Internet serves as new playground for pedophiles

Earlier this month, U.S. Congressman Ed Whitfield (R-Hopkinsville) helped bring to light what is lurking in the dark recesses of cyberspace when he held Congressional hearings on the sexual exploitation of children on the Internet.

And the revelations were startling.

One in five children receive sexual advances over the Internet; Children are being sexually abused—some as young as 18 months—in real time via webcams; Online child porn is a $20 billion global industry.  To put this in perspective, online music sales in 2004 were only $3 billion.

So how did we get to this point?

It’s plausible that the flood of hard-core adult porn and obscenity has pushed the envelope leading some to explore child porn. Lax enforcement of existing child porn laws is certainly another reason.  But most of all, pedophiles, who were once isolated from each other, have converged on the Internet to form a virtual community.  Using new technology such as web cams, instant messaging and video iPods, they’re swapping not only their illegal porn, but perpetrating new ideas of the unthinkable.

In a word, they’ve become emboldened. 

Justin Berry, a casualty of online pedophiles, put a face on the horrors of Internet child porn when he testified before Whitfield’s Congressional panel that people he had met online repeatedly molested him when he was 13.  "One of these approached me online with a proposal.  He would pay me $50 if I took off my shirt for a few minutes while sitting in front of my web cam," Berry said.  "The seduction was slow. Each request only went a bit further than the last, and the horror of what was happening didn't strike me at that time."

Berry became desensitized by his abuse and then started a pornographic website which featured images of himself. Over the five years his site was in operation, 1,500 people had paid him to perform sexual acts on camera, but only two were arrested.  What’s more troubling is that the New York Times, whose story originally prompted the hearings, found that in a sample of Berry’s clients, a majority “consisted of doctors and lawyers, businessmen and teachers, many of whom work with children on a daily basis.”

According to Berry, his story is not isolated.  “There are hundreds of kids in the United States alone who are right now wrapped up in this horror,” Berry said.

Rep. Whitfield criticized the Justice Department for failing to aggressively go after online child porn users.  This apparent green light has been the impetus for pedophiles to seek out child sexual content on the Internet.  But it hasn't helped the Justice Department's efforts that the highest court in the land has undermined their efforts.

In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Child Pornography Prevention Act (CPPA), which cracked down on computer-generated child pornography. In 2004, they struck down the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) which limited children's access to porn sites—a proven segue between unsuspecting minors and pedophiles. 

It doesn’t help that "free speech" mavens, like the ACLU, fight tooth and nail against any limitations on Internet porn, including child porn. Other allies of the pedophile community include academics like Judith Levine and professional organizations like the American Psychological Association.  Both have lent a hand to legitimizing adult-child sex, as many are calling it today.

Just recently, Gov. Fletcher signed a bill that would classify adults convicted of possessing child pornography as sex offenders.  And U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced that his department will now aggressively prosecute child porn violations. 

This is a good start.  But much more should be done to clean up the predatory sites which have become a playground for child molesters.  Enacting good laws and tough enforcement are important.  Parents are key to policing their children’s online activity.  But equally critical is that society forge an unequivocal consensus that protects the most vulnerable and innocent among us from others who view them as fodder for their sexual fantasy. 

It’s long past time to act.

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Richard Nelson is a policy analyst for The Family Foundation, a Kentucky nonprofit, educational organization that works in the public policy arena to protect families and the values that make families strong.