29 AM on September 5, 2007

The IPs are from a single subnet and we've been fighting this guy for about a month. The poster is presenting themselves as a kid but their public posts just don't feel right. I can't really explain without going into detail but his comments just don't "fit" with either a typical poster or someone who actually knows anything about the sport.

I've got a call in to our lawyer and we contacted the FBI per the advice above. I'm going to contact the ISP next and we're going to seriously consider turning off the PM feature as well.
posted by Mamapotomus at 12:26 PM on September 5, 2007

Is it possible to have a Nintendo Wii-style PM system? With the Wii, you must send a message to someone else, and they must send a message to you before you are allowed to communicate (neither of you sees the first message until they've both been sent). That or some sort of whitelist, meaning only members that you specifically put on a list can PM you.
posted by Rock Steady at 3:31 PM on September 5, 2007

Resolution: The FBI actually sent an agent to collect printouts with the posts and IP info. The culprit was a minor, and we were told they paid a visit to his home and had an "informal discussion" with him.
Problem solved, thanks AskMe.
posted by Mamapotomus at 6:20 PM on August 15, 2008