My statements were not about preventing people from breaking laws,
instead, they are about never knowing that you're breaking a law until
after you have broken it.
Even if a link is on/to a reputable site and ends with ".html", it could
still be a link to JPG image of kiddie porn. You've just broken the law,
even though you had no intention of breaking the law, and had no
intention of being in possession of kiddie porn.
(NOTE: Sending an image file when a HTML file is expected is possible by
manipulating the MIME type sent by the web server for the ".html"
extension to tell the browser it is a JPEG image. Of course, another way
to do it is redirection, since by default, most browsers follow most
forms of redirection.)
Even if you had an automated agent (web spider) program following links,
it is YOUR connection that is logged as accessing the image.
If the kiddie porn image was part of some sting operation being run by
law enforcement, then you're stuffed.
This issue of "not knowing what you're accessing" is one of the long
standing and underlying flaws in the design of the Internet, so you can
be certain it won't be fixed any time soon.
The law does no work like that. You only broke the law after the conviction, up until that point it's in an undecided psudo quantum state. Due to things like mens reahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mens_rea
So, for example if you buy a trunk at an estate sale that contains cocaine, open it realize it's cocaine, then call the cops. You did not break the law even though you where in possession of cocaine which is illegal. Work though some variations of this and you could literally be walking down the street with a suitcase full of cocaine and not actually be breaking the law while doing so.
PS: There are a relatively small number of strict liability crimes where intent is considered irrelevant. But, extenuating circumstances still come into play.
Technically, you may be right, but in many parts of the world the government and everyone else behave as if you're guilty until proven innocent. Good luck staying out of jail if you're caught carrying a suitcase full of cocaine!
Even if a link is on/to a reputable site and ends with ".html", it could still be a link to JPG image of kiddie porn. You've just broken the law, even though you had no intention of breaking the law, and had no intention of being in possession of kiddie porn.
(NOTE: Sending an image file when a HTML file is expected is possible by manipulating the MIME type sent by the web server for the ".html" extension to tell the browser it is a JPEG image. Of course, another way to do it is redirection, since by default, most browsers follow most forms of redirection.)
Even if you had an automated agent (web spider) program following links, it is YOUR connection that is logged as accessing the image.
If the kiddie porn image was part of some sting operation being run by law enforcement, then you're stuffed.
This issue of "not knowing what you're accessing" is one of the long standing and underlying flaws in the design of the Internet, so you can be certain it won't be fixed any time soon.