In yesterday's blog I described how you could be found guilty and imprisoned for the possession of child pornography, and not even know it, thanks to automatic "caching" features in Web software. And how you just might have porn on your PC if porn spammers have your e-mail address, or if you've ever browsed an adult site--even if you never saved any photos or movies.
To protect yourself from the porn police, the best precaution is to turn off all forms of Internet caching. This isn't always easy to do, because several different cache files are created automatically every time you go online. For that reason, I recommend using a program like Window Washer (www.webroot.com) to delete these files automatically
You can also clear these files yourself. In Firefox, go to Tools/Privacy and uncheck all the boxes under History. Then click on "Always clear my private data when I close Firefox." Click on "Settings" and make certain "Cache" is checked to be deleted.
In Internet Explorer (which I hope you're not using, because it's notoriously insecure), click on Tools/Internet Options. Under the "General" tab, click "Delete Cookies" and "Delete Files" and click yes to delete "offline content." Click "Settings" and set the amount of space to use for the Temporary Internet files folder to one megabyte. (Unfortunately, you can't set it to zero). Under history, insert zero. Since you can't set the size of the Temporary Internet files folder to zero, delete these files every time you use IE.
Next, delete the content you view online stored are in directories created by the Java programming language, which is used in many Web pages. Find the file "javaws.exe" on your computer, and click on it. This brings you to the "Java Control Panel." On the "General" tab, click on the "Delete Files" tab under "Temporary Internet Files." Delete downloaded applets, downloaded applications, and other files. Then click on "Settings" and set the amount of disk space to use to zero.
I can't promise these precautions will remove every trace of pornography from your PC that you may have unintentionally viewed. But they will go a long way toward proving that you had absolutely no intention of "possessing" child porn.
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