Very disturbing question for people who used to browse the old Muse Messageboard

[ForksOnAPlate13]

While I was looking through some old threads on the Muse subreddit, I claim across a link to a user in r/poppunkers who was talking about the old AOL hotline Matt had. For those who don't know, Matt had this email set up so that fans could send him nudes. The user in r/poppunkers remembers a case where a 16 year old girl send Matt non-nude pictures. Matt (allegedly) responded asking for more. In response, the girl told Matt she was 16. He responded by asking to see her breasts. The user concludes by suggesting that this incident would have been well known as the message board, suggeesting that others would know as well. The user deleted their account about a day after making the post.

 

Obviously, this is an extremely serious allegation. Asking for nudes of a 16 year old is child pornography under UK law, and if Matt did this, he is not only sleazy but actually evil. Can anybody who used the boards back in the day confirm or deny this, or tell me if Matt had an over-18 rule for nudes? I really hope this isn't true, as I am a huge Muse fan and want to continue supporting them.

 

EDIT: Here is the original comment:

[ForksOnAPlate13]

Yeah, title says it all. I've heard this rumor spread around a few times: that Matt was on qua@aol.com and used it to chat with fans. I've also been told that he used it to request nudes. Can someone who was on the old message boards tell me if this is true or not?

 

I really hope it isn't, given that it's fairly sleazy, and because I've heard an individual claim on Reddit that he asked for underage nudes as well (16). Please tell me this is just an idiotic rumour, I don't want to think less of Matt Bellamy.

[matthijs]

Looking at the footage of Hullabaloo, we can only say that the band did indulge in many things, and we know for a fact that Matt has used anagrams.

 

However, I am going to have to close the thread:

Keep your nose out of band members private lives

Avoid speculating, discussing or questioning aspects of the band members personal lives, such as relationships, children, private photos, etc. The way to determine what is private and what is acceptable is if a band member has themselves mentioned the item in an interview or similar media and only to the level of detail that they have expressed. In addition you may not post paparazzi photos unless they are taken as part of the publicity for an event.

 

The rumours might be hard to prove or disprove, and at this point if such a thing were the case, this would not be the right place to discuss it, as we are getting into the legal sphere of matters. Let's not speculate these matters without knowing exactly what happened.