Child Exploitation.org
Pornography
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
The following column by child-protection advocate Parry Aftab contains explicit and graphic
descriptions of child pornography encountered during investigation and law-enforcement
activities. Readers are advised to use discretion when deciding whether to read this column.
Internet exploitation of children is prompting action in US and abroad.
NEW YORK – Despite highly publicized arrests, law-enforcement officials say that the
sexual exploitation of children on the Internet is growing dramatically. Over the past four
years, the number of reports of child pornography sites to the National Center for Missing &
Exploited Children (NCMEC) has grown by almost 400 percent. Law-enforcement officials
are particularly disturbed by the increased number of commercial sites that offer photos of
exploited children in return for a credit-card number. Those fighting child porn say it has
become a global multibillion-dollar industry.
"We are encountering staggering proportions of violators or offenders we would have
never imagined years ago," says Ray Smith, who oversees child exploitation investigations
by the United States Postal Inspection Service. "It is an exploding problem worldwide, and
particularly in the US,"
Net users can help fight child porn
The FBI announced Monday that it had charged dozens of people for using computers and
the Internet to distribute child pornography. Those caught in the sweep, called ``Operation
Candyman,'' allegedly used e-mail and the Web to distribute the clandestine material. The
group had 7,000 members, the Department of Justice said. Child pornography, defined by
federal law as a visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, has been
around for centuries, but the Internet has given it new life.
A Glasgow student has admitted running an international child porn ring from an city centre
internet cafe. Nicholas Dockray, 31, sent images of children being abused to paedophiles
in the US, UK and Europe. Glasgow Sheriff Court heard Dockray was traced to the cafe
when Croatian police arrested a known sex offender, who was a member of the porn ring.
"I was addicted to it like people get addicted to cocaine or alcohol . . ." said Jeffrey Hart
about child pornography. Hart is a former Town of Tonawanda teacher serving time in a
federal prison for possessing child pornography.
Looking back, Jeffrey E. Hart says he is thankful the FBI caught him. "The day they
arrested me, I realized what I had become," he said, "a monster." Hart, 28, a former teacher
who is now a federal prisoner, blames only himself for his fall into the dark and sleazy world
of Internet child pornography. His obsession with child porn resulted in his arrest, the loss
of his job and the 57-month term he is serving in a federal prison for sex offenders in South
Carolina. Hart wishes he could go back to the spring of 2001, when he got bored looking at
adult pornography and began to seek out images of naked young girls. He wishes he had
looked for psychiatric help before his curiosity became an obsession that turned his life
upside down. "The first few times I saw child porn,
Web Cams and Teen Wish Lists
There are thousands of places on the Internet where a young person can set up a free
Web page where they can post information about themselves, their interests, their favorite
music, teen idols and whatever else they would like to add for the world to see. Once the
Web page is created, links to other sites can be added. That's where the “wish list” comes
in.
Just about every online retail store has created a feature where kids can select items that
they would like to receive as gifts. These items are then added to a page where the items
can be purchased by shoppers visiting the child's site and shipped directly to the young
person or items can be picked up at a local mall.
In an achievement that is almost the equivalent of the Human Genome project for the
internet, a new Scottish software company has not only succeeded in plotting a map of the
world wide web but has also uncovered its Dark Side.
The achievement had its beginnings three years ago at a brainstorming session between a
group of software programmers in Scotland. "How do we write a program that detects
anything bad that's going on on the internet?" asked Stephen Whitelaw, former Glasgow
University lecturer and chief executive of Buchanan International, a security software
company based outside Glasgow.
A team member replied: "Well, you'll first need to map all that's good and bad—an
awesome challenge—and keep adding to it on a daily basis. Only then will you be able to
trace, log and map what's bad in it."
Anytime the issue of "censorship" raises its head, the result is a virtual stampede of
opposition—anyone perceived to be in favour is quickly consigned to the lunatic fringe. But
when abstract principles are applied to ground-zero problems, rhetoric often falls short of
reality's need. A case in point is the debate over "child pornography," a phenomenon more
easily denounced than defined.
The concept of censorship is irrelevant to child pornography. lt is not censorship to outlaw
(and punish) certain activities. Criminal laws are necessary to both illuminate and enforce
the social contract that prohibits individuals from preying upon others. Nor is it censorship
to criminalise production and dissemination of, and profit from, child pornography.
The Teen Model Web Sites
Webmasters are now involved in recruiting large numbers of young people as "teen
models.” The Webmaster creates a membership Web site where he or she charges a set
fee to those wishing to join. The fee is usually between $9.95-$19.95 per month.
After the potential member pays his or her membership dues, he or she is then given
access to the photos of the young teen or pre-teen models. The membership fee allows the
member to view the images of children sitting in their underwear, posing in provocative
positions and if they are wearing any clothes, they are very revealing clothes that most
parents would not approve of their child wearing.
Issues Surrounding Adult and Child Pornography on the Internet
The "rights" of the pornographer have been recently highly publicized. In the film The
People Vs. Larry Flynt the pornography industry is on trial for producing indecent
material. Larry Flynt, creator of Hustler magazine as well as a leading devil's advocate
during the 1998-99 impeachment trial in Congress, fought a battle for the protection of
freedom of speech, even for things which citizens may find morally reprehensible.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Police in Indonesia and Russia said Thursday that
prosecuting suspects in their countries linked to a Texas-based online child pornography
ring will be difficult, due to loose laws governing the Internet and pornography.
Federal officials in Washington said Wednesday that they have arrested 100 subscribers
to child pornography Web sites, which they said had some 250,000 subscribers worldwide
and grossed up to $1.4 million a month. Authorities called it the largest child-pornography
business ever discovered in the United States.
The source of the bulk of the material came from Indonesia and Russia, where officials
believe so-called Webmasters operated the sites.
Indonesia has no laws banning online pornography, and activists there say cybercrime
flourishes with the help of lazy policing.
Live Video Broadcasts
Web cameras are one of the new and admired electronic toys used by pedophiles and
child molesters to gain immediate sexual gratification and exploit a young person. Most of
the commonly used instant message programs have the capability of connecting a Web
camera to the Internet for live videoconferences. Many of the programs have an icon letting
other users know if there is a Web camera attached to another chat participant’s computer.
The sexual abuser sits in the chat rooms and game areas where children are known to
visit. They contact those children with a Web camera and coerce them into masturbating
and posing in sexually lewd positions in front of their cameras. The sex offender may be
viewing one child or may be filling his screen with several teens on cameras at the same
time. There can also be more than one offender viewing the same child.
Very simply put, the production of child pornography requires child abuse. Every child porn
picture is a crime-scene photo. This reality is particularly obvious when the photographed
child shows signs of pain or distress. But even when smiles are present, abuse is
occurring. The damage to a child’s psyche and soul may not be apparent in a photographic
instant. Nevertheless, the damage is real and long lasting. Child sexual abuse results in
severe emotional problems that may linger for life. Consider the story of Sandra:
Child porn must remain taboo
Nothing progressive about equating abuse with freedom of speech By Lorne Gunter
"A person should be allowed to possess anything, even if it's images of an eight-year-old
being raped and cut up."
Those are the words of Robin Sharpe, the 66-year-old man whose claim of a constitutional
right to possess kiddy porn was heard by the Supreme Court of Canada last week. He
spoke them last September 30 at a forum on freedom of speech held in Vancouver.
It's been a year since a B.C. judge first granted Sharpe the right to collect graphic pictures,
drawings and stories of young boys engaging in sex and being tortured. During that time,
a number of commentators have taken Sharpe's side. Those commentators have all
claimed to be outraged by Sharpe's material. No, no, they reassure, they are not
endorsing the sexual abuse of children. It's just that Canada's law against child
pornography is over-broad.
Do Child Pornographers Molest Children?
by Julie Posey May 18, 2005 The Internet has become a very useful tool for pedophiles
and child molesters. Thousands of them band together in huge networks designed to fuel
each other's dreams of one day having sex with a child.
Many people think that child pornography is only a harmless fantasy and that the person
viewing it, downloading it and collecting it will just keep collecting and trading it and that
never hurts anyone. The real truth is that It does hurt many people including the child
pornographer, the child victims and anyone else who is exposed to it.
It has been my experience that these people never stop at just viewing these images of
children being victimized by adults or older juveniles. The child pornographer starts out
occasionally viewing child pornography online. Then in a very
short period of time he begins to share his likes and dislikes with fellow pedophiles. The
next thing that happens is he seeks to have sexually explicit conversations with young
people and expose them to his addiction by sending them samples of his collection to lower
their inhibitions and demonstrate exactly what they want to do when they meet the child in
person. Then, the more pornography he views, the more likely he is to follow through with
his suggestion to meet the child in person to molest, rape or sodomize a child.I have
watched hundreds of men and women start out lurking in chat rooms and within just a few
weeks they are seeking to meet a child for sex.
LOS ANGELES (WOMENSENEWS)--It can look like any other e-mail, with an invitation to
click on a Web site, often with a nonsensical name.
This week there's been one going around with the subject line: "eb1 LS- L 0 LITA NOW is
out !!! with 4 in1 RTF."
For a day or two, the link inside this e-mail, touting something like "little Lolitas" or "young
cuties," will direct your browser to a Web page with more than 15 ads for sites that have
shocking photos of naked young girls. But two days later the link will probably go dead.
For years, carefully trained volunteers with Wired Kids Inc., a nonprofit organization
devoted to online consumer safety, scoured the Web in search of child pornography. They
frequently found the illicit images and videos, and passed tips to law-enforcement
personnel about the Web sites and chat rooms where they're exchanged. All too often,
however, nothing happened. Frustrated that the group's efforts were wasted, Wired Kids'
executive director and founder, Parry Aftab, has decided to pull back from the gumshoe
work of proactively seeking child pornography and concentrate instead on public education
and awareness. "The magnitude of the problem is so big that law enforcement can no
longer even put a dent in it," Aftab says. "I'm tired of having people work and nothing
happen." The statistics bear out Aftab's concern. The National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children's CyberTipline logged a 39% increase in reports of possession,
creation, or distribution of child pornography in 2004, the seventh consecutive year child-
pornography incidents have trended upward since the federally funded group set up its 24-
hour hot line in 1998. "The problem is getting bigger," says Staca Urie, a supervisor with
the center. Ironically, the proliferation of child pornography is fueled by the same trend
that's enriching the lives of children around the world: advances in computer technology
and the global reach of the Web.
NEW YORK – Despite highly publicized arrests, law-enforcement officials say that the
sexual exploitation of children on the Internet is growing dramatically. Over the past four
years, the number of reports of child pornography sites to the National Center for Missing &
Exploited Children (NCMEC) has grown by almost 400 percent. Law-enforcement officials
are particularly disturbed by the increased number of commercial sites that offer photos of
exploited children in return for a credit-card number. Those fighting child porn say it has
become a global multibillion-dollar industry.
"We are encountering staggering proportions of violators or offenders we would have
never imagined years ago," says Ray Smith, who oversees child exploitation investigations
by the United States Postal Inspection Service. "It is an exploding problem worldwide, and
particularly in the US," adds Ernie Allen, president of NCMEC.
Efforts to stem the upsurge are taking place on multiple fronts. At the G-8 summit in
Scotland last month, officials said that Interpol, an international police organization, is
putting together a global database of offenders and victims. And this week, 3,000 law-
enforcement officials from around the US are meeting in Dallas to discuss ways to attack
Internet crimes against children.
On the state level, New Jersey and Florida are among those enacting requirements for
sexual predators to wear GPS devices that keep track of their whereabouts.
One of the biggest pushes against the purveyors is aimed at shutting down the use of
credit cards. NCMEC is currently talking to MasterCard about making it even harder to
subscribe to the commercial sites.
"We're trying to mobilize the financial industry to choke off the money," says Mr. Allen.
At MasterCard, spokeswoman Sharon Gamsin says her organization is "appalled people
are using our systems for illegal transactions involving child pornography, and finding a
way to stop this is a priority."
Two years ago, Visa International began a program to try to identify child porn sites
allowing transactions with its credit cards. It hired a firm that used retired federal agents to
go through the Internet searching for sites, and it says it's still searching the Web for illicit
sites today.
Teen who posted own photo charged with child porn Monday, March 29, Pittsburgh Post-
Gazette State police have charged a 15-year-old Latrobe girl with child pornography for
taking photos of herself and posting them on the Internet.Police said the girl, whose identity
they withheld, photographed herself in various states of undress and performing a variety
of sexual acts. She then sent the photos to people she met in chat rooms. A police report
did not say how police learned about the girl. They found dozens of pictures of her on her
computer. She has been charged with sexual abuse of children, possession of child
pornography and dissemination of child pornography.Police said they are trying to identify
all the people who receive photos from the girl.
Analysts: Child Porn Hidden on Corporate Networks
By Sharon Gaudin
Child pornography is hidden on virtually every large corporate network, according to
security experts. While it's common to hear stories of workers being fired for downloading
pornographic images onto their systems, and it's even more common to hear people
complain of pornographic spam, industry watchers say the problem goes even further.
Child pornography -- explicit images and text dealing with underage children -- can be
easily found on nearly every large network -- be it corporate, academic or government. ''If
you've got a big company system, I can almost guarantee that you have child pornography
on it,'' says Kenneth Citarella, deputy chief of investigations with the Westchester County
District Attorney's Office. ''It's there somewhere.'' And analysts and law enforcement say it's
not simply a case of someone accidentally opening an offensive spam message. ''We're
not talking about that one click to open and then 'Oh, my God' and delete,'' says William
Eyres, chief executive officer of the Joint Council on Information Age Crime. ''That's not the
problem. It's a different level. Someone downloading thousands of pictures is a different
story.'' Edward Appel, chief operating officer of the Joint Council, agrees with his colleague,
adding that there's 'almost a 100%' probability of finding child porn on corporate networks.
''They think if nobody is standing over their shoulder, it's a private act,'' says Appel, who
notes that it's found both on hard drives and shared storage. ''They think they can get
away with it but it's discoverable. The evidence is easily found.'' And the person
downloading it onto the network, might not even work in that company,
BT reports that it is now blocking 35,000 attempts to access child pornography in Britain
every day.
And one leading e-commerce figure has described over Internet Service Providers' failure
to block access to such sites as "outrageous", and called on other ISPs to follow BT's lead.
The figures from the telecoms company, which accounts for one-third of the internet market
in the UK, are based on data acquired since it introduced a filter in June 2004 to block
access to child porn sites.
It is feared the overall number could be much higher and that many attempts to access
illegal material are slipping through filtering technology.
"While it’s good to see that BT has taken steps to stop its users from being able to view
illegal child pornography, clearly the message that not blocking users from viewing this type
of material isn’t acceptable isn’t getting through to other ISPs," Mark Herbert, the founder of
intY, the business internet and e-mail specialists, told Times Online today.
"It’s outrageous that ISPs allow their customers to access this type of illegal material, they
shouldn’t be exposed to it even accidentally through an innocent Internet search.
The industry has shifted responsibility on to the individual or business to stop people
accessing these sites using Internet access controls. If one ISP can put controls in place
then surely others can as well?" Mr Herbert said.
The Cleanfeed program, which prevents users from accessing sites blacklisted by the
Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), initially registered 10,000 attempts to access them by BT’
s 3.1 million domestic users each day.
Today’s figures showed there were 4 million blocked attempts to access the websites over
the last four months. Downloading images from such sites could constitute an illegal act
which is punishable with a jail sentence.
PARADE Contributing Editor Andrew Vachss has made the protection of our most
vulnerable citizens his life’s work. He is an attorney whose practice, for nearly four
decades, has been devoted exclusively to the representation of children, many of them
victims of sexual abuse. This experience has made him an outspoken advocate for the
dignity and rights of children, a theme he also has pursued through his best-selling novels.
This week, we ask readers to join Vachss’ call-to-arms against a despicable crime that is
growing at an alarming pace.
Statistics show that child pornography is the fastest-growing of all Internet businesses,
estimated to bring in several billion dollars a year. But while such information may enrage
or frighten us, it changes nothing. Our knowledge of cold statistics will not alter the conduct
of those who take pleasure or profit in the exploitation of children. Instead, if we are to
wage war, we must know our enemy. We need to know more about those who create this
unspeakable “product,” why they do it and the various ways it is used.
The term “pornography” may give rise to discussions about what constitutes art. It may
invoke issues of free speech or censorship. But no matter how you feel about pornography
in general, child pornography does not belong in that debate. No child is capable,
emotionally or legally, of consenting to being photographed for sexual purposes. Thus,
every image of a sexually displayed child—be it a photograph, a tape or a DVD—records
both the rape of the child and an act against humanity.
Child pornography has become a business so profitable that it is no longer limited to
pedophiles. Demand exceeds supply and always will. (Some pedophiles, if they had the
resources, would acquire a copy of every single piece of child pornography ever
produced.) The risk/gain ratio is extremely favorable. And the return on investment is
extraordinary. What crime syndicate would pass up such an opportunity?
Compare production of child pornography with another syndicate crime: trafficking in
cocaine. Effective production of cocaine requires control of the cultivation fields,
maintenance of private armies, complex laboratory skills and equipment, smuggling
expertise and many levels of bribery. Because of harsh international drug laws, moving
large quantities means risking a life sentence or, in some countries, a death sentence. As a
result, those in the production chain have a great incentive to inform upward if captured.
Getting Help Many people who use child porn are addicted to it. But whether addicted to it
or not, they need help. The use of child porn is illegal, damaging to children, and harmful to
users and their families (see What’s the Harm?) Unfortunately, users of child pornography
usually seek help only when they’ve suffered significant consequences. These may include
divorce, job loss, or problems with the law. But consequences have a good side. They can
break denial and turn a child porn user’s mind toward change. Below are twelve updated
steps of recovery, geared specifically toward those addicted to child pornography. They
incorporate the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) and other recovery groups -
but they also include additional wisdom that has become evident in the nearly 70 years
since the original twelve steps were written. They can help any user of child porn, whether
or not they are a true addict. For convenience, the terms “addict” and “addiction” refer
here to anyone who has used child porn and been unable to quit that use on their own.
The first step to getting free of the use of child pornography is to ACKNOWLEDGE THE
PRESENCE OF A SERIOUS PROBLEM (A.A. step #1). As noted, the child porn user often
fails to face reality before dire consequences occur. Denial is a strong force. However, two
things characterize addiction to pornography or anything else. The first is “powerlessness.”
This means that the user is unable to stop, completely and forever, from doing or
consuming something that is unhealthy for them and others. The second is
“unmanageability.” That includes such things as spending hours with porn when you could
be with family or friends. It means losing needed sleep, letting job performance suffer,
taking serious risks, neglecting intimacy with your wife, violating your own ethical standards,
or getting into legal trouble. The second step in recovery is to ACCEPT THAT HELP IS
NEEDED AND SURRENDER TO THE HELP OF GOD AND OTHERS (A.A. steps #2-3). Most
people who are addicted to pornography cling to the notion that, somehow, despite all their
past failures to quit, they can recover on their own. This is a delusion. The power of sexual
compulsivity is so strong that recovery requires the help of God and others. Sadly, most
porn addicts have trouble trusting others. It’s only when they experience unconditional love
and acceptance that they can open up for help. That’s why it’s important for addicts to
attend support group meetings even before accepting that they’ll help.
ZAPOROZHYE (CCRC) - Up to 75% of all child porn production are spread over the
Internet. According to law enforcement data, about 90% of international investigative
commissions, issued by Interpol, are related to this kind of computer crime. World child
porn industry, knowing about gaps in Russian laws, tends to place more and more
resources on the Russian Internet.
As an example, we may consider a 40 seconds long clip, where two perverts have sex with
a young girl and then they stab her, cut off her ears and smash her eyes. According to the
corresponding department of Russian police, so-called Department “R”, FBI officers
noticed this movie first. FBI experts assert that this video footage represents real activities,
not imitation. It was also found out that
Americans obtained access to this clip located on a specialized Russian website for 400
USD. Afterwards officers of Russian police were engaged in the investigation. It took 3
months to find producers of this video in the South-Eastern Asia, where they were
sentenced to death and executed. Consumers of such production were sentenced to terms
from 10 to 120 of imprisonment. At the same time, a Russian accomplice of this group was
not brought to responsibility due to gaps in Russian law.
During investigation on 70% of international investigative orders on child porn, officers
established that these porn sources are really located in other countries and are
intentionally tied to Russia by porn dealers with the purpose to hide their true location
using special hacker tricks. According to the Department "R", less than 2% of child porn
resources on the Internet are produced in Russia. Therefore owners of a porn site "Blue
Orchid", which were earlier amnestied, got involved in a similar business in a big way and
with more conspiracy. Their new project was named "Club "Omega". They bought a domain
name geographically located in the US especially for their new website. Therein, this
source was developed in such a way that only residents of US, Canada and Western
Europe could see it. When requested from the other countries, no one would see it.
Solntcev-Elbe and Garbko, also known in the "Blue Orchid" case, were in charge of this
"club". Two unemployed Russians helped them. Models for movies and photo sessions
were selected from 14 years old teenagers and above. Besides, they stopped to store
these materials at their physical mediums (CDROMs, cassettes). During searches in the
apartment, rented by the club, a computer was found where they transmitted these porn
materials.
Dangerous temptations
Child porno on the internet is more than collecting and distributing obscene
material. More and more it turns out that paedophiles try to arrange meetings with
children via the internet. Paedophiles glide as birds of prey over the internet in
search of children — the Americans call this 'hawking'. First they browse around
chatboxes and newsgroups where children are to be expected. Next they try to have
a chat with them in a chatbox. And finally they try to get the child to make a date with
them. In this way several children are picked up from the internet.
Youngsters as perpetrators
Not only adults sexually harass children. In Australia, at a rough estimate, nearly half
the victims are harassed by (elder) youngsters. Youngsters harass children in a
similar way as paedophile elders do. They make use of pornographic images,
create secrecy and guilt as weapons for manipulation, and so on.
Step by step paedophiles try to gain a child's trust and develop regular contact. This
process begins with discussing subjects children are interested in. Paedophiles are
good at identifying and communicating with vulnerable children. They give the
impression that they care for the child and understand their children's world. They
are skilful at playing the role of 'confidant' for young people. They use this trust to
manipulate the child in such a way that it backs away from family and friends. They
exploit the desires, insecurities and fears of young people in order to make
themselves lovable to them. Paedophiles try to talk extensively with their potential
victims about who they are, where they live, which school they attend and what their
hobbies are. In that way they hope to tempt the children to continue their chats in
exclusive conversations that cannot be observed by others (via email, IRC, ICQ or
webcam). The conclusion of this phase is an arrangement to meet each other
somewhere.
Live rape via webcam
The 'Wonderland'-case revealed that webcams are used to broadcast the 'live' rape
of a child. “The viewers can make clear, online and on the spot, what the rapist has
to do, what they want to see. This way the perpetrator is stirred up on the spot”
[PWC 2001]. There is a tendency to record more and more violent acts. The most
extreme form of this are the snuff movies, in which children are tortured and
eventually killed.
It is assumed that behind this group of paedophiles secret networks are hiding who
take photos from the newsgroup and distribute them further by email, or via
newsgroups, discussion forums, chatboxes or peer-to-peer networks. The
electronic mail, mailing lists, chatrooms —Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and I Seek You
(ICQ) — and webcams to a large extent withdraw from publicity. Therefore it cannot
be checked how large these networks are. Presumably they are much larger than
the 'public' networks. In any case the internet has lead to a far-reaching
internationalization of childporno.
On the internet children run the risk of becoming the victim of anonymous strangers.
Peadophiles roam through cyberspace looking for childpornographic material and
a fresh prey. They usually do this individually, but sometimes also in a group,
making use of special networks and demarcated virtual spaces. For child molesters
and child-pornographers the internet offers access to a broader market and thus to
more potential victims than ever before. They use the internet to network with their
own sort. That's why peer-to-peer networks are so popular by peadophiles. How
cohesive is the organization of paedophiles on the internet? Is there a paedophile
community using internet to exchange childpornographic material? How do they
work? Psychologist Rachel O'Connell (University of Cork, Ireland) has analyzed
childpornogroups such as alt.binaries.erotica.pre-teen and alt.binaries.pictures.
children [O'Connell 1999]. She concludes that there is a group of dozens of users
that uses another newsgroup to distribute childpornographic images on average
every two weeks. Most photos are distributed by the same internet users. Within the
paedophile network exists a kind of informal division of labour. There are
'infrastructure-coordinators' who familiarize newcomers with the internet, and in
particular with the newsgroups for childpornography. Other people concentrate on
reviews of childporno in the newsgroups. Then there are the people who function as
lookouts. They see to it that the activities do not take place too long in the same
group, in order to reduce the risk of detection. Before the internet-complaint
bureaus and the police can come into action against childpornographers in a
certain newsgroup, the paedophiles have already moved to another group. The
networks of paedophiles on the internet are 'organized nomadic movements'. All
people who put material in newsgroups do so anonymously. They use pseudonyms
and see to it that their real identity cannot be traced.
Offender Typology
The people who abuse children sexually are usually roughly classified in three
categories.
The situational perpetrator who has a primary preference for adults, but owing to
circumstances has sexual contacts with one or more children.
The antisocial perpetrator who has a primary preference for adults, but likes to
experiment and has few scruples.
The preferential perpetrator who has a primary sexual preference for children. Most
consumers of childporno belong to this category. Preferential perpetrators have an
almost obsessive tendency to collect material, often also of victims. Most
perpetrators are men, and approximately half of them have been abused.
One thing seems to be clear: the internet plays an increasingly important role in the
production and distribution of childporno. Several police investigations show that
very large peadophile networks are active on the internet. They are responsible for
the distribution of huge quantities of childpornographic photos and films. Many of
these photos and films are made by the members of those networks themselves
and are exchanged with other members of the network. In addition, there are
several web sites on which children are offered for prostitution, and on which
information can be found about favorable places of business or holiday-sites for
paedophiles. In Honduras and Costa Rica peadophile sex tourism increased with
60 percent in 1999, as a result of such web sites [Bruce Harris, of Casa Alianza, a
Central-American organization against sexual abuse of children]. Foreign countries
see The Netherlands as a country with loose morals, and as the cradle of the export
of drugs and childporno. The question is how large the scale is of childpornography
in the Netherlands, where it is produced, and how it is distributed. As a
consequence of reports from abroad in 1984 a committee childpornography was
introduced in June 1985. Her task was to make an inventory of existing and new
information with respect to child pornography in The Netherlands, trace possible
domestic distribution channels, and investigate the origin and destination of
discovered childporno. In her report of August 1986 the committee reaches the
following conclusions:
There are no indications for the existence of production of child pornography in The
Netherlands, in the sense of making sexual abuse of children with the intention of
commercial production of child pornography.
The American Ministry of Justice employs five criteria to decide whether an image
can be considered to be pornographic: "They must focus on the genital area, show
unnatural poses, depict children as sex objects, imply that the children are willing to
engage in sex, and have a suggestive setting."
Childporno is not the same as pictures of nude children. Childpornographic material
is the evidence of a crime, i.e. sexual abuse of children. The legal definition of
childporno in the Netherlands is “a picture of someone who apparently hasn't
reached the age of sixteen yet, alone or with someone else in a pose intended to
arouse sexual stimulation”. A picture of a pose of a nude child as such doesn't fall
under the penalty clause, even if there are persons who may be sexually stimulated
due to their inclination. Therefore, the crux of the legal definition of childporno isn't
that the picture is primarily made and distributed in order to arouse others sexually,
but the protection of the minor against sexual exploitation [the Dutch minister of
justice, W. Sorgdrager, Memorandum to article 240b, 20.2.95]. The Dutch
legislation concerning this point is extensively described in Regulation of
Cyberporno (in Dutch). Children who are depicted in childpornographic pictures
and films are involved in sexual acts and are manipulated by the photographer or
filmmaker in such a way that they satisfy a whole range of fantasies. The portrayed
children seldom show signs of aversion or disgust; they usually look cheerful or
neutral. This reinforces the rationalization and justification processes for the sexual
interest in children by adults for a large audience. The children are depicted as
'willing sexual beings'. Yet, every childpornographic representation starts with the
sexual abuse of a child. Behind every picture hides an abused child. No reliable
statistics are available of the number of children that are victimized by childporno,
nor of the number of productions or consumers [Frenken 1997]. Childpornography
is produced behind closed doors. All participants compel each other to secrecy
because they can all be blackmailed. For victims of childporno or childprostitution it
is usually very difficult to come forward with their story. Not seldom are they
threatened by the perpetrators who operate in the scene of organized crime.
According to Unicef several millions of children and youngsters are sexually
exploited worldwide. According to an estimate of the UN Human Rights
Commission in 1998 10 million children are used as sex objects by adults
worldwide. Increasingly younger children are involved — starting with babies of a
few months old
At ReportChildPorn.Net you find trusted authorities and organizations worldwide
where you can report child porn and child abuse. It does not matter if you discover
the child abuse or child pornography on the net or the real world. Please report it to
the listed contacts and they will take action against the harm done to the children.
We recommend that you report the child abuse in the country where it happens and
the child porn to your local contacts and in the country where the site is hosted.
However if you do not find those contacts on our list, please make an effort to find
law enforcement agencies and notify us of their rightful name and complete address
including tel. no. fax no., website and mail if possible, so they can be included to the
Net of responsible contacts at ReportChildPorn.Net.
At ReportChildPorn.Net we strongly discourage you from actively seeking child porn
in order to report it. The reason is that having child porn on your computer and in
your posession is illegal in many countries and so it should be. If you look at kiddie
porn, you are no longer innocent because the children in the photos have been
abused!!! Stay away from it!!!
Our list of responsible contacts also includes some multinational and international
organizations or agencies that work on preventing child pornography and child
abuse
AUSTIN, Texas — The state Attorney General has filed charges in the first known
indictment of an iPod user who allegedly stored child pornography on the device.
James Guzman, 38, has been accused of nine counts of possession of child
pornography and six counts of promotion of child pornography, according to state
Attorney General Greg Abbott. State investigators searched Guzman's San
Marcos, Texas, home in April after receiving a tip from the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children, Abbott said. A forensic examination of an iPod
confiscated there revealed several stored images and videos of child pornography.
The iPod Guzman used was an older music-only version incapable of playing the
videos but able to upload digitized media onto a computer, said Abbott, who noted
that Guzman was trading child pornography off the Internet, and then downloading it
so he could take it with him wherever he goes. Guzman, who said he is a student
Texas State University in San Marcos, was arrested by unit investigators on Jan. 11
and is being held in the Hays County Jail. “Innovative technology has made
electronic recordings and photographs more portable and accessible,” Attorney
General Abbott said in a statement. “Unfortunately, sexual predators are taking
advantage of these new developments in order to exploit children. Collecting and
distributing child pornography is a crime.” Joan Irvine, ASACP’s executive director,
told XBiz that distribution devices such as cellphones, iPod and Xbox for viewing
images along with the ability of people using such devices to produce what is being
labeled as “organically generated content” is a real concern to law enforcement and
to child protection organizations. “These images are not stored on a site at hosting
company where they were in the past; they are just passed from one person to
another,” Irvine said. Promotion of child pornography in Texas is a second-degree
felony punishable by up to 20 years in state prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
Possession is a third-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in state prison
and a fine of up to $10,000; however, a new state law that went into effect on Sept.
1, makes the possession charges stackable on punishment at the discretion of the
judge.
Within only a few years, child pornography has become a multi-billion dollar
commercial enterprise, and is among the fastest growing businesses on the
Internet. 1 Through the use of digital and web cameras, child pornography has
become easier and less expensive to produce. Distribution on the Internet has
facilitated instant access by thousands and possibly millions of individuals
throughout the world. The ability to use credit cards to purchase child pornography
has made it easier than ever to obtain.
Arrests in the United States for the possession of child pornography, during a one-
year period from 2000 to 2001, produced alarming results. According to
investigators, the majority of those arrested had images of children who had not yet
reached puberty. Specifically, 83% had pornographic material that involved children
between ages 6 and 12; 39% had material involving children between ages 3 and
5; and 19% had images of infants or toddlers under age 3. 2
“The ease and anonymity of using home computers has revolutionized accessibility
as well as the production and distribution of child pornography, especially across
international borders,” said Ernie Allen, President and CEO, National Center for
Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). “The fact that child pornography can be
purchased using a credit card, or traded at no cost on the Internet, is causing an
exploding global problem and an immeasurable impact on the sexual exploitation of
children.”
The exact number of web sites is difficult to determine. A 2002 report by ECPAT
International and the Bangkok Post, estimated that 100,000 child pornography web
sites existed on the Internet in 2001. Since 1997, the number of child pornography
images on the Internet is estimated to have increased by 1500%.3 NCMEC’s
congressionally mandated CyberTipline received 21,603 reports of child
pornography in 2001, and in 2004 it received 106,176 reports – a 491% increase
over a four-year period.
Child pornography is illegal. The possession and/or distribution of child
pornography is a federal crime. It is estimated that 20% of all pornography on the
Internet involves children.4 “Traditionally, we have viewed pedophiles as the users
and distributors of child pornography,” said Allen. “However, we are shocked to
learn that the consumer market for child pornography is growing and becoming
much broader.5 Younger and younger children are being victimized, and the content
is becoming more graphic and more violent.”6
Child pornography is defined as the visual image of infants, toddlers, and children
under age 18, in sexual poses or in explicit sexual activity. These are not adults
dressed up as children. Many images depict violence such as bondage, rape, or
torture.7 Although most pornographic images are of girls, the number of boys is
increasing.8
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is a private, nonprofit 501(c)
(3) organization. Established in 1984, NCMEC works in cooperation with the U.S.
Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to
provide services for families and law enforcement.
NCMEC’s website, www.missingkids.com reaches a global audience with a multi-
lingual database of images and information on missing children, prevention tips,
and free resources. NCMEC also operates a 24-hour nationwide hotline 1-800-
THE-LOST, and a 24-hour tipline, www.cybertipline.com. Since 1998, the
CyberTipline has received more than 340,000 reports of child exploitation
(including 310,000 reports of child pornography).
Thirty-six people suspected of downloading paedophile pornography from the web
have been arrested in raids across the UK. Police claim this is the tip of the iceberg
and they have 2,000 names of offenders they are unable to arrest due to a lack of
resources. Officers from 31 forces searched 44 homes and seized about 30
computers, plus discs and videos. Operation Ore targeted computer users
suspected of accessing US-based websites which sell images of children aged as
young as five being sexually abused.
Every image of a child being sexually abused is an image of a crime scene and
each photograph is that of a victim
NCIS UK Tactical Services director Vincent Harvey
US authorities gave the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) the names of
2,000 British subscribers between May 1999 and the summer of 2001. They were
traced by their credit card details which they gave in order to buy the images. The
NCIS' Serious Sex Offenders Unit identified a "significant number" of suspects, and
Monday's operation was co-ordinated by the National Crime Squad. Those
arrested ranged in age from 24 to 65. They include three men - aged 62, 54 and 35
- being held in Merseyside, a 32-year-old man arrested in Scunthorpe and another,
64, arrested in Grimsby, North Lincolnshire, Sexual abuse Another man, aged 30,
was arrested at an address in Normanton, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, where
two computers were seized for forensic examinations. Computer equipment was
also seized from an address near Rossendale, Lancashire, where a man, 42, was
arrested. In Cwmbran, South Wales, a man in his mid-fifties was arrested with
another man. Both were later released on police bail. Another man, 28, was
arrested in Farnham, Surrey.
This is the first time we have targeted people who use the internet to buy images of
children being sexually abused
Detective Superintendent Peter Spindler
Police in south west Surrey also arrested a man at his home in Godalming. A man,
44, from the Sandbach, Cheshire, has also been released on police bail pending
further inquiries. In London, the Metropolitan Police Paedophile Unit also seized
computer equipment from two homes in Battersea and Camden. A man is also
being questioned in Crawley, West Sussex. John Carr, internet consultant for
children's charity NCH, is concerned about the 2,000 people at large. Dangers He
told BBC News: "We think it's very important that the police are given whatever
resources are necessary to sweep up the rest of them." Deputy Assistant
Commissioner and Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) spokeswoman on
internet child abuse, Carole Howlett, said: "A significant proportion of people
involved in child abuse online are themselves actual abusers." NCIS UK Tactical
Services director Vincent Harvey added: "Every image of a child being sexually
abused is an image of a crime scene and each photograph is that of a victim.
"Using the sophisticated technology along with traditional detective and analytical
work, we can now make sure there is no place for paedophiles operating online to
hide."
The government is determined to give the highest priority to protecting our children,
on and off-line
Home Office minister Beverley Hughes
The National Crime Squad's Detective Superintendent Peter Spindler said: "This is
the first time we have targeted people who use the internet to buy images of
children being sexually abused. "We will continue these operations to protect
children and show paedophiles that law enforcement agencies will find them
regardless of which area of the internet they use." Home Office minister Beverley
Hughes, who chairs the government's task force on child protection on the internet,
said the operation sent "a clear signal to such criminals that they cannot hide".
"People who access child pornography are fuelling the widespread and often
organised sexual abuse of children by paedophiles across the world."
Despite its most noble intent, the darkest side of the internet will be found within a
small number of newsgroups. The very existence of these groups are an irony in that
they are very literally ILLEGAL. These are the Pedophilia or Pedophile newsgroups.
Perhaps at one time, these forums functioned as discussion groups for people of
similar, though no less frightening interests, that being the exploitation of children for
the sexual gratification of the adults who control them.
Technology now allows for the instantaneous electronic transmission of pictures
over the internet. These pictures are converted or encoded to a binary format and
sent in a similar manner as a text message. The process is as simple as sending
an email. Once uploaded, the encoded binary message appears within the
newsgroup where it can be downloaded by any user and decoded back into its
original form, and when this decoded format is accessed through a image viewer, it
becomes a photograph. I have witnessed for myself some of the images that have
emerged from the pedophilia newsgroups
DALLAS, Texas (CNN) -- A former top official of the Boy Scouts of America faces
federal Internet child pornography charges and is expected to plead guilty
Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office said.
Douglas S. Smith Jr. faces a single count of receiving and distributing child
pornography -- a charge resulting from a federal investigation conducted with
German authorities.
The U.S. attorney's office in Fort Worth, Texas, filed the charges after federal
investigators found images of children engaging in sex acts on Smith's computer.
Smith is scheduled to appear before a federal judge Wednesday in Fort Worth,
said Kathy Colvin, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office.
"We anticipate Mr. Smith will enter a guilty plea at that time," she said.
Smith retired from the Boy Scouts in February after a 39-year career with the youth
organization, based in suburban Dallas.
The organization placed him on administrative leave after learning that he was
under criminal investigation, and Smith stepped down soon afterward, BSA
spokesman Greg Shields said.
Smith, a former Eagle Scout, previously served as the Boy Scouts' director of
programming, Shields said.
"As a professional scouter, he was in more administrative positions -- most recently
developing programs -- and not in direct contact with the youth," Shields said.
Shields said the Boy Scouts are "shocked and dismayed" by Smith's arrest, but the
group has cooperated with investigators in the case.
"We surrendered his work computer to authorities," he said.
Smith turned himself in to authorities Friday and was released without bond,
according to court records.
Smith's lawyer, Jack Strickland, told The Associated Press that his client is "not
taking this well. I've got to tell you, this is a good man, and I would hate to see the
entirety of his life and the good things he's done defined by one incident."
Smith's case is part of Operation Predator, an initiative that has resulted in more
than 5,300 arrests worldwide since 2003, said Manny Van Pelt, a spokesman for U.
S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Those charged in previous cases have included doctors, police officers, teachers,
camp counselors and coaches, he said.
The exploitation of minors is continuous and the number of images found on the
internet increases as we speak. The proliferation of users, numbers of images, and
the children involved has unfortunately become a big business. For instance,
collectors of child pornography have been able to post a request on a website for
whatever type of child pornography they want. The website then served as a broker
sending the request to its customers to fill the request. There were more than
35,000 individuals using this website!
Operation Cheshire Cat: Trading and collecting child pornography is not confined to
the United States or Western countries. In another operation we worked with law
enforcement in 14 other countries to stop an international ring trading in child
pornography. In order to participate in this ring, an individual had to have a
collection of at least 10,000 images and be able to trade images with others. This
raised the stakes for the collector to get more and more child pornography involved
activities in many countries around the world with a number of offenders here in the
United States.
Molesters and exploiters also use the chat rooms on the Internet to trade stories
about molestation and information about where to find vulnerable victims and how to
entice them to submit to the production of child pornography or to molestation. And
now, through the use of the most developed equipment, the interactive computer
systems, a computer user may participate remotely in the online molestation of a
minor. The molester on the scene uses a video machine or digital camera to
record his sexual exploitation of a minor and transmit the acts through his
computer. At the same time other offenders may be viewing the molestation live on
their own computers. They may, by voice or electronic messaging, then provide
suggested acts for the minor to perform and thereby take part in the actual
exploitation simultaneously.
(from an article by J. Scheeres, May 2002, © Wired.com)
The photograph captures two boys, about 6 or 7 years old, cavorting naked on a
beach. One of the boys looks coyly over his shoulder. The other has an erection.
Child pornography or art?
Definitely art, according to a growing number of websites charging up to $40 a
month for subscribers to gain access to images of naked children as young as 4
years old.
"Only the youngest and sweetest virgin boys!" reads the introduction to Nude Boys
World, which contains photos and movies of boys in the buff posing in shower stalls
and unmade beds.
Likewise, Sunny Lolitas, which shows naked pre-pubescent girls playing with
stuffed animals or stretched out pin-up style against hot red backgrounds,
advertises its models as "only cutest and (sic) the youngest!"
Experts say the sites -- which are easily found using Internet search engines -- fall
into a murky category known as "child erotica," which includes images of naked
children that don't meet the strict legal definitions of child pornography. U.S. law
defines kiddie porn as depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct,
such as intercourse and masturbation, or that show "lascivious exhibition of the
genitals or pubic area."
"These sites thinly skirt the line between legal and illegal," said Ruben Rodriguez,
the director of the Exploited Child Unit of the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children, which works with the FBI to investigate Internet child porn. "It's
very frustrating for us. They're making money exploiting children and there's nothing
we can do to shut them down."
Most of the child erotica sites link to the same legal boilerplate, which characterizes
the sites' content as art and manifests a "vehement" opposition to child
pornography.
The disclaimers published by Little-Boyz -- which boasts of being "the biggest nude
boys site" with 20,000 photos and hundreds of movies -- is typical of other child
erotica pages:
"Every photo honors the purity and innocence of youth and contains no sexually
explicit conduct in accordance with United States Law!" asserts the site. "In the time
honored tradition and within the laws of the United States of America and most
states and municipalities, the visual depiction and appreciation of the male form,
including the pubescent male form, has been and is legal. Little Boyz supports the
laws of the United States of America and gladly and willingly conforms to these laws
... Little Boyz, in accordance with the Constitution, believes that the right to view and
appreciate nude images of minors in an artistic and aesthetic manner is
guaranteed."
For good measure, many of the sites provide a direct link to the U.S. code defining
child pornography.
But even if the sites don't show minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, they
could be charged for lascivious intent, said Ken Lanning, a retired FBI agent who
spent 30 years researching crimes against children and now serves as an expert
witness in court cases.
However, proving lascivious intent in court is extremely difficult. The prosecutor
would have to demonstrate that the producer of the material intended to elicit a
sexual response with the images or that the subscriber viewed the images for
sexual arousal.
Unless the images are in a folder called something like, "hot little kids I'd like to
have sex with," it would be hard for prosecutors to argue that the subscriber had
lewd interest in the material.
The material could also prove damaging in cases where a defendant has previous
convictions for child pornography or molestation, he added. In the 1995 landmark
case, U.S. v. Stephen Knox, a known pedophile was sentenced to jail for
possessing tapes of young girls in leotards whose dancing the court qualified as
"lascivious."
But such convictions are few and far between, said Lanning, who predicted that
child erotica sites will proliferate as the government continues to break up hard-core
child pornography rings.
"The reality is, there's so much hard-core stuff out there that prosecutors don't want
to get bogged down with these kinds of sites," he said. "It's a fuzzy area of the law."
The line between art and illegal porn has perplexed law enforcement authorities for
decades. Take the controversial work of Jock Sturges, whose photographs depict
naked adolescent girls. Despite an FBI raid, protests by angry mobs and a grand
jury investigation, his coffee table art books continue to sell.
But a closer look at the child erotica sites suggest that their content isn't aimed at
art connoisseurs. First, there are the site names: Lolitas For Sale, Boy Erection,
and Pedo Art (pedophile 'art'), among others.
Second, there's the content: Some of the images available on the preview tour
seem blatantly suggestive, such as a photograph of a pair of young boys in a
shower, with one boy directing the water nozzle at the other's buttocks.
Then there are the rules. One site prohibited U.S. law enforcement agents from
joining and forbade members from holding the site owners responsible for breaking
laws.
Most of the sites are registered in foreign countries. But they are written in English
and billed through American bill processors. Two of the billing companies that
process charges for the child erotica sites, iHasp and BillCards, offer anonymous
debit card services to webmasters, allowing them to receive payments without
being directly linked to such seamy-sounding sites as Lusty-Lolitas.com.
Perhaps the most damning evidence can be found in the introduction of a website
called Boys Mania, where the Russian photographer explains how he recruits his
models:
"I always have a possibility to find secluded places where kids are trying to hide
from their parents and teachers.... Sometimes I manage to talk to them and invite
them to my house, show them pictures, videos and other stuff with lots of naked
boys and girls. When being with them I try to undress myself first and then offer them
to do the same. I like their smooth skin, their fascinated looks, the way they play
together and with themselves. I feel excited when they are turning on."
E-mails to the webmasters of this and several other sites went unanswered.
The child erotica sites are often a gateway to illegal material, said Cate Donoghue,
the director of Online Guardians, a group that monitors the Internet for pedophiles
and indecent images of children.
Subscribers may find that the site contains hard-core child pornography or that their
e-mail address has been sold to mailing lists that bombard them with offers to join
illegal sites, she said.
One spam her organization detected at the end of April, for example, directed
recipients to a page containing graphic images of sexual activity involving toddlers.
The site, which authorities have tried to close for more than a year, keeps hopping
from one IP address to another. Another site featuring hard-core photos of "tiny little
girls" brags: "Our server was closed 21 times, but we have risen from the ashes
again."
For Donoghue and other cyber-vigilantes, keeping up tabs on cyber smut is a full-
time job.
"Sites that exploit children persist because there are enough perverts out there
willing to pay big bucks to see them," said Donoghue. "We have yet to find a way to
keep them offline."
Although usually thought of and legislated in terms of photographs and motion
pictures, child pornography can also take other forms, which are often addressed
differently, or may not be legally recognized as child pornography in all jurisdictions.
Simulated
Images can be created which convincingly appear to involve actual under-age
persons, but in fact do not. As digital animation technology has progressed, it has
become possible to generate convincing simulations of child actors. [This kind of
material is actively produced and collected by japanese "boylovers" especially, and
includes simulated adult/children rape and children abusing other children.
Simulated preteen rape is easily found in the links directory of one of the major
boylove community/support groups; ironically, the same community claims concern
for the welfare of the children -- Ed.]
Proponents prohibiting such materials argue that they might encourage child
molesters and, when shown to a child, may give the child the impression that the
depicted acts are normal (the term "grooming" is used in this connection);
prohibition of possession could help prevent it being shown to a child. Also, the
legality of simulated child pornography would make the prosecution of true child
pornography much harder. Opponents of the prohibition claim that simulated child
pornography does not harm children and should therefore fall under the First
Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press.
The United States Supreme Court decided in 2002 that the previous American
prohibition of simulated child pornography was unconstitutional (Ashcroft v. Free
Speech Coalition). UK law has dealt with simulated images quite differently since
1994, when the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act introduced the legal definition
of an "indecent pseudo-photograph of a child", which is prohibited as if it were a
true photograph. In October 2002, the Netherlands declared that seemingly real
child pornography will be treated as if it were real. In Germany real depictions and
realistic simulations were never treated differently by law. Canadian law seems to
prohibit simulated images as an "other visual representation", but this has not been
tested in the courts.
Written
In some countries textual material describing sexual activities involving children is
legally classified as child pornography. In other countries, most significantly the
United States, it is legal; written child pornography is legally protected [!] by the U.S.
Constitution as long as it is not judged obscene. As a result of its general legality in
the United States, written child pornography is easily available on the Internet.
Due to its widespread availability, countries in which it is prohibited have not always
actively sought to enforce the legal prohibition against it. In general, people
possessing or distributing this material are only charged if they come to the
attention of law enforcement, most commonly while being investigated for other
crimes (such as possession of visual child pornography, or child sexual abuse.)
The prohibition against written child pornography can extend even to materials
produced by pedophiles for their own personal consumption and not revealed to
anyone, such as diaries or journals in which they record their fantasies. Several
individuals have been prosecuted for keeping such diaries. Some have argued that
this violates their right to freedom of thought.
(excerpts from: Wikipedia)
'LEGAL' PEDOPHILIA IN PICTURES AND FICTION
Anyone can post drawings and stories of incest, adult or child abuse, torture or
murder - among the others - on the internet. In fact, the web abounds with this kind
of material, because simulated violence and simulated abuse are considered legal.
Nobody is daring to speak against it: perhaps fearing to be labeled 'bigots' and
'close-minded', perhaps knowing that that would set many 'free speech' advocates
on a war foot. These want freedom without responsibility, and don't seem to care
about the freedom of expression of those who do not want to see their filth
everywhere.
Drawings of rape and sadism on children and toddlers abound; they are considered
"art". Several pedophiles prefer real pictures, but many others like this kind of
drawings and exchange them through web, torrent and p2p networks.
These sites are frequented by hundreds of pedophiles every day. "Heyyy this is only
art. We're not f*cking child molesters", writes a participant. A notice on a site's
home page explains: "The owner of this website doesn't give a sh*t about who it
perverts... f*ck you, I'm not gonna waste my time trying to save the minds of children
whose parents can't take an active role in raising their children well enough to
prevent them from visiting a website like this. If you're offended, go f*ck yourself.
Seriously. It's the internet, guys."
Too bad parents cannot raise their children to prevent them from visiting "a website
like that": many of these sites are publicly accessible and even indexed by search
engines. A child searching for cartoon sites on the web or on file sharing
applications can easily find sadosexual drawings of children being raped and
abused.
The pedophiles would like to lay this responsibility on parents - when, in fact, the
pedophiles are the ones to blame. In some cases, the sites are even designed to
lure children towards certain pictures or discussions, on purpose.
Many are fighting for these socalled "freedoms" - where, in fact, in the name of
freedom of expression and privacy at all costs, they have already obtained even
freedom to damage others. Now, it is time to fight for ours: our children's freedom -
freedom from this endless inundation of perversion and violence.
Most important, parents must learn the mechanics and dangers of the technologies
their children use and be intentional in communicating their expectations. Computer
file-sharing programs, also known as peer-to-peer networks (P2P),1 became
widely utilized after Napster’s 1999 marketplace debut. A little more than a year
after its launch, Napster boasted more than 26 million users.2 By 2003, there were
more than 130 different P2P applications,3 one of which had been downloaded
more than 200 million times.4
Originally designed to facilitate the sharing of MP3 music files, P2P networks
quickly developed into major pornography distributors. According to a 2001 U.S.
House Committee on Government Reform report, six of the top 10 keyword
searches during one day on Gnutella networks were for pornography and more than
70 percent of the search results for a Britney Spears video were pornographic
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), a not-for-profit organisation set up by the IT
industry to monitor obscene images on the web, has reported that less than one per
cent of the child pornography on the internet is hosted in the UK.
In its 2005 annual report the IWF found that just 0.4 per cent of obscene images
were hosted in the UK. The US topped the list at 40 per cent, with Russia close
behind at 27.9 per cent.
"A reduction from 18 per cent to under one per cent in less than a decade, and the
removal of such material, is a UK success story," Alun Michael, minister of state for
industry and the regions, told vnunet.com.
"We have to be clever in fighting this, because legislation can rarely adapt and
change quickly enough to catch these criminals."
Michael confirmed that the IWF had been successful in its bid to become a charity,
and praised the staff who chose to do such vital work.
He also praised the skills of Amanda Jordan OBE, the incoming chairman of the
IWF, saying that she was an enthusiast for getting the job done.
Although the UK is making real progress in tackling child pornography, the number
of sites reported to the IWF last year rose to 23,658 from 17,255 in 2004. Of last
year's reports 6,128 were found to be illegal, nearly double the 2004 total.
The US hosts nearly half of the free images of child abuse, and over a third of pay-
per-view sites. Russia hosts 34.9 per cent and 22 per cent respectively.
The IWF reported that the users of child pornography are moving increasingly to
untraceable payment systems to access such sites.
"The governments of the US and Russia need to up their game and stem the tide of
child pornography leaving their virtual shores because it is putting children across
the world at risk," said John Carr, new technology adviser at children's charity NCH.
"Every time a website with an indecent image of a child is accessed, or an illegal
image is sent, a child is being abused."
Peter Robbins, chief executive of the IWF, praised US internet providers for
reacting promptly when notified and taking down sites and message boards hosting
such content.
Robbins added that so much content is posted in the US because of the country's
freedom of information laws.
"It is difficult to see abusing children as freedom of speech," he said. " Most US
ISPs will take content down, but there's a huge amount of work to do in Russia."
Lanning believes pedophiles compulsively collect child pornography out of a need
to validate and legitimize their behavior. {9} He speculates that, because there can
be no long-term re lationship with the child and the child inevitably grows older and
becomes less attractive to the pedophile, photographs become a way of keeping
the victim young forever. As the victim enters puberty and the pedophile loses
interest in the child, he may try to end the relationship by moving the child into
prostitution. {10} (1984) note:
There are strong indications that the pictures allow the collector a connection with
earlier traumatic experiences when he himself was victimized. Rather than
confronting the victimization, the collector preserves psychological integrity by p
roducing pornographic material that attempts to justify and normalize the abuse
while safeguarding aggressive and libidinal drives. The pornography becomes the
confirming evidence against the argument that child exploitation and molestation is
not harmfu l and is justified because the child has aggressive and sexual drives.
Pornography endorses the belief patterns that ultimately justify violence toward
children. {11}
Pornography may also be used as blackmail against children to ensure their
continued participation in the sexual activity and the secrecy that surrounds it. While
pedophiles use child pornography primarily to satisfy their own needs, others
capitalize o n their appetite for it and, although not necessarily consumers
themselves, may make considerable profit through the sale of child pornography.
Some pornographers may even use their own children, pay parents for the use of
their children, or pay needy ru naways to pose.
Children involved in child pornography are often seduced by the abuser's caring
and father like attitude toward them. The pedophile is adept at choosing children
who are particularly needy and in turn relates well to them. Gifts and special favors
are common early in the relationship. He may operate on a one-to-one relationship
with the victim or be simultaneously involved with a number of children who are
aware of each other's sexual activities in what is known as a sex ring. Studies
indicate that t he offender's presence in the lives of children involved in sex rings
usually appears legitimate as he often occupies a position of authority and is
familiar to the children involved. {12} Initiation into sexual activities usually
progresses from observing to exhibiting to direct physical sexual activity. The leader
of the ring controls and manipulates the child through peer pressure, competition,
and threats, as well as rewards. Chi ldren who become involved in sex rings are
most likely to be male, and the pedophile may encourage them to turn on one
another and take vicarious pleasure in their sadism. Because the child has come to
trust the pedophile and care about him, the child is understandably ambivalent
about the relationship. His embarrassment over his participation, as well as
bonding to the pedophile, makes it difficult for him to reveal the secret. the
pedophile may operate solo or as part of a more organized, syndicated s ex ring in
which children are recruited, pornography produced, and sexual services delivered
to a wide network of customers.
Although illegal, child pornography constitutes about 7% of the pornography market.
Studies indicate that there are at least 264 different magazines being sold each
month that deal with sexual acts between adults and children. Some such as
"Coming with Daddy", "Lust for Children", "How to Deflower Your Daughter", and
"School Girls" are primers in child sexual abuse.{4} Child pornography may also be
used to lure children into sexual activity and instruct them, since young children who
view such material may be led to believe that this is acceptable behavior. In
addition to decreasing inhibitions, this material may cause sexual arousal in some
children.
Others believe that child pornography is central to pedophiliac psychology, social
orientation, and behavior.{5} Lanning, an expert in the feild, observes that
pedophiles almost always collect child pornography or child erotica. Further, he
notes "the only way you can produce child pornography is to molest a child" and that
"child pornography exists primarily for the consumption of pedophiles. If there were
no pedophiles there would be no child pornography" (p. 50). {6} Some pedophiles
develop elaborate videotape systems and even computerize their collections and
sex acts and exchange data with other pedophiles. T he trading of pornography with
other pedophiles may lead to exchanging victims for their sexual services.{7}
Pedophiles also keep records and souvenirs of their victims which, as noted by
Lanning (1986), can be very incriminating in investigations.{8} For example, in a
recent investigation of child pornography and molestation in the Chicago public
schools, a search of a teacher's home turned up 200 photos of nude boys, an
international mailing list, fliers advertising young boys in an escort service, and
copies of a pornographic magazine believed to have been published by the
accused. Further raids of homes of those on the customer list revealed several
crates of videotapes, photographs, and magazines related to child pornography
Posted 4/4/06
WASHINGTON - D.C. A former Bakersfield teen testified before the U.S. Congress
Tuesday morning about the dangers of child predators in cyberspace. Justin Berry
was 13-years-old and living with his family in Bakersfield when he unwittingly
became a child porn star. Today, he's a reluctant federal witness in fear for his life,
but hoping for tougher prosecution for child sex crimes. Berry said he was an
ordinary kid, but a bit lonely. At the age of 13, he hooked up a web cam to his
computer, trying to meet other kids his own age online from his family's Bakersfield
apartment. Instead, he was contacted by hundreds of online predators. Now at the
age 19, Berry testified on Capitol Hill and said, “I thought had achieved online what
eluded me in real life.” “I was popular and everyone wanted to hear my thoughts,
everyone wanted to give me things,” he said. Doctors, lawyers, businessmen, all
showered Berry with compliments and gifts in exchange for his sexual
performances online. Berry said, “My new friends were kinder and more generous
to me than anyone I had ever known.” He said he trusted them and that's when
things began to change. In court, one of the accused child molester’s Ken Gourlay
refused to testify. "I will decline to respond based on my 5th Amendment privilege,"
Gourlay said. Meantime, Berry said one man even rented him a separate apartment
in Bakersfield so he could continue making videos in secret. A fellow classmate
discovered the website and started showing Berry’s videos to other kids at school.
Berry then fled to Mexico to stay with his father. Berry said his father asked him
where all of his money was coming from and he said, “I told him about my business
and he told me he could help maximize my earning potential.” A New York Times
reporter wrote an investigative piece on Berry’s exploitation and encouraged him to
turn in his customers. Berry currently lives in hiding, frustrated by the slowness of
Federal authorities to follow up and their willingness to divulge his personal
information in public reports. On Wednesday, the House Oversight and
Investigations Subcommittee will hear from law enforcement and government
lawyers on their efforts to prosecute online predators.
In 2005, commercial child pornography on the Internet was a $20 billion business,
with troubling implications for children around the world vulnerable to abuse.
At Tuesday's hearing, lawmakers heard that inadequate laws, insufficient
resources, and a lack of coordination among government and law enforcement
agencies have contributed to this explosion.
Ed Whitfield
Republican Congressman Ed Whitfield described the scope of the problem. "With
the growing use of the Internet, the number of child predators who seek to make,
distribute and view images of children being sexually abused, continues to
skyrocket. This is due to the anonymity, accessibility, and ease with which child
predators can operate on the Internet," he said.
Statistics show that one in five children report sexual solicitations, with only one
quarter of those telling parents about it.
In the United States alone, some 3.5 million images of children being sexually
exploited are on the Internet at any given time, and are frequently re-distributed in
the form of DVDs and videotapes:
Sharon Cooper is a physician with the Department of Pediatrics at the University of
North Carolina. "Child pornography on the Internet, in particular, has untold impact
upon victims. The possession and distribution of these images, which are in fact,
digital crime scenes, promote a need for newer and more plentiful and more
graphic images," he said.
All of this is fueled by the growth of Internet chat rooms, and portals providing
access to live webcam feeds of children being sexually-abused.
Web site rates sex
By Susan Shultz
While MySpace adds some safeguards, other dangerous sites abound
Joining the Web site WouldYouHitThis.com isn’t difficult. It costs nothing. You just
need to submit a picture of yourself, fill out some personal information, and you are
ready to go.
There is no age minimum on the site, which at least several young Darienties have
found.
Following the establishment of your profile, you can search the profiles for others in
your area. Pictures on the profiles, which you can surf without a membership, range
from innocent to bordering on obscene. Profiles are voted on as to whether or not
the viewer would “hit this” — slang for having sex. The more “yes” votes you receive,
the higher your rating. There is also a running list of statistics of how many viewers
would “bang you” — more slang for sex.
Nudity is not permitted, but some pictures are borderline. Once you are a member,
you can be invited by other members to be their “friend.” Friends can view an
additional photo album called “friends only.” There need be no conversation
between you and those who invite you to be their friend.
Some friend albums are innocuous. Others, with no label or warning, contain
profane, pornographic and obscene photos of the member and others, with the
option to comment. The comments are just as profane. Members also earn “bang
bucks” to be used as bargaining tools for positive votes and invites to be a member’
s friend, thus earning the right to view the “friend album.”
You are likely, especially as a young woman, to receive several messages a day
from other members interested in contacting you. Many members provide their
home e-mail addresses as well as their home Instant Message identifications.
This Web site is yet another in the vast danger zones that teenagers can fall into on
the Internet. Sites such as this one, including HotOrNot.com, RateMyBody.com, and
others, are additional opportunities for children to be subjected to obscene material
and the advances of strangers. Profiles also provide personal information that
makes it easy to learn too much about children.
MySpace.com, which has been the focus of much negative press, has taken several
steps recently to step up its responsibility on the Internet. These steps follow a
strong initiative by Connecticut officials, including state Attorney General Richard
Blumenthal, to work with MySpace.com to increase security controls on the social
networking site.
The site, which has been associated with several sexual assaults by pedophiles,
particularly in Connecticut, recently announced that it had hired an online safety
chief to start May 1.
Hemanshu Nigam is a former federal prosecutor and Microsoft Corp. executive,
and during his stint as a trial attorney at the Department of Justice, he specialized in
child exploitation cases.
The announcement of the online safety chief follows by one day the announcement
that MySpace.com would be partnering with the National Center for Missing &
Exploited Children and the Advertising Council and News Corporation, parent
company of Fox Interactive Media, to promote online safety through the deployment
of a series of public service announcements. These warnings will be featured in
banner form on MySpace.com, as well as on television, radio and in print.
The public service announcements direct parents, guardians and teens to visit
CyberTipLine.org to learn about safe and responsible use of the Internet as well as
how to report threats.
Ami Neiberger-Miller, special projects consultant for the National Center for Missing
& Exploited Children, said that the campaign began two years ago due to the
concern about the number of children solicited online.
“One in five children are solicited online, and two thirds are teenage girls, there’s a
real need to educate young people about online safety and risks that are online,”
she said.
The initial ads were targeted to parents. The new ads, themed “Don’t believe the
type,” are targeting teenage girls. One television spot, Miller said, includes a young
girl talking about a guy she meets online and how he treats her, and then it shows
an older man who is saying his goal is to meet her.
“Our goal is to wake up young women — they don’t always know who they are
talking to online,” she said.
Miller said the risk has increased as more and more young people are getting
online, and there has been an increased number of reporting of these types of
incidents.
The CyberTipLine.org site provides many useful tools for parents and children,
including an interactive online game, free publications on Internet safety, and tips for
decoding online lingo, something that proves especially challenging for parents
according to Miller.
“A lot of parents don’t feel as confident because they aren’t as tech savvy as their
kids, it can be overwhelming for parents to talk to kids about technology, we are
offering resources and tools to help parents talk to kids about these issues,” Miller
said.
She also said that online predators are not the only possible negative outcome from
a child’s online activity.
“We want kids to think, should I be putting this information about myself on a public
forum? Could my employer find this someday? Could I lose a scholarship if college
admissions sees this?” she said.
Miller said what teenagers post about themselves today could affect how they are
presented down the road, and parents should be aware and intervene.
“This is just like teaching your kids to cross the street,” she said.
On the Web: CyberTipLine.org
Information from the Associated Press was used in this story.
'Mainstream' Porn is More and More about Child Porn
*Warning* - this article contains references to graphic sexual scenes
By Jan LaRue, Chief Counsel
Concerned Women for America
Porn industry panders to predators with 'teen porn.'
"Karen," who didn't want her real name used, was married for 11 years to her
second husband before she discovered shocking images on his computer. "Usually
girls, but sometimes boys, who are just over 18, but who are marketable because
they look like they're under 18," said Karen. Her emotions went from confusion and
anger to fear for her teenage daughter after discovering the collection. "I was very
concerned that he was going to begin to sexualize her and her friends," said Karen.
1
"Karen's" husband became a threat to his own child after starting down a dark,
dead-end road with no safety rails, no warning signs and no speed limit. The "adult"
porn industry paves the road, operates the toll gates, and cares nothing about who's
wrecked and ruined along the way.
Ask yourself: What kind of "adult" markets a product that portrays "kids" as sex
objects?
Who is the porn industry pandering to by producing and distributing "teen porn"?
Who believes that what we feed our minds doesn't affect our behavior?
A "teen porn" search of the World Wide Web on any given day will provide 7 to 8
million "hits." And "regular guys" like Karen's husband are hitting on it.
One "teen porn" company, Extreme Associates, is facing trial in federal court on
charges of distributing obscene materials through interstate commerce. Extreme
lists 38 DVDs on its Web site with "teen" in the title. They're hard-core and
prosecutable under the Supreme Court's ruling in Miller v. California.
When Extreme was indicted in 2003, No. 24 in its "teen" DVD series was named in
the indictment. The box cover for No. 24 includes a photo of a very young-looking
and barely developed "Black Cat" in pigtails, coyly lifting the top of her little girl
pajamas. The promo for No. 24 describes "young 'suzie' donned in pink pajamas,
pigtails, and sucking on a pacifier."
Do you know any "teen" that sucks a pacifier?
The box cover for No. 37 is a photo that matches the description of "young suzie,"
with the added touch of 'suzie' cuddling a stuffed lion. The caption below the photo
reads, "Slumber Party Massacre!! 5 Young Willing Teens ******* Like Animals!"
When the Extreme indictment was announced, the "mainstream adult" industry tried
to distance itself by feigning criticism of Rob Zicari, co-owner of Extreme
Associates:
Paul Fishbein, president of Adult Video News [AVN],the trade journal of the
pornographic film industry, said Zicari produced "horrible, unwatchable, disgusting,
aberrant movies." Nonetheless, Fishbein said were he judging the case he'd have
to rule that they "were not obscene, because the First Amendment is pure and has
to remain pure."2
Fishbein exposed AVN's purely hypocritical backside by presenting its "2006 Adult
Video News Reuben Sturman Award" to none other than Robert and Janet Zicari.
AVN also presented the 2006 award for "Most Outrageous Sex Scene" to "Burning
Angel/VCA," for "Blood, Disembowelment and F****** … What Fun."
Do the AVN awards mean that Fishbein has been desensitized by his porn
consumption or is he just a fraud?
In a guest editorial for AVN, Rodger Jacobs leaves no doubt that Fishbein is
financially dependent on pornographers. Fishbein does what it takes to keep the
pimps' favor:
As a man who buys his groceries with the proceeds from a trade magazine, Paul
Fishbein has ample reason to regain the good favor of producers and
manufacturers any time that faith strays. Trade magazines rely on advertisers'
greenbacks to create a revenue stream, even more so than general interest
magazines because trades have limited commercial appeal and tend to have a
high rate of controlled circulation (magazines sent free of charge to individuals who
work within the industry).3
The consequences to kids couldn't count less to an industry driven by insatiable
greed and depraved indifference. In 2002, Fishbein made a "plea" to the industry to
self-censor rather than market pseudo child porn.
But Max Hardcore seems like Bambi compared to, say, the Extreme Teen series,
with such scenarios as little girls being sodomized by their stepfathers. How did the
adult industry get to this point? … Why does the industry need to simulate child
pornography by depicting 18-year-olds, or even 25-year-olds, as underage? Just
because the United States Supreme Court ruled this past April that depictions of
people under the age of 18 having explicit sex, as long as they actually are not
minors, are not child porn, does that mean producers really have to push that
envelope. … Why do we always have to sink to the lowest level possible to try to
titillate? Is this what our society needs?4
And who received AVN's "Best Vignette Series" awards for 2003 and 2004? It was
none other than bottom-feeder Hustler, for its "Barely Legal" series.
The May 2004 AVN dispels any notion that Fishbein's "plea" had a scintilla of
sincerity. AVN brazenly admits how the industry is "cashing in on the teen revenue
stream":
AVN's database reveals literally hundreds of videos released in 2003 that
contained the number "18," the words "eighteen," "teen," "young," "little," "virgin,"
"fresh," "ripe," "tender," or "cheerleader," and uses of the words "legal" and "barely"
to indicate women who aren't long past their eighteenth birthdays. The abundance
of "young girl" videos alone speaks to the genre's popularity. "Sin City is just
pumping these things out," noted publicist Jeff Mullen. "We're on the eighth volume
now of our Barely 18. [Vol. 24 is now available.] … We're making plans to shoot
more Sin City Teen lines. It recognizes the success that has been seen in the
marketplace by other companies, and it's a way to adjust the marketing of Sin City
product to encompass the teen buyer." And it sells! Plenty of the industry's biggest
buyers are only too happy to soak up as many "teen" titles as they can.5
Another resident of the lowest levels is "Max Hardcore":
"We make the girls look as fresh and as cute and cuddly as possible - 'adorable
cupie dolls,' I call it - and of course, like they just turned 18," he explained.
"Obviously, not under 18, because that wouldn't be too cool. And there's a title card
at the beginning of each movie that reads, 'No actors or actresses are intended to
be portrayed as being under the age of 18.' So it really doesn't matter what the ****
they say; it's just open to interpretation of the viewer. I put it to the girls this way:
'You're 18 with the mentality of a 14-year-old. You want to experiment, you want to
try things. Anything your parents told you not to do, you're gonna want to do.' I'm
emphasizing the point that these girls are right up to the minute legal and eager."6
An April 15, 2006, search for "teen," "schoolgirl" and "boy" on AVN and its GAYVN
Web site produced hundreds of titles and hard-core still photos from the videos,
promo blurbs and the names of the production companies. And they're all for sale
on the Web sites.
In addition to AVN, highly paid lawyers help the porn industry cash in on "teen porn"
without checking in to prison. Attorney Paul Cambria, who represents several of the
largest porn companies, says:
If you look at the storylines, they open up by clearly having the person say, "You
know, I just graduated from high school; I'm 19 years old; I'm 18," that sort of thing in
every story. So content plus cover plus title, my advice to them was that all those
things be done, because they're not trying to create the impression that somebody's
underage; they're just trying to convey the fact that someone is young.7
Does "teen porn" "titillate"? A Web search on April 15, 2006, combining the term
"soliciting minor for sex" with "pornography," produced 256,000 "hits."
David Greenfield, psychologist and author of the book Virtual Addiction, says the
Internet creates a sense of disinhibition. "People do and say things online that they
never would do otherwise. The people I see in my office - they're not perverts, but
they get online and suddenly, they're sex fiends."8
Kenneth Lanning, a former FBI profiler, believes many offenders have harbored?
and suppressed?deviant urges for years. "They may never have acted out. They
were able to control it, and along comes the Internet ... which is like pouring fuel on
smoldering embers."9
A word to "regular guys": "Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes
being burned?"10
A few days ago a 26-year-old "with a fear of flying" flew from Massachusetts to
Alabama after allegedly paying $1,200 for three hours of videotaping "two or three
10-to12-year-old girls performing oral sex on him." His e-mail "order" says that
"pigtails, freckles, and school uniforms would be a plus." FBI agents took Luke
Simon Goljan, an "independent film producer for ITV Direct of Beverly" into custody.
11
Michael William Schleicher, a high school band teacher, was arraigned in Anoka
County, Minnesota, district court March 24, 2006, and charged with two counts of
first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of soliciting a minor for sex.
Schleicher allegedly solicited teenage girls for sex and used his live-streaming
video Web cam to practice and record sex acts. "In his home, several computers
and disks containing child and adult pornography were discovered, according to the
complaint."12
The office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced the
arrest of Timothy McDarrah on September 14, 2005, on charges of using the
Internet to entice someone he believed to be a 13-year-old girl to engage in sexual
activities. According to the complaint, McDarrah allegedly responded to an
advertisement in the "erotic services" section of the popular Internet Web site
"craigslist," offering the "freshest, youngest girls" available in all ages, and
specified in graphic terms the sexual activity he desired.13
An individual expecting sex with a 12-year-old had with him a duffle bag containing
a digital camera, tripod, a video camera, four sections of nylon rope, one bottle of
"Secret Passion love lotion" and a short story titled "The Seduction of an Angel."
The story detailed an incestuous relationship between a father and his 16-year-old
daughter. After the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children received a
cybertipline report on April 8, 2003, federal and state law enforcement took the
suspect into custody when he arrived at a Knoxville, Tennessee, hotel.
A judge in a child pornography case opined that "if it were necessary for literary or
artistic value, a person over the statutory age who perhaps looked younger could be
utilized"14 in a sex scene.
Other than perverts and pornographers, who thinks the judge had in mind an entire
genre of porn marketed as "teen," "young," "little," "virgin," "fresh," "ripe," "tender,"
or "cheerleader," or that it has any "literary or artistic value"?
Even though "teen porn" isn't prosecutable as child pornography if the performers
are 18 or older, nothing prevents its prosecution under state and federal obscenity
laws. Decent adults aren't going to be ideal jurors, as porn defense attorney Louis
Sirkin worries:
The material's possible impact on the jury is, for Sirkin, of prime concern. The thing
that's troubling is, with some of this stuff, the packaging has a psychological impact
on the jury as to what the appeal is, or what it's trying to attract. … I mean, a
prosecutor, when he goes back to the case in closing argument, he'll usually pick up
the box and show it, and we're beginning to see that.15 [Italics added.]
A word to state and federal prosecutors-bring it on.
Whether one of you "regular guys" ends up running over a child, your drive down the
dead-end porn road is hurting you and those you care about. Every mile defiles your
thoughts about women and girls and affects the way you treat your mother, sister,
friend, co-worker, wife, daughter and the rest of us. You can't consume degrading
depictions and descriptions of women and "teens" and continue to treat us with
respect as human beings.
Stop now and call for help if you need it. Otherwise, be prepared for the day when
you need a mouse to reach the only "women" willing to spend time with you.
WASHINGTON -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales used graphic language
Thursday to focus attention on online child pornography and said Internet services
companies are not doing enough to combat the problem.
"If we do not talk candidly, then it is easy for people to turn away and worry about
other matters," Gonzales said in a speech at the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children in Alexandria, Va.
Acknowledging that his descriptions could make people uncomfortable, Gonzales
said he wanted to make sure people knew what was going on.
"I have seen pictures of older men forcing naked young girls to have anal sex. There
are videos on the Internet of very young daughters forced to have ... sex with their
fathers. Viewing this was shocking, and it makes my stomach turn," Gonzales said.
He said some investigations have been hampered by the failure of Internet service
providers to retain certain records long enough to help authorities identify purveyors
of child porn. He did not propose a remedy Thursday.
Kate Dean, director of the U.S. Internet Service Provider Association, said
association members "have robust policies in place to ensure that law enforcement
can obtain the information they need."
The complete photo of this boy was downloaded from the Internet via a newsgroup.
There are thousands of such pictures and far worse ones, stored by internet
providers and made available to any user. This is enabling millions of paedophiles
to obtain endless stimulation and encouragement to to pursue children in their own
communities and on holiday, at home and overseas. Internet networks help
paedophiles to form networks, protect each other and pass information about
children and the places where they may be found.
Sex with children is a crime in almost every country in the world. 190 countries have
undertaken to stamp out child sexual exploitation, when they ratified the Convention
on the Rights of the Child. One hundred and thirty countries attended the World
Congress on Commercial Child Sexual Exploitation in Stockholm, in 1996.
Protection of children against this abomination will take major improvements in law
enforcement, control of corruption, law reform, education and international co-
operation in training and exchange of information and investigation. Please support
these efforts to get child pornography off the Internet and to protect children from all
forms of sexual exploitation.
Urge your government to commit real resources to eliminate child sexual
exploitation!
Most people have no idea how large the problem truly is.
