Occasionally the Admins and Moderators of DSI get approached by people that are being abused, harassed or think they have found something illegal on the site. To help out such people the following is our standard advice, along with some additional information.

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Disclaimer and Note
Please note that I am not a legal professional, none of the below should be taken as a statement of the current law in England or any other country or as legal advice. For legal advice or a statement of the current law in your country of residence please contact a qualified legal professional with expertise in the field in question.

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First off, I and all of the other Moderators, Admins and Staff of DSI hope that no-one reading this post actually has to use any of the guidance contained within it. We all want DSI to be a place where everyone can enjoy themselves and make new friends.

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First steps
So you think someone is breaking the law on DSI. What can you do about it?

Firstly you need to know: Is it civil law (e.g. libel) or criminal law (e.g. stalking or threats) that you think is being breached?

Definitions

A definition of civil law is: The rights and duties of one individual to another: In a civil action the burden of proof is upon the claimant who must prove their case "on the balance of probabilities".

A definition of criminal law is: That which establishes social order and protects the community as a whole by giving a set of rules for peaceful, safe and orderly living: People that break these laws can be prosecuted and if found guilty they could be fined or sent to prison, or both. The criminal law is therefore about punishing offenders and 'stopping them from doing it again'. It is not generally about dealing with individual rights. Most prosecutions are brought by the Police, for offences like murder and theft - but they are not the only ones who enforce the criminal law. In a criminal case it is up to the prosecution to prove the offence "beyond all reasonable doubt".

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Criminal Law
Criminal law is the more serious case (it can result in a permanent criminal record) so I will deal with that first.

Checklist

As you can see from the above, if a criminal law has been breached then you should go to the Police and make a statement. Before you go to the Police Station, run through the following checklist:

• Check that a law has actually been broken, either by consulting a qualified legal professional, OR, if you are feeling brave, by searching on the Internet.
• Caution! If you choose to search on the internet be aware that the page you are reading (including this one!) could be out of date, or not apply to your country of residence, or just be plain wrong!
• Get print-outs of any page(s) that you think contain(s) evidence
• Calm down - you won't help yourself by storming into your local Police Station screaming for people to be hunted down and shot

Areas that require Police involvement include:

• If you are being stalked or otherwise being harrassed
• If you are being threatened
• Photos that depict illegal content

Careful!

If you have been, or are going to report unlawful activity on DSI to the police then please do not:

1. Talk on the site (or anywhere else) about doing so.
2. Publicise the reported activity by starting a(nother) thread to discuss it.

If you do either of the above then you may inadvertently prejudice any investigation that follows, or alert people to the potential of investigation and so allow the destruction of evidence, both of which may prevent any subsequent proceedings being satisfactorily concluded.

Most importantly - do not accuse people of criminal activity - if you do so and it turns out to be untrue they may be able to take a civil action against you for libel (no matter how good your intentions at the time)!

If the police take the matter up then DSI will provide them with any server logs, etc. that they require to complete their investigation.

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Civil actions
If you think you may need to take a civil action then consult a qualified legal professional with relevant expertise. Follow the same checklist as above.

Cases where this would be necessary include defamation of character (libel), for example, where someone is falsely making comments about you committing a criminal act. Another case would be if you want to take out an injunction, or other civil remedy to stop someone, or a group of people from doing something (thanks to Monty3 for reminding me of this one - as I said I'm no expert!)

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Legal Advice
Please note that the Admins, Moderators and Staff of DSI are not here to give legal advice, so please don't ask us to! In the UK you can get free legal advice from your local Citizen's Advice Bureau.

There is also a fairly comprehensive article over at WiredSafety on the law relating to internet stalking, harassment and abuse. But please understand it is a moment in time snapshot of something that is continuously changing, please do not rely on the advice within it - consult a qualified legal professional.

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References:
Definitions of civil and criminal law

I found that title quite amusing next to your name Iain.

Nice work Iain...can this be linked to on the group home page for easy reference in the future?

Cool thanks for that little re-cap.. Nice work Iain!

Ta for the info Iain!

What Raa said - lol

Nice summary Iain. Civil remedies (injunctions, etc) are also available for harassment (if you don't want to involve the police), but again - consult a lawyer...

nice work ian, but whats the bottom line?? one easy sentence with no big words would be wicked mate.

nice work ian, but whats the bottom line?? one easy sentence with no big words would be wicked mate.

Oh don't be lazy. It's perfectly straightforward to read.

nice work ian, but whats the bottom line?? one easy sentence with no big words would be wicked mate.


"Don't be nasty to people on DSI or the police/courts might get involved?"

FFS.....

OR

"If someone's being nasty to you, don't bitch to DSI about it. Its either important enough to involve the police (in which case DO) or it's not (in which case GET OVER IT)."

I found that title quite amusing next to your name Iain.

Well I wanted to do something to grab your attention!

Nice work Iain...can this be linked to on the group home page for easy reference in the future?

Of course - I was in a rush earlier, but it'll be the very next thing I do.

Nice summary Iain. Civil remedies (injunctions, etc) are also available for harassment (if you don't want to involve the police), but again - consult a lawyer...

Thanks Monty - I've added that in. I left it out since I thought for most DSIers the easiest remedy would be a complaint to the Police under Section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1998 since that route is zero cost! But that would, as always, depend on circumstances (but as I said, I am not a legal professional, nor do I play one on TV). So it's in now for the sake of completeness.

I've also added in a link to an article at WiredSafety that people may find useful as a starting point. But my caveat above about information found on the internet still applies. One really should always consult a qualified legal professional about these things since case law can change things on a daily basis, although some background research will always be useful.

Group moderator note: "Noise" posts deleted to improve signal to noise ratio.

i wonder what iaindependant would say about this?

Nice work Iain...can this be linked to on the group home page for easy reference in the future?

Now done. It's in a big red box to try and make it easy to find and everything!

i wonder what iaindependant would say about this?

He'd probably tell you that the only person that needs locking up around here is me for being a serial sex-pest, pervert and not even being very funny while I'm doing it. ;o)

Of course, suing myself for libel could be tricky.

I left it out since I thought for most DSIers the easiest remedy would be a complaint to the Police under Section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1998 since that route is zero cost!


Was just trying to drum up a spot of trade Iain...


;)

Was just trying to drum up a spot of trade Iain...

Sorry mate. I'll call you if I decide to sue myself after using my other profile. You should see some of the stuff he says about me - it's disgraceful. ;o)

I'm going to pick your brains now - do you know of any good online, plain-English resources that I can add to the start of the thread, similar to the WiredSafety one?

Or do you think that's about as good as it gets?

Or do you think that's about as good as it gets?

I'll reply outside this thread Iain!

The user that posted this comment has been banned from DontStayIn. To view the message, click here at your own risk.

Thanks Iain. Hopefully people will all start suing/placing restraing orders on me now
;)

Thanks for the updates Iain..
:)

Does this mean that we can't call Jinxy an allegded paedo anymore ? :'(