Jeff, have you ever had to contact the authorities?

[Anonymous]

If a poster makes a threat to hurt to themselves or others:
A) would you contact the police? And
B) could their physical location be determined by their IP address? I started thinking about this, as the "I almost threw my son out the window" poster never responded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If a poster makes a threat to hurt to themselves or others:
A) would you contact the police? And
B) could their physical location be determined by their IP address? I started thinking about this, as the "I almost threw my son out the window" poster never responded.

There was nothing in her post that would make anyone believe her title was anything but colorful or that her baby was in danger. She asked for advice on getting her infant to sleep better.

[jsteele]

I have never had to contact the authorities. I can't imagine what circumstances I would contact the authorities. Even though I know a user's IP number, I don't necessarily have a way to identify the user. For instance, I might be able to say that the user is on the Verizon network. That would not be of much help to anyone unless they were able to contact Verizon for further information. I think the police would blow me off if I called them to say an anonymous user on the Verizon network was making some sort of threat.