Viewing and Searching for Content During Middle School

#1

<p><p>I have a friend who in middle school in the early 2000s and was looking for prn in his age range. He searched for them on Kazaa and downloaded a video file. But the video file didn't play. Like many songs and videos on that Kazza, there were plenty of mislabeled files. Now he's concerned about the life style poly portion and the possibility of an examiner misconstruing his answer. Hypothetically, the downloaded file could have contain the illegal content, or it could have contained regular adults (18+). But he never witnessed the content of the clip as the file couldn't play. So I'm incline to say he didn't possess the content in question because he was never able to verify it and he should answer no. This article caught his attention- http://news.clearancejobs.com/2014/03/06/porn-security-clearance-doha-hearings/ This clearance applicant in the article didn't possess any incriminating images but hypothetically, he could have... but he just didn't know, and the examiner inflated his estimates. Ultimately, the judge ruled in his favor but not without the headaches and need to lawyer up. Returning to my friend here, how should he answer? He never saw or witnessed the illegal content, but this question regarding possession may trip him up due to the downloading and his concern about his answer getting misconstrued if the examiner plays the game of hypotheticals like the one in the article referenced. Here's how I see it: it was searched by a 13 or 14 year old at a time when he was curious about what the other gender in his age range was. Seems natural enough as he was not interested in anything younger. We're not talking about an 18 year old searching for such a content. It's been so long and since he never viewed any illegal content, I would think this issue is mitigated even if he has to disclose. But returning to the question at hand, how should he answer?</p></p>

#2

He should answer the questions posed honestly and truthfully. If asked the question in your scenario he should explain it just as you did, youth, time, and no similar behavior will mitigate any concerns, but lack of candor is difficult to overcome.

#3

In my experience, background investigators have never sought information on any aspect of my past life, prior to the high school level.