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Original poster

Has a chatroom or message board conversation ever stood up in court?

64 replies

fairyfly · 02/07/2006 20:43

I was just sat here wondering ( like you do), how long it would be until someone was arrested using evidence off a place like mumsnet.

How long will it be till social services and the police watch places like these and get license to do something about it.

I'm not talking about paedophilia or sex crimes, i realise that happens. More to do with child welfare, basic law breaking etc.....

Do you think looking into the history of mn would stand up in court?

OP posts:
Cappucino · 02/07/2006 21:56

expat if she-who-must-not-blah is thinking of it, I would think she's looking at a libel action

which is an entirely different kettle of fish, and doesn't give a bugger whether we all really exist or we're all characters in a bizarre fantasy written by a single Norwegian bloke who never read any of her books

Original poster
fairyfly · 02/07/2006 22:01

I know exactly where this conversation is going now, it's a shame. I do have an opinion on it though.

I'm a mum and i teach my kids if something or someone disagrees with them they become the bigger person and rise above it.

If you want to be popular and trusted you have to realise some people will disagree and not have a hissy fit.

OP posts:
ginmummy · 02/07/2006 22:03

Slight hijack here but who is this she-who-must-not-be-named and what has she said??

julienetmum · 02/07/2006 22:30

Slightly different type of issue but when Trading Standards took SMA to court over a magazine ad SMA's lawyers used threads from an NCT yahoo group as part of their defence (the original complainant was an NCT member).

SMA lost, but we were all reminded of the public nature of the internet, even in closed groups. I have a feeling the breatsfeeding counsellors group were obliged to give access to their threads to the defence lawyers (may be wrong here as it was a couple of years ago)

julienetmum · 02/07/2006 22:32

Giraffski, the babyworld car mum was me!!!!!!

One member who I know quite well joked about calling SS and some other rather anal retentive members were saying I ought to be reported/was the devil incarnate or words to that effect.

ginmummy · 02/07/2006 22:37

Try putting your mn name into google and see what comes back! The net is a public forum.

wannaBe1974 · 02/07/2006 22:38

generally child porn rings are smashed based on the evidence that is gathered from their conduct over the internet, also there have been instances of people who have been arrested for trying to groom young children over the internet, generally this happens because police oficers go under cover and pose as young teens in order to catch the culprets, so I would say yes, what you say on here would be admissable in court. But it would take a lot more than a few comments to bring it to court, generally there is already suspicion of a crime which results in the gathering of evidence. The police are under-resourced enough already to consider scouring the likes of mn for a possible crime being committed.

As for social services, invariably they fail to find the cases of abuce going on under their noses, let alone the potential ones being reported on the internet.

ginmummy · 02/07/2006 22:44

fairyfly - is there something on your mind? Are you worried that you've said something you shouldn't or has someone said something they shouldn't and you want to do something about it??

QueenEagle · 02/07/2006 22:48

A recent thread of mine was repoted to the police who are now involved in checking out things I wrote about.

ginmummy · 02/07/2006 22:50

What the hell did you say??!!

wannaBe1974 · 02/07/2006 22:52

lol im guessing she's prob not allowed to say as it's under investigation and I'd imagine the thread had to be withdrawn as well ..

Original poster
fairyfly · 02/07/2006 22:52

Nah, not at all ginsmummy, nowt to be worried about, as i said, it was just a thought.

OP posts:
wannaBe1974 · 02/07/2006 22:54

don't think I've ever seen anything on here that would be worthy of reporting to the police though. Although I guess that some might have considered the whole izzy saga on childmodelling might have been policeworthy though - people did talk about it.

fattiemumma · 02/07/2006 22:55

it is actually possible already.
in my case against my partner (domestic abuse) i have had some cyber freinds who have given statements about the things i have otld them.
It was over the net, i have never met them in RL and it coylkd be seen as hearsay by the opposing side but on my part it goes to show how long this has been going on and these peoples statements do act as support for my claims.

dont know how much weight they will hold in court but we have added them to my case.

QueenEagle · 02/07/2006 22:55

I was concerned about a certain person's behaviour, received advice about it from the NSPCC. Another MNer was also so concerned they contacted the NSPCC too who in turn informed the police. MNHQ felt it would be best if I too spoke to the police, which I did and they are now making discreet enquiries.

Original poster
fairyfly · 02/07/2006 22:56

I think i din't explain myself properly, i meant....... authorities just looking and watching and then knowing they have to step in.

Not being told, or shown.

OP posts:
QueenEagle · 02/07/2006 22:58

ah i see ff. Well, I guess with things being as they are with tracking ISP addresses it would be possible to trace things. Thing is, it wouldn't be possible to follow up every single thing you were concerned with....it would be never ending.

I bet those in aiuthority have enough on their plates already.

acnebride · 02/07/2006 23:00

i have to say i've always assumed that if i were to start a thread saying 'i've just hit my child again and this time he seems to be unconscious' or similar then MN Towers would report me to the police, and that what was posted here would be part of the investigation. I would doubt that the prosecution would rely on internet posts as actual evidence in court as they would surely be too easy to cast doubt on in crossexamination? nothing in theory to stop another person creating a profile using my email address and at my computer, no way of being absolutely sure beyond reasonable doubt that nobody else had done it.

Though i think if I were on a jury I might find that sort of post useful evidence provided there was other evidence as well.

I'm sure i've now lost track of the real subject of the thread.

ginmummy · 02/07/2006 23:00

I guess absolutely everything that you've ever written, saved, searched for and looked at can be retrieved from your hard drive and the only way of destroying the information on the hard drive is by destroying it.

I'm just curious, not to mention a little bit paranoid, that something that someone has written on this innocent little support network for parents has resulted in them being taken to court for whatever reason! I'm genuinely shocked!

ginmummy · 02/07/2006 23:04

Though reading the subsequent posts about reporting abuse to the NSPCC and police, yes, I can see how that would happen.

Not so shocked now. I was thinking more along the lines of libel cases.

Original poster
fairyfly · 02/07/2006 23:07

Nah, we're not loosing track, it's all valid and in the same vein.

I reckon mn do contact authorities.They must do. They rang me once for doing bugger all ( first time i have ever ever mentioned that on here).

OP posts:
ginmummy · 02/07/2006 23:08

They phone people??

fattiemumma · 02/07/2006 23:24

social workers cannot become involved unless a complaint has been made.

if i see a woman hit her child in teh street there is nothing i can do about it unless a complaint has been made.
I would have to make the complaint myself and get a coleague to investigate.

how mads that??
also there is nowhere near enough resources to deal with the issues we currrently dealw ith...absolutly no chance we could police the net as well....just in case there was something said that would bother us.

spacedonkey · 02/07/2006 23:26

I was told by the police that logged MSN conversations wouldn't stand up in court, nor would emails, which was surprising I thought

julienetmum · 02/07/2006 23:26

How on earth did they get your number?

I did once report something on another website. It was a child protection issue and I recognised the child involved through the organisation I work for.