A former member of the community, not extremely active on GBAtemp but known for contributions to several projects on the 3DS hacking scene, Thomas Edvalson aka 'Cruel', has recently received a 20 year jail sentence for supposedly hosting a child porn site (although he firmly denied it).

Thomas Scot Edvalson, 28, appeared to be providing a website where other users could download images of child porn, according to a press release form the District Attorney’s Office. The site came complete with an online guide detailing how to use the dark web to set up a website for trading pictures of child sexual abuse.

Source: Gwinnett Daily Post
A thread was started on GBAtemp to discuss the issue a couple of months ago, before the final judgement was rendered. At the time our decision was to lock the thread up as it began to heavily derail. Some members and visitors took this as a 'cover up' and wondered why we didn't ban this guy's user account on GBAtemp.

We had long discussions in the staff forum and decided to wait for the final verdict (the appeal that is) before doing anything, thereby letting justice do its work. We banned this person from our forums immediately after we heard the final judgement and by the looks of it he won't be around again for a while. Since then, there hasn't been any new threads about the story but if there had been one, we would have allowed it for sure.

At this point we are wondering why anyone would think we are 'covering' this up? Why would we even need to? It's not like people don't know what happened already. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in this thread.

Furthermore, there is an ongoing story concerning another person, it's been posted on a Reddit thread (edit: now removed, but you can see screenshots here) and, again, we certainly won't prevent you from discussing it wherever you want just as long as you stay civil.

We at GBAtemp value freedom of speech above all, but within the boundaries of the law. If you think someone is guilty of a crime it is your duty to report it to the relevant authorities (not the GBAtemp admins, I mean the police). But otherwise let justice do its job. We do not believe that witch hunts have their place on GBAtemp.


The staff

 

[Issac]

I'd like to ask everyone who is against the ban of his account to give a reason what purpose having it not banned would serve.

The guy is locked up for 20 years. He won't respond to (or even read) any of the insults that would most likely be posted on his profile or via PM.

 

[huma_dawii]

OMG that's a lot of jail, and to think that I kind of trust this website xD

 

[DeslotlCL]

Well now they could buy information from isp's so that can open up quite a bit of potential. Definitely counteracts the 4th ammendment

heh, i was joking about the 3ds homebrew app that you use for cia installation. You really not need to call the real fbi since the nsa is already keeping a eye on all of us.

 

[AmandaRose]

Please do tell where in Japan that is the law? Because from what I gather pretty much all prefectures set the age of consent much higher.

.

I said that in more detail back on page 21 already lol.

 

[Dionicio3]

I'd like to ask everyone who is against the ban of his account to give a reason what purpose having it not banned would serve.

The guy is locked up for 20 years. He won't respond to (or even read) any of the insults that would most likely be posted on his profile or via PM.

I think a permanent suspension would be better, that way we can at least view his profile.

 

[KenyaSPA]

Sorry my bad english but:
The truth, I do not know the facts, but If you play with fire, you'll get burned.
PS: If what I heard in Criminal minds is true, now he will be the one violated.

 

[Pacheko17]

Actually, what's funny is that people on reddit compare that to Dozozo being convicted of 'sexual tourism' with a 15-year old. And then, people say bleh, that's disgusting as long as one is minor and the other not. But there's a slight problem. In every single high school, couples become unhealthy because one of the two lovers turn 18 and the other is still 17.5? I find this pretty illogical. That would mean that if you turn 18 while in couple with another minor, you are a disgusting pedophile, and if your bf/gf turns 18, you're victim of child abuse. You know? The candidate who just got first at the French Presidential Election, Emmanuel Macron, is 39. His wife is 64. Yes, 64. And he met her at the age of 16. She was his French teacher and was 41 at that time.

EDIT: I'm 16.

Often times that isn't really a problem. If you're over 18 and dating someone that's like, 16, there's no problem because it's a small difference.
I have dated someone over 18 when I was under 18 and nothing really happened, it's not a problem.

 

[Wiisel]

OMG that's a lot of jail

Some of us would say its not enough but compared to the pathetic convictions in the UK its amazing.

 

[Ritsuki]

This site is tainted... I think this thread needs to close.. any one with morals knows that... but who Is it for me to say.. I hope someday the fbi shows up and catches all the pedos on here... ban me if you want i speak the truth

Please, first stop accusing the website. That's exactly what I'm afraid of. People get way too emotional when talking about that kind of stuff. So one pedo was here and even got caught. Why the hell are we associated with this case or even the guy? I consider myself as a part of this community, and I'm not a pedo, and neither is this community. You talk like we're all in the same boat, just hiding our dark stuff here. We are not. If you're not comfortable discussing the matter, please tell us so we can find a way to make it more supportable, or, you know, just don't read it. It's only one topic. Now I think it might actually be a good idea to remove that post from front page, even if I'm quite disappointed by the behavior of certain members of our community. Because yes, it's yours too, and mine.

 

[greenDarkness555]

I'd like to ask everyone who is against the ban of his account to give a reason what purpose having it not banned would serve.

The guy is locked up for 20 years. He won't respond to (or even read) any of the insults that would most likely be posted on his profile or via PM.

I'm against banning his account because this means we will no longer be able to see his profile. Just because he is an awful human being, doesn't mean that his work and posts do not contain value.
I completely agree with you that he won't be responding to us. I also doubt that he would ever come back here under his old name.
The person who started this thread mentioned that they made it to establish that GBATemp wasn't trying to hide what he did. I think that deleting his profile has the opposite effect.
I also think that this thread should remain just how it is so that we can get through this together as a community. And when we're done talking about it, it will disappear, and something will takes its place (hopefully in the form of some great new homebrew).
Thank you for reading.

 

[bi388]

I'm against banning his account because this means we will no longer be able to see his profile. Just because he is an awful human being, doesn't mean that his work and posts do not contain value.
I completely agree with you that he won't be responding to us. I also doubt that he would ever come back here under his old name.
The person who started this thread mentioned that they made it to establish that GBATemp wasn't trying to hide what he did. I think that deleting his profile has the opposite effect.
I also think that this thread should remain just how it is so that we can get through this together as a community. And when we're done talking about it, it will disappear, and something will takes its place (hopefully in the form of some great new homebrew).
Thank you for reading.

His posts are all still here though. Correct me if I'm wrong but I doubt there was any valuable info on his wall that's now lost. Everything he contributed was posted to threads, mostly the freeshop one and being banned doesn't delete your posts. Whether he's a shithead or not we don't need a gbatemp hate cesspool on his profile, which is what it would be.

 

[TheDarkGreninja]

You Speaking from Experience?




Well yeah the recent blog posts have been somewhat....childish i guess(no offense guys)

You never know... Anyway, its pretty simple deduction when you see childish comments being thrown around by people who are supposedly "20".

edit: Also, in the form of experience... I trolled GameFAQ's when I was ten and posed as a thrity-year-old stereotypical gamer.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

What is the age of consent in each of the following regions?
America: 30
Canada: 30
UK: 30
Germany: 30
France: 30
Spain: 30
Mexico: 30
Argentina: 30
Brazil: 30
etc: 30

For me being 35, I wouldn't consider anything lower than 30 for a possible mate.

Yes, I know what age of consent is. I am kinda trying to make a point that regardless of the age of consent laws, people still need to be staying within a reasonable age range of their own age. I would find it disgusting for someone my age to be going after someone whom is 18 or even 21. I do understand that there are times when the age doesn't matter like when my 60 year old grandmother married a man that was around 12 years younger. Even when a person has legally become an adult, they are are still impressionable and a much older person can easily take advantage of that said adult. There is an issue of power when there is such a big age difference. Hence why there are laws about teachers gettign in a relationships with their adult college student.

On the other end of things, a 13 year old girl and a 13 year old boy dating is not a big issue to me even though they are both under the age of consent. Notice I only said dating, not having intercourse. But a 16 year old girl dating a 40 year old man, even without sex, is still a huge issue even if their country or state has an age of consent of something stupidly low like 14. At least with two 13 year olds dating, they will break each other hearts, they will have the teenage crying "my world is over" bullshit and they will move on without any long term damages.

I kinda wish @Costello would have linked a more thorough article on the first post as the article linked did not mention that the dude did in fact have cp on multiple PC's. At first I saw that their was a plausibility for the dude to have been falsely accused, but once I found that other info on my own searching it made me understand that he really is just a sick fuck.

I do have an issue with the whole "if they have dreams of fucking children but do not do so then they should not get in trouble". Someone like that is a ticking time bomb. If they don't get segregated from the community and get treatment and stay in that community then they will eventually harm a child or performing some sort of sexual assault. As it already has been noted, people with this disorder/mental illness/disease, whatever the fuck YOU want to call it, have true physical issues in their brain that vastly differs from a normal healthy functioning brain. So give them treatment all you want, but you can't release them back in public because no treatment will fix that brain.

Again, on that whole "if they have a sexual attraction to children but do not act on it..." bullshit, please name me 2 notable people that have publicly had a sexual attraction to children but have never done any illegal actions and lived their live to the end without offending. Please, I want to see some examples. I am sure that none exist because all of them have offended or anyone that did not ever offend just kept it as a secret their whole lives out of fear of getting killed.


But after this whole thread and situation came up, it really makes me wonder how much the staff here stalk their members even off this website. As far as I am concerned the staff would have been so much better to take the stance of "Oh, you say a member is in prison? Cool story bro. Not my business", and then ask no more questions and leave it alone. As long as nothing was done illegal here and the police haven't contacted the staff then they all should have just minded their own damn business. And to the accusations of a cover up, the response should have been "Nothing illegal was done here. We have nothing to cover up. Go play your conspiracy theory game at school. Let the adults handle the big boy stuff". End of fucking story.

Yes, thecruel is a piece of shit, but even as a piece of shit he still has rights. @Costello nearly doxxed the guy by making such a public post regarding this. The dude is already going to get his shit handed to him in jail. He already had dozens, if not hundreds or thousands, of people that knew about this situation. But making a front page post did publicly humiliate him, even more than he already was. I am sure thousands of us member, much like myself, could have happily gone on in life not knowing about this. Yeah, the dude does need to feel like a piece of shit, but I go to my local news source to find out about the assholes in the world, not my joyous community gaming forum. This was not the place for this to be posted. It certainly has even tarnished the image of gbatemp, which was far from perfect anyways. And it isn't so much tarnished bc a member was a pedo, but because of how the staff handled this.


Now, I know someone is gonna bitch that I am contradicting myself here by saying that I wish they had linked to a better article, and then to say that the staff should have not reacted to this at all. In response to that inevitable question, the fact is that if @Costello was going to go public with all this stuff then he should have linked to the resources that showed the whole picture of what was going on. But in the end, this shouldn't have ever been dealt with on this site to begin with.

 

[djalmafreestyler]

Often times that isn't really a problem. If you're over 18 and dating someone that's like, 16, there's no problem because it's a small difference.
I have dated someone over 18 when I was under 18 and nothing really happened, it's not a problem.

I think the same, there are people that have like 15 years old, with a good mind, thinking like an adult.

 

[TheDarkGreninja]

While philosophy does certainly have some options for serious training* it would seem to be something that anybody, regardless of age and training can happily engage in and try their hand in. See also art for it is pretty similar.

Now I would definitely stop short of the odd position I heard the other week where some hold that any opinion is an opinion and thus valid to have, mainly as that leads to calls for things to not be challenged. The takeaway for me though is anybody, of any age and training can put something out there.

*video because why not

It's always a good thing for kids to start dabbling in philosophy, all I want is for it to be rational, and if they dont know the meaning of the word then it would be best if they didnt dabble in philosophy.

 

[greenDarkness555]

His posts are all still here though. Correct me if I'm wrong but I doubt there was any valuable info on his wall that's now lost. Everything he contributed was posted to threads, mostly the freeshop one and being banned doesn't delete your posts. Whether he's a shithead or not we don't need a gbatemp hate cesspool on his profile, which is what it would be.

That is true, but the easiest way to find his content is by going to his profile.
I completely agree with you; can't we just lock his profile to where people can't make posts, but we can still view it?

 

[bi388]

For me being 35, I wouldn't consider anything lower than 30 for a possible mate.

Yes, I know what age of consent is. I am kinda trying to make a point that regardless of the age of consent laws, people still need to be staying within a reasonable age range of their own age. I would find it disgusting for someone my age to be going after someone whom is 18 or even 21. I do understand that there are times when the age doesn't matter like when my 60 year old grandmother married a man that was around 12 years younger. Even when a person has legally become an adult, they are are still impressionable and a much older person can easily take advantage of that said adult. There is an issue of power when there is such a big age difference. Hence why there are laws about teachers gettign in a relationships with their adult college student.

On the other end of things, a 13 year old girl and a 13 year old boy dating is not a big issue to me even though they are both under the age of consent. Notice I only said dating, not having intercourse. But a 16 year old girl dating a 40 year old man, even without sex, is still a huge issue even if their country or state has an age of consent of something stupidly low like 14. At least with two 13 year olds dating, they will break each other hearts, they will have the teenage crying "my world is over" bullshit and they will move on without any long term damages.

I kinda wish @Costello would have linked a more thorough article on the first post as the article linked did not mention that the dude did in fact have cp on multiple PC's. At first I saw that their was a plausibility for the dude to have been falsely accused, but once I found that other info on my own searching it made me understand that he really is just a sick fuck.

I do have an issue with the whole "if they have dreams of fucking children but do not do so then they should not get in trouble". Someone like that is a ticking time bomb. If they don't get segregated from the community and get treatment and stay in that community then they will eventually harm a child or performing some sort of sexual assault. As it already has been noted, people with this disorder/mental illness/disease, whatever the fuck YOU want to call it, have true physical issues in their brain that vastly differs from a normal healthy functioning brain. So give them treatment all you want, but you can't release them back in public because no treatment will fix that brain.

Again, on that whole "if they have a sexual attraction to children but do not act on it..." bullshit, please name me 2 notable people that have publicly had a sexual attraction to children but have never done any illegal actions and lived their live to the end without offending. Please, I want to see some examples. I am sure that none exist because all of them have offended or anyone that did not ever offend just kept it as a secret their whole lives out of fear of getting killed.


But after this whole thread and situation came up, it really makes me wonder how much the staff here stalk their members even off this website. As far as I am concerned the staff would have been so much better to take the stance of "Oh, you say a member is in prison? Cool story bro. Not my business", and then ask no more questions and leave it alone. As long as nothing was done illegal here and the police haven't contacted the staff then they all should have just minded their own damn business. And to the accusations of a cover up, the response should have been "Nothing illegal was done here. We have nothing to cover up. Go play your conspiracy theory game at school. Let the adults handle the big boy stuff". End of fucking story.

Yes, thecruel is a piece of shit, but even as a piece of shit he still has rights. @Costello nearly doxxed the guy by making such a public post regarding this. The dude is already going to get his shit handed to him in jail. He already had dozens, if not hundreds or thousands, of people that knew about this situation. But making a front page post did publicly humiliate him, even more than he already was. I am sure thousands of us member, much like myself, could have happily gone on in life not knowing about this. Yeah, the dude does need to feel like a piece of shit, but I go to my local news source to find out about the assholes in the world, not my joyous community gaming forum. This was not the place for this to be posted. It certainly has even tarnished the image of gbatemp, which was far from perfect anyways. And it isn't so much tarnished bc a member was a pedo, but because of how the staff handled this.


Now, I know someone is gonna bitch that I am contradicting myself here by saying that I wish they had linked to a better article, and then to say that the staff should have not reacted to this at all. In response to that inevitable question, the fact is that if @Costello was going to go public with all this stuff then he should have linked to the resources that showed the whole picture of what was going on. But in the end, this shouldn't have ever been dealt with on this site to begin with.

I have a friend with parents who are 20 years apart. They were both adults when they got together. I don't see how that's disgusting. They are consenting adults that love each other.

 

[TheDarkGreninja]

For me being 35, I wouldn't consider anything lower than 30 for a possible mate.

Yes, I know what age of consent is. I am kinda trying to make a point that regardless of the age of consent laws, people still need to be staying within a reasonable age range of their own age. I would find it disgusting for someone my age to be going after someone whom is 18 or even 21. I do understand that there are times when the age doesn't matter like when my 60 year old grandmother married a man that was around 12 years younger. Even when a person has legally become an adult, they are are still impressionable and a much older person can easily take advantage of that said adult. There is an issue of power when there is such a big age difference. Hence why there are laws about teachers gettign in a relationships with their adult college student.

On the other end of things, a 13 year old girl and a 13 year old boy dating is not a big issue to me even though they are both under the age of consent. Notice I only said dating, not having intercourse. But a 16 year old girl dating a 40 year old man, even without sex, is still a huge issue even if their country or state has an age of consent of something stupidly low like 14. At least with two 13 year olds dating, they will break each other hearts, they will have the teenage crying "my world is over" bullshit and they will move on without any long term damages.

I kinda wish @Costello would have linked a more thorough article on the first post as the article linked did not mention that the dude did in fact have cp on multiple PC's. At first I saw that their was a plausibility for the dude to have been falsely accused, but once I found that other info on my own searching it made me understand that he really is just a sick fuck.

I do have an issue with the whole "if they have dreams of fucking children but do not do so then they should not get in trouble". Someone like that is a ticking time bomb. If they don't get segregated from the community and get treatment and stay in that community then they will eventually harm a child or performing some sort of sexual assault. As it already has been noted, people with this disorder/mental illness/disease, whatever the fuck YOU want to call it, have true physical issues in their brain that vastly differs from a normal healthy functioning brain. So give them treatment all you want, but you can't release them back in public because no treatment will fix that brain.

Again, on that whole "if they have a sexual attraction to children but do not act on it..." bullshit, please name me 2 notable people that have publicly had a sexual attraction to children but have never done any illegal actions and lived their live to the end without offending. Please, I want to see some examples. I am sure that none exist because all of them have offended or anyone that did not ever offend just kept it as a secret their whole lives out of fear of getting killed.


But after this whole thread and situation came up, it really makes me wonder how much the staff here stalk their members even off this website. As far as I am concerned the staff would have been so much better to take the stance of "Oh, you say a member is in prison? Cool story bro. Not my business", and then ask no more questions and leave it alone. As long as nothing was done illegal here and the police haven't contacted the staff then they all should have just minded their own damn business. And to the accusations of a cover up, the response should have been "Nothing illegal was done here. We have nothing to cover up. Go play your conspiracy theory game at school. Let the adults handle the big boy stuff". End of fucking story.

Yes, thecruel is a piece of shit, but even as a piece of shit he still has rights. @Costello nearly doxxed the guy by making such a public post regarding this. The dude is already going to get his shit handed to him in jail. He already had dozens, if not hundreds or thousands, of people that knew about this situation. But making a front page post did publicly humiliate him, even more than he already was. I am sure thousands of us member, much like myself, could have happily gone on in life not knowing about this. Yeah, the dude does need to feel like a piece of shit, but I go to my local news source to find out about the assholes in the world, not my joyous community gaming forum. This was not the place for this to be posted. It certainly has even tarnished the image of gbatemp, which was far from perfect anyways. And it isn't so much tarnished bc a member was a pedo, but because of how the staff handled this.


Now, I know someone is gonna bitch that I am contradicting myself here by saying that I wish they had linked to a better article, and then to say that the staff should have not reacted to this at all. In response to that inevitable question, the fact is that if @Costello was going to go public with all this stuff then he should have linked to the resources that showed the whole picture of what was going on. But in the end, this shouldn't have ever been dealt with on this site to begin with.

Thats a little weird, I'd consider consent the ability to understand what is going to happen. If they want to have sex with a 40 year old, let them, they'll learn any consequences of it, but if they enjoy that life? Good for them, I dont want to stop pathways to happiness.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

I'd like to ask everyone who is against the ban of his account to give a reason what purpose having it not banned would serve.

The guy is locked up for 20 years. He won't respond to (or even read) any of the insults that would most likely be posted on his profile or via PM.

At this point it would be stupid to unban the dude. The little bit of energy to click a mouse a few times to actual ban him was more effort than he deserved, which is part of my many points that I keep trying to make here. He shouldn't have been banned because the staff should not have been meddling in the personal lives of a member to even come to the point where they need to have a discussion about if they should ban him or not. It's almost like the staff had their own little trial on the dude.

 

[Dionicio3]

staff should not have been meddling in the personal lives of a member

They were not. This is all public info that the entire 3DS hacking community knows.