I've read laws regarding sex crimes. Trust me... It would be illegal.
You missed out on some key points then. There's usually two aspects that have to be met.
Possession of child pornography is illegal – as is downloading, distributing, mailing, publishing, giving, lending, selling, manufacturing, circulating, advertising, offering, or otherwise sharing or obtaining pornographic materials depicting people younger than 16 years old.
"Possessing a sexual performance by a child” and “possessing an obscene sexual performance by a child” – in other words, the
possession of child pornography. Viewing it on a webpage doesn't qualify since, if you don't download it to keep it, you don't possess it. (did you get I was stressing the law includes the word possession?) Now one could argue that it's in the browsers cache, therefore he does possess it. A weak argument but I wouldn't doubt prosecutors have tried it before.
So there's also
“knowingly access[ing] with intent to view, any performance which includes sexual conduct by a child less than 16 years of age” (this is NY law here) which you may be thinking of. And going back to repeatedly view it may in some circumstances be enough. If you have a long habit of visiting underage porn sites, then this part applies.However going back to it once to get its URL to report it to authorities does not even come close since the intent was not to view it. There is no way that is illegal in any way shape or form since the intent in going back was NOT to view it again, but to report it.
No possession, no intent to repeatedly view...not a crime to go back just to report it to authorities.
Oregon Supreme Court rules that simply viewing child pornography on the Internet isn't illegal
Can I Get in Trouble for Accidentally Looking at Child Pornography in New York?
