pornography5

"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, I was totally
disgusted," Hart told The Buffalo News. "I couldn't click off of it fast enough. But
after a while, it became an escape for me. I was addicted to it like people get
addicted to cocaine or alcohol . . . I thank God they stopped me when they did."
Hart was arrested in June 2004, when members of an FBI cyber crimes task force
showed up at his mother's home in the Town of Tonawanda. He immediately
confessed to possessing child pornography and later pleaded guilty to a single
felony charge. Hart was never accused of molesting children, and he insists he
never felt the urge to do so. But his conviction made him a registered state sex
offender and forced him to resign his job as an elementary and middle school art
teacher in the Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda school system. As a convicted felon,
he can never teach again. Losing a job was nothing compared with the pain he
caused his mother, father, brother and other family members, Hart said. "I don't
feel bad for myself, but for them," he said. "Knowing how this devastated my
family is a pain that is with me all the time, even when I'm asleep." Hart said he
agreed to tell his story publicly because he hopes other men will read it, learn
from his mistakes and get psychiatric help. The introspective ex-teacher is one of
a growing number of men throughout the nation prosecuted for viewing and
trading child porn images on the Internet. The number of federal prosecutions for
such crimes has skyrocketed - from just 366 in fiscal year 1995 to more than 1,550
so far this year. At least 200,000 child porn Web sites exist, according to
Innocence in Danger, a non-profit international group that fights child
exploitation. The group estimates that, worldwide, one million children each year
are forced into the "commercial sex industry." Violators caught in Western New
York have included several other teachers, a priest, at least two politicians, a
police officer, a youth hockey coach and a retired judge. Most cases involve men
like Hart, who download images and trade them with others. The worst local
incidents involve men who transmitted images of themselves molesting toddlers
or young children - in some cases, their own children or grandchildren. Why are
so many American men willing to risk their freedom, their reputations and family
relationships to look at sex images of children? The men who get involved
generally fall into two groups, according to Dr. David G. Heffler, an Orchard Park
psychologist who counsels sex offenders. One group is made up of hard-core
pedophiles who look at child porn to indulge their fantasies and who sometimes
use the Internet to contact children and teens whom they hope to molest. The
larger group - which includes Hart - consists of men who start out as Internet
porn thrill-seekers and wind up in big trouble. "If the public knew how many men
in this community are looking at Internet pornography, day after day, people
would be shocked," Heffler said. "A lot of these men start looking at adult porn.
The Internet makes it so easy, it becomes a habitual thing. Some actually become
addicted to the chemical response that their arousal from pornography releases
into the brain." After a while, for some men, adult porn becomes too routine,
Heffler said. They start looking at images of teenage girls. Then, some move
toward images of children. "Part of the nature of man is that he's attracted to
things that are considered taboo by society," Heffler said. "I've interviewed men
who said they never intended to look at children, but once they did, they were
drawn to it, again and again." Heffler considers all pornography to be bad for
society. "Once a man starts looking at pornography and looking at women as sex
objects, less than human, he's on a slippery slope," he said. "He could start
looking at kids that way." Never underestimate the damage that child porn causes
for the children who are forced to take part in it, said Elizabeth R. Donatello. She
is a prosecutor with the Niagara County district attorney's office who specializes
in sex offender cases. "If you're looking at this material, children are being raped
and molested for your entertainment," she said. ""For the victims, it's always on
their mind that their pictures are being circulated all over the world."

Forbidden territory An honor student in the Sweet Home school system, Hart
began looking at Playboy magazines at age 12 and adult porn videos as a
teenager. In his early 20s, Hart realized that the Internet opened up a whole new
world of porn. All he had to do was sit in his room and turn on his computer. "It
was easier to get porn than a pack of cigarettes," he said. Hart kept pushing the
envelope, looking for the edgiest adult entertainment he could find. He found
Web sites offering pictures of nude teenage girls and started looking at them.
And then, children. At first, the images repulsed him. Later, he couldn't get
enough. Over the next three years, Hart gradually focused more and more on
images of children. Some were posing nude. Others were being molested by
adults. Visibly embarrassed, Hart struggled for words as he tried to explain his
attraction to such material. "At the time, I had some personal demons that I had no
way to deal with . . . I was spending a lot of time on the Internet," he said. "There's
a rush you get from doing something that is forbidden. That's part of the
attraction. I was being extremely selfish. Pornography is all about a quick fix.
Looking at those images makes you feel like you are in control of others . . . My
mistake was, I didn't see children there. All I saw was pictures."

Getting caught By May 2004, Hart had a steady girlfriend and a good job.
According to school officials, he was doing excellent work, and there were never
complaints about his conduct. But at home, he was looking at child porn almost
every day. He stored images in his hard drive and used the Internet to trade them
with other men he met through child porn Web sites. One of those men turned
out to be an undercover FBI agent. Hart e-mailed the man seven images of a
nude preteen girl. At 7 a.m. on June 29, 2004, eight federal agents came to Hart's
mother's home with a warrant, authorizing them to seize Hart's computer. "My
mother woke me up. Two agents came into my room to talk to me," Hart recalled.
"They showed me a transcript of me e-mailing back and forth with the undercover
agent. Weeks earlier, while describing the kind of pictures he was looking for,
Hart had told the undercover agent, "The nastier, the better." "When I saw that
transcript," Hart said, "that's when I realized what kind of monster I'd become."
Hart's arrest made local headlines. "For five days after the arrest, I just sat in my
room, staring at the wall, drinking coffee," he said. "I didn't sleep. I didn't eat. I
didn't talk to anyone. I didn't even listen to music during that time. "For the next
five months, the family and friends who stood by me had to tell me when to eat,
when to wake up, when to go to bed, when to take a walk. I couldn't function." The
support of his family and counseling sessions with Heffler have helped Hart - not
only to move on with his life, but to recognize the pain his actions caused others.
Not everyone was forgiving and supportive. A few friends dumped him
altogether. One told him bluntly, "I can't be your friend anymore."

Not a victimless crime
In the months since his arrest, Hart said, he has come to realize that the children
in the images he was viewing were victims of vicious and degrading crimes.
"Morally, I consider myself a sex offender," he said. "Yes, there were other
people molesting these kids, but I was taking gratification from it. I was helping to
create the market for it. I feel like I have blood on my hands." None of the thrills
he got from child porn were worth what he lost, Hart said. His hope is that men
who are looking at child pornography now will learn from his mistakes and get
help. Here is what he would tell others looking at child pornography now:
"There's no such thing as a victimless crime, when it comes to children. Before I
got arrested, I was becoming aware that I had a problem. I tried to stop a couple
of times. I couldn't. If you're trying to fight it yourself, get some psychiatric
counseling." What will Hart do after his prison term? "I'm not even thinking right
now in terms of an occupation," he said. "I'm going to do everything I can to make
this up to the people I hurt."