“A college student who mistakenly submitted a compact disc loaded with child pornography images to his professor last week is now facing felony kiddie porn possession… The Bristol Community College student was to submit his computer information systems final examination on compact disc last week. But instead of submitting the class work, [the student] allegedly handed in a disc that contained images of children as young as 7-years-old in sexually explicit situations. The disc, according to police reports, listed each youth by age, ranging from 7 to 14. The professor opened the compact disc while at home last week, and upon realizing what was on the disc, turned it over to [authorities]… Prior to being arrested, [the student] apparently realized he had handed in the wrong disc to his professor. Police reports quote an e-mail [the student] sent to his professor, in which he appears to attempt to shift ownership of the disc from himself to an unnamed friend. ‘Oh snap, I am sorry. I accidentally gave you my friend’s mixed music CD that I meant to keep here and install the music on my computer,’ [the student] said in an e-mail to his professor. ‘I found the CD with the (final exam) on it. If there’s some way I could send it to you, that would be great. I am sorry about that, and hope it didn’t affect the grade at all. Again, if I could get that CD back so that I can install the music. Sorry for the mix up.’” — The Herald News (US)

(Thanks to Todd for the link.)

Bonehead — is there any better word to describe a person who commits such an incredibly stupid mistake? We all do dumb things from time to time, but this is like smoking a joint on the steps of a police station. (Well, you could probably get away with it here in New York — just recently PervScan saw a guy actually toking away in a subway car — but not in the environs of Bristol Community College.) It’s so stupid that it’s hard to call it a mistake anymore. It’s more like a death wish.

Or maybe not. Maybe there is something even scarier than individual stupidity at work here. Maybe this story says something about the incredible net-driven proliferation of child pornography. To the young men of today, child pornography has become so commonplace that they don’t feel the need to hide it, lock it up, encrypt it with a password 140 characters long containing numbers, lowercase and uppercase letters, and an ampersand or dash. Why should they? In literally five minutes you can google your way to the stuff. What’s the big stinkin’ deal? Leave the kiddie porn lying around on a desk with your homework and some MP3s. T’ain’t nothin’ to worry ’bout.

Which is scarier — individual stupidity? Or mass depravity?

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