"Seduced in Cyberspace" - how teenagers are lured into the world of online porn
 

from today's oprah show:

Seduced in Cyberspace

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Despite death threats, nineteen-year-old Justin is appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show to reveal the secret world of online child webcam pornography. Justin, who also turned down a lucrative book deal to appear on the show, hopes his decision will help children around the world.

Six years ago, Justin was a typical "boy next door." Between homework and band practice, he found time to run a legitimate small business creating websites. A self-described "computer nerd," Justin was excited to get an inexpensive webcam. He planned to use the simple tool?a video camera that connects to the Internet?to meet friends and chat with girls. Justin joined a popular website and posted his profile. Instant messages immediately started popping up on his computer.

Eventually, one of Justin's new online friends made a request that would change his life.

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By hooking up his webcam, Justin unintentionally became a fresh face in a dark world where men prey on vulnerable teenagers and children. He had no idea that his new friends were adults?an online community of pedophiles discussing strategy, sharing advice and carefully planning his seduction.

When one man told Justin he'd pay him $50 to take off his shirt, Justin considered it a harmless proposal from a friend. "I take my shirt off to go to the pool," he thought, and logged on to an online payment website to accept payment.

Soon the men's requests got bolder.

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Justin says the predators gradually stepped up their requests, each a little more explicit than the last. It wasn't long before Justin was asked to pull down his boxer shorts, "just a little." Later on the pedophiles offered him more money to take them off. Next, they told him to masturbate. "I figured it was harmless," Justin says. "I was doing what most 13-year-old boys do in their room, and I was getting paid for it."

In addition to money, Justin says the men offered him gifts to show their appreciation, teaching him how to set up an online "wish list" where he could register for cool computer gear. He believed the whole process was perfectly safe because his home address was not revealed to buyers.

Justin says his mother and stepfather had no idea he was receiving gifts from strangers?he intercepted most deliveries before they had a chance to see them. When his mom did come across a package, he would tell her he bought it himself with the profits from his web development business.

Justin's mom had no idea her son was slowly being transformed into an Internet porn star.

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Justin kept his webcam activities a secret from his parents, but his mother, Karen, says she noticed a change in his personality. She remembers he was moody and spent his time at home alone in his bedroom. Karen thought her son was having trouble making the transition to high school. She didn't suspect Justin was at risk on the Internet because she had purchased child protection software for his computer?a measure Justin proved ineffective. "For most teens in this day and age, computers are what they know," he says. "[The software] is actually kind of a joke."

If anybody should have known what was going on in Justin's life, Karen says it was her?she works with children who have been molested. "I've studied for years and I know the signs," she says. "That's why it's so mind boggling that this happened to Justin right here in my own home."

Justin's secret life moves from on-line to in person.

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By age 16, Justin's young face had become extremely popular among Internet pedophiles. Fans began asking to meet him in person. One businessman offered Justin thousands of dollars to fly to Las Vegas for the weekend. Justin agreed, telling his parents he was attending a computer convention with a friend. When he arrived in Las Vegas, he was repeatedly sexually molested by the man who had lured him there.

When Justin returned home, the man continued to exploit him. He paid for a secret apartment for Justin just minutes from his parents' home, allowing him to spend more time on his webcam.

Justin's secret life was about to be exposed.


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Justin's webcam activity was uncovered when a classmate found the pornographic footage online, made copies and passed them out to classmates. Embarrassed and scared that his mother would find out about his secret life, Justin asked his mother permission to visit his father in Mexico.

He arrived in Mexico with plenty of cash from his webcam business. When his father asked him where he had gotten so much money, Justin told him the truth.

His dad's reaction is shocking.

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After the truth was out, Justin says his father didn't stop him from producing pornographic material?he actually offered to help "maximize the earning potential," Justin says.

Justin says that with his father's assistance, he created his most sophisticated website yet. Before long, the website had more than 1,000 adult subscribers who paid monthly fees to watch Justin perform in live sex shows.

Justin, who was 16 years old at the time, was having sex with prostitutes and broadcasting it on the Internet as many as three times a day. He says his father helped by finding women to sleep with him. "It's disappointing to think that your own dad would do that," Justin says looking back.

At first Justin enjoyed the website's financial success, but he began using drugs and found his life spiraling out of control. He didn't know who to turn to? until he met Kurt Eichenwald, a reporter for The New York Times.

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Kurt Eichenwald, an investigative reporter for The New York Times, was on the Internet researching a story on fraud. The last thing he expected was information regarding a child pornography website. Its star was a young boy named Justin. Kurt says it was "a moment of horror. ? I knew this was a kid who was in enormous danger," he says.

Kurt read more of the online discussions and discovered that these men were talking about where Justin was, where he had been and what he had done?they were completely involved in Justin's life, Kurt says. He decided that someone needed to help Justin.

Kurt managed to track Justin down via the Internet. After several online conversations, Kurt gained his trust and Justin agreed to meet him at a Los Angeles airport.

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When Kurt first saw Justin, Kurt says Justin was emaciated and addicted to drugs. "He looked like he hadn't slept in weeks," Kurt remembers. "He was probably in the worst shape of any teenager I've ever had a conversation with."

Over time, Justin learned to trust Kurt and began heeding his advice. "I remember someone caring and telling me to stop using drugs," Justin says. "I don't know why I listened to him, to be honest. But I know every time that I listened, things got better."

Justin opened up to Kurt and described the dark underworld of "camkids"?children who use webcams to produce pornography. He also described how credit card corporations and other adult enterprises helped him operate his business. Kurt knew that this story wasn't just about Justin?there were many more victims out there.

"By that point, I knew that this kid was at the center of a massive criminal enterprise?that he knew everything," Kurt says. "I had to get him to flip on a business that was paying him thousands of dollars a week. I had to get him to the point where he was sober so that he could talk to me. And he said, 'I'll do it.'"

Kurt and Justin start working together to expose online predators.

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Justin says he shut down his website and quit using drugs. For the next six months he became Kurt's guide into the webcam pornography business. His research led to the December 19, 2005, publication of Kurt's front-page The New York Times exposé on the dark underworld of child webcam pornography. "I was introduced to a world that I didn't know existed," Kurt says. "I saw a pornographic website that had hundreds and hundreds of webcam videos of children. I have never worked on anything that has made me so upset. I have seen things that nobody should ever see."

Kurt says that Justin's detailed records?five years' worth of saved online chats and financial transactions?will help prosecute Justin's predators, but reading back through such abusive conversations was an emotionally difficult task. "They said things to this child that you would not say to a dead prostitute," Kurt says.

Kurt and Justin were shocked to discover the customers' identities.

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Justin has given the FBI and other authorities his records and credit card transactions to help in the identification of predators. Kurt has also investigated Justin's records and his findings are shocking. Of 1,500 customers, Kurt researched a sample of 300. He says he found that some were pediatricians, teachers and counselors. One man, who works as a lawyer representing children, had e-mailed Justin asking to meet him personally.

Kurt's findings deeply troubled Justin. "It frightened me so much to think that these people ? are around kids all day long," Justin says. "It just killed me."

Even though Justin's name was blacked out in federal documents, the alleged offenders were easily able to figure out his identity. Word spread quickly through the child pornography community and Justin says he has received multiple death threats. He is currently living in hiding to protect his life.

Kurt says parents can prevent their children from falling into the hands of online predators.

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Kurt believes there is "absolutely no reason" for any child to have a webcam. "Every webcam in every child's room in America should be thrown out today," he says.

Justin's story, while shocking, is only one case in a huge industry that is destroying hundreds of children's lives. "They are being lured into it from their bedrooms," Kurt says. "That's the reason [Justin] is here today. He wants parents to understand what's happening behind closed doors."

Justin says he is as surprised as anybody by the dark turn his life took at age 13. "I never would have guessed that would happen to me," he says. "This can happen to any kid."

wow thats crazy gotta link?

Fuck that's a sad story. It's sad this world is populated by such sick people.

dammmmmmmmmmm

Oh wait, I didn't read the second post yet.

DAMN! That is one fucked up story.

Am I the only one who feels that at the age of 16 no one was doing things to me that I wasn't OK with? Maybe if he was 8 or something this would make sense. But 16?

that kid was making BANK. i wish i'd thought that up when i was a kid

HIS FATHER supported the child pornography, bah just when I thought the story couldn't get worse.

Kid has guts, that's for damn sure. Makes you wonder if they are going to put him under some kind of protection.

Gee that sounds even more realistic than that shocking memoir 'A Million Little Pieces'.

nope im kinda with ya on that...

The dr does have a good point regarding kids and webcams...they simply should not be allowed to have them

at 16 you're still easily influenced, and his FATHER approving of this and encouraging it really messed him up

His dad should goto jail along with the others. He is already living in hiding it is just going to get worse.

i remember reading the article on that back in December....they make it sound like this is a big problem - sure there gotta be others doing the same thing but its not like its a problem. this kid got greedy for the $ and got in way over his head.

Bullshit...I remember being 13...I'm not gonna pull down my pants and jack off for people on the internet that I KNOW were men...The first time somebody asked me to take off my shirt, I'd know that something was fishy...He was just a greedy bastard..a young one...but still a greedy one.

then once he gets CAUGHT, he then turns on his customers saying that he was "lured"...

BULLSHIT!!!

WOW that was horribly disturbing.

what he said.....while he was making dough he didn't complain....:disgust

and he looks gay too :upsidedow

The father supporting it is what killed me. I dont believe that the boy was lured per se, just greedy, but the father should have put a stop to it. If I was that kid's dad I would have wanted blood not cash.

He wanted money, he got it, he got busted, then he comes up with a sob story.

This actually came out awhile ago on the net, about 3 or 4 months ago, it helped with a very large sting.

The fucked up part is, the 17 year old girl that took webcam pics of herself naked was arrested for distributing child porn, but this guy, (You know since he was "Victimized") won't be charged with anything, he will come out smelling like roses to all of Ophra's fans.

"I saw a pornographic website that had hundreds and hundreds of webcam videos of children. I have never worked on anything that has made me so upset. I have seen things that nobody should ever see."

That's kind of amusing, so the reporter ADMITS to surfing child porn WITH a child by his side??

ANyone else find this fucked up?

i think he was lured, if it was a 13 year old girl you guys would be saying otherwise.

and i agree, any girls under 18 shouldnt be allowed to have webcams.

Don't worry, when this runs on Oprah there will be millions of webcams tossed in the trash. :1orglaugh

Nope, don't find it fucked up at all.

Yeah, he knew it was wrong. He should goto jail too. He is just as much at fault IMO

You GFY'ers and your lack of compassion for a completely unsophisticated kid being sexually exploited is apalling.

The problem with this kind of kiddie webcam porn is that the kids are being personally validated at a time when they feel estranged from family due to puberty, sexually titillated at a time when their sexuality is just emerging, and encouraged by their "fans" to do provocative, rebellious things so it doesn't at all feel like exploitation -- it feels like empowerment. (If a kid has an orgasm while they're being raped by an adult, does that make it no longer rape? Of course it's still rape!)

But as a healthy adult, I totally see that the pedophiles are opportunistically manipulating these kids into sexual situations. Pedophiles like to abuse their power to get their sexual needs met. A normal person wouldn't go out to seduce a 13-year old kid.

If kids are going to be sexually active with anybody, it should be with their same-age peers as that is the situation in which there is the least liklihood of abuse of power.

:upsidedow

naive.. and got caught.. who else would he have met if it wasnt the nyt reporter?

What pisses me off even more than this happening, are these stories that are released constantly that spin "cyberspace" as being some predatorial place that people should be afraid of. So you end up with a bunch of super paranoid chicks that think everyone they talk to online must be a psycho.

Society as a whole is MUCH more fucked up, but these online scare stories have everyone believing online is where you'll get raped / exploited / assaulted.

Most women I talk to online are fine, maybe you really are psycho?

There was a long article about this, posted here from the New York times about 3 months ago.

The big question is, where was mom and dad??

mom TRIED, but she wasn't technically sophisticated enough to see what was going on, also she didnt know

1. you NEVER allow a computer with internet access to remain in a child's room where he/she is free to surf the net unsupervised


the father, when he became aware of what his son was doing, encouraged it & helped facilitate it by setting up a paysite

:Oh crap

wtf :helpme

Theres definately some fucked up individuals out there.

really sad... I think they exaggerate some things or make some viewers think that all webcams are used for sexual purposes.

maybe he should have known better but he was just a kid and its not his fault - he was taken advantage of

I should start a web cam recycle program for all of Oprahs fans to send them to.

I'm watching this shit now on Oprah and I must say, it seems like this kid is bullshitting.

another expose by Oprah that could make a villain out of the industry again

This same story has played I think on dateline (which has lead to thier "sting shows, I suspect).

The basis of the story is played as "people are bad", when in fact the cause of the problem is that the parents didn't control net access or monitor their child. They can blame the rest of the world, but basically they dropped him off in the world largest sex club, and then they wonder why they find him turning tricks for fun?

Why haven't the parents been charged in all of this?

Alex

thats what i thought too when i read that article...i was making bank in the adult industry when i was 16....no one could tell me to "take off my pants" on webcam...what kind of bullshit is that?

its dangerous for kids online nowadays, so much porn and pedos all over the place.

Somebody is gonna make a mint on reselling webcams on Ebay.

Wow.

I am so anal about my kid online, because I know what is out there. He is only online on my computer in my bedroom, while I sit on my bed two feet away watching tv and periodically peering over his shoulder. He hates it, and I don't care.

Yes, it is wrong, and yes, these people should be punished, but a 16 yo is old enough to know better. Problem is they are still too young to care. I was a mother 8 days before I turned 17, so you can't tell me that a kid at the same age I was breastfeeding and changing diapers doesn't know that was he was doing was wrong, and what they were doing to him was wrong. But it didn't matter enough for him to stop because of all the reasons Maura mentioned.

That said, a few days ago my mom and I were talking about my brother, and he was molested by a family friend when he was 15 or 16. My mom said she kind of thought that Mark went with it because the guy bought him stuff, and I said it doesn't matter. It's no more right than the 26yo who fucked me while I was passed out drunk at 16, which of course she was absolutely enraged at. Abusers often ply their victims with gifts, to keep them quiet and keep them coming back. It's common even with young children, imagine how much greater the need to control with something other than violence becomes when the victim is an adolescent.

As someone in the adult industry, I just hate when the spotlight on these fuckers spills over onto the legitimate adult industry. It's like bad news on ticket scalpers spilling onto Ticketmaster.

As a parent, I am just appalled by his father's actions, by the manipulation by the abusers, by the exposure of the victim to things he shouldn't have seen, etc. And it just supports my own decision to be annoyingly tight on the reigns with my own children; from my internet rules, to the fact that I can count on one hand the number of people who have babysat my kids.

Disturbing. I'm suprised he didn't work more undercover with the FBI on this.

now parents won't let their kids anywhere near a computer

Th fact that these kids are not consulting their parents on most of the things that they do is what makes them vulnerable victims to this crimes.

This Makes Me S I C K !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!