Thought I would chime in with a story. Someone I knew used to travel a lot for business, as a teacher. He often was paid in cash, and during one crossing he failed to declare that he had more than 10k in cash on his person. He was flagged for secondary inspection, and in fact they confiscated his computer at that time. Weeks went by before he finally was able to get an update to his situation. They found child porn, and he was being charged!

Long story short, he is serving 70 months as a result of the search. My feeling is although the punishment is harsh, the crime demands the time


There are 2 important lessons form this story. The first is; Customs has absolute power to do secondary searches for almost no reason at all. Computers can be searched with the goal of finding illegal porn, and they have the right to search for as long as they feel required. Second, never travel with porn on your computer. Your computer should never have more than what you would need for the trip your on it, and a complete backup should be left at home. Keep your personal surfing (porn or not) on your home computer and just travel with what you need for the trip.

my $.02