Cybersmut

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

   New York Post, January 9, 1995 
   Front Page, pp. 8, 9. Four articles. 
 
 
   A Post Investigation 
 
   Computer Sickos Target Your Kids 
 
   Child-porn perverts roam info-highway 
 
   Furor Over Cybersmut 
 
   Molesters With a Modem 
 
   Kiddie-sex perverts using computers to lure victims 
 
 
   By Lou Lumenick and Kieran Crowley 
 
   City cops are about to start patrolling the information 
   superhighway to hunt down child pornographers and 
   pedophiles who are luring kids through high-tech computer 
   bulletin boards, The Post has learned. 
 
   "The bulletin boards are a total haven for pedophiles," 
   said Sgt. Richard Perrine, who's forming a new computer 
   investigation unit. 
 
   There are no names and faces, and a 33-year-old man can 
   pass himself off as a 10-year-old kid." Perrine said the 
   new unit, in the NYPD's Organized Crime Control Bureau, 
   plans to include computer child-pornographers and 
   pedophiles among its targets. 
 
   "We haven't really solidified our strategy yet," he told 
   The Post. 
 
   "This is something that's so new, law enforcement is not 
   quite ready for it." 
 
   Law-enforcement officials say pedophiles are lurking on the 
   nation's three major on-line services, America Online 
   Prodigy and Compuserve where kiddie-sex perverts are using computers 
   to lure victims -- as well as on the worldwide Internet, 
   smaller online services, and locally-operated computer 
   bulletin boards. 
 
   On-line services are an easy way for pedophiles to meet 
   children anonymously, noted Dyanne Greer, a senior lawyer 
   with the National Center for the Prosecution of Child 
   Abuse. 
 
   "Many cases are not reported, so I'm not sure anybody is 
   really aware how much this is going on," she said. 
 
   A Post probe uncovered these on-line horror stories: 
 
      Westchester computer expert George Telesha pretended to be 
      a 14-year-old girl on America Online and was quickly 
      besieged by perverts sending dirty pictures. 
 
      A Manhattan computer expert allegedly got a 13-year-old New 
      Jersey boy he met on-line to go skating with him. 
 
      Cops said the man lured the youth into the woods near the 
      boy's home and sexually abused him six times between last 
      July and September. 
 
      An unemployed Brooklyn computer programmer tried to 
      sodomize a Nevada teen-ager he met on a computer bulletin 
      board. 
 
      A 27-year-old computer engineer in Cupertino, Calif., 
      allegedly met a 14-year-old boy through America Online. 
 
      He is charged with handcuffing, shackling and blindfolding 
      the boy and then taking him to his apartment, where he 
      whipped him with a belt, shaved his pubic hair and had sex 
      with him. 
 
      California man sent pornographic photos via computer to a 
      teen-ager, then sought to have the teen killed to silence 
      him. 
 
   Such crimes are not easy to investigate or prosecute, 
   officials note. 
 
   "It's a bigger problem than most people realize," said Mike 
   Brick, director of the Orlando bureau of the Florida State 
   Office of Law Enforcement. 
 
   "There's a lot of people out there who want to have sex 
   with children. If they hang out at a real playground, a 
   teacher or someone might see them. In the computer 
   playground they can more or less hide in the bushes." 
 
   A handful of agencies have staffers pose as youngsters to 
   solicit dirty pictures and come-ons, but many don't have 
   the manpower, equipment or inclination to do so on a 
   regular basis. 
 
   And even if they did, experts say there's probably no way 
   to completely stop on-line perverts -- who constitute a 
   tiny fraction of overall on-line communicators -- short of 
   shutting down the services. 
 
   And that is not only unlikely, but would rob children and 
   others of a valuable educational resource. 
 
   The services say they're concerned -- but in no position to 
   play the role of police. 
 
   AOL spokeswoman Pam McGraw said computer-privacy laws keep 
   her company's hands tied when it comes to the 
   person-to-person type of communication in which porn can be 
   exchanged in electronic "private chat rooms." 
 
   "Federal law prevents us from monitoring E-mail," McGraw 
   said. "We do our best to prevent misuse of our service." 
 
   She urged AOL customers to report offensive communications 
   -- which are prohibited under company rules -- so the 
   company can warn offenders or eject them from the system. 
 
   Law-enforcement officials say on-line companies are quick 
   to cut off perverts and help track down and prosecute 
   pedophiles and pornographers. 
 
   But the crimes still flourish because computers make life 
   simpler for the perverts. 
 
   Pedophiles can easily pretend to be a child online, or even 
   someone of the opposite sex, to help draw a child into a 
   trap. And they can elude detection by using false names and 
   post office boxes. 
 
   "Offenders can say they're other kids, then arrange for 
   face-to-face meetings," Greer said. "It's pretty scary when 
   you find out you're dealing with a 47-year-old man instead 
   of the 14-year-old you expected." 
 
   Greer said some pedophiles have convinced children to pose 
   for pornographic pictures. The pedophiles then trade the 
   pictures with other perverts, or use the pictures to draw 
   in other kids "and break down their inhibitions," she said. 
 
   End Article 1 
 
 
   Article 2 
 
   Photo: 
   CREEP CATCHERS: Special agent Mike Brick (white shirt) of 
   the Florida state police and another agent track a 
   pedophile on the computer. 
 
   How to protect your children 
 
   Steps parents can take to stop on-line pedophiles 
 
   By Lou Lumenick 
 
   Parents must take the offensive to protect their children 
   from on-line perverts, experts say. 
 
   "You wouldn't let a young child hang out in a playground or 
   mall alone, so don't let them hang out in the computer 
   playground by themselves," said Mike Brick of the Florida 
   Department of Law Enforcement. "You need to exercise the 
   same caution." 
 
   So what can a parent do? First of all, experts say talk 
   with someone at your on-line system -- whether it's America 
   Online, Prodigy, Compuserve, Genie Delphi or one of the 
   others. 
 
   All of them allow users to limit access by children. 
 
   Subscribers to America Online, for instance, can bar their 
   children from the private "chat rooms," where the more 
   sexually explicit conversations take place. 
 
   Most services will also allow you to disable one-on-one 
   conversations when your child logs on. 
 
   Then talk with your children. 
 
   Rule No. 1 is that they must never ever give their real 
   name, address or telephone number to anyone on-line. 
 
   Rule No. 2 is that they must never ever agree to meet with 
   anyone they encounter on-line -- even if he says he's a kid 
   the same age who lives across the street. He could very 
   well be an adult willing to travel hundreds of miles for a 
   sexual encounter. 
 
   Beyond that, it's a matter of parental vigilance. 
 
   "Make the kids teach you how to use the computer," said 
   Dyanne Greer, a senior lawyer with the National Center for 
   the Prosecution of Child Abuse. 
 
   "Many parents take the attitude, 'Gee, my kids are learning 
   a skill.' That's very true, but you can't be left behind or 
   you won't know what's going on. 
 
   Many experts recommend moving the computer out of the kids' 
   bedroom into a more central place -- like the living room 
   -- so parents can keep a closer eye on things. 
 
   "If your kid wants to put the computer in his bedroom 
   closet, I would be very nervous," Brick said. 
 
   "If you find your children spending a lot of time on the 
   service, you need to pay attention. "If every time you walk 
   into the room, the screen goes dark, check it out. It could 
   be the modern equivalent of kids under the cover with a 
   flashlight reading Uncle Harry's Playboy magazine. Or 
   worse." 
 
   Brick said telltale signs of porn being downloaded include: 
 
   "If you have a 100-megabyte drive and it's always full and 
   the kids are demanding more memory. Photos can take a lot 
   of memory. " 
 
   "If you find floppy disks hidden around the house." 
 
   "If you need help playing them or figuring out whether 
   there's a problem, go to your local police department. Most 
   will be happy to help." 
 
   End Article 2 
 
 
   Article 3 
 
   Chilling messages made dad take action 
 
   By Kieran Crowley 
 
   George Telesha couldn't believe his ears. Or his modem. 
 
   Telesha, 46, a bank computer specialist and president of 
   the Westchester chapter of the Fathers Rights Association, 
   heard from several dads that their kids were accessing porn 
   on their home computers. 
 
   So he decided to take a walk on the wild side -- on the 
   information superhighway. 
 
   Telesha, the father of two, pretended to be a 14-year-old 
   girl named "Suzy" on an America Online computer bulletin 
   board. 
 
   He said he was besieged with perverts who sent dirty 
   pictures. 
 
   Telesha said several men sent "Suzy" porno pictures, tried 
   to get her address and phone number -- and tried to lure 
   her out of her home. 
 
   "Can I come up to New York?" one out-of-state man said. 
   "Can I meet you? You don't have to tell your parents." 
 
   When "Suzy" mentioned her parents were not home, another 
   man became very insistent, Telesha said. 
 
   "I live in New York. Can I come over? I'll take you 
   shopping," the man messaged "Suzy" in trying to set up a 
   date at a local mall. 
 
   One man said he lived in New Jersey and invited "Suzy" over 
   for a photo session. 
 
   Telesha said his most disturbing exchange was with a man 
   who sent child sex pictures. 
 
   "Do you have any more of these?" Telesha asked. 
 
   "Usually, it's just one session," the man typed back. 
 
   "That sent chills through me," said Telesha, fearing the 
   photographed children may have been harmed. 
 
   "It's mind-boggling. I haven't slept in a week. What 
   happened to the children in these pictures? What is going 
   to happen to them?" 
 
   One AOL subscriber even offered hints on how to pick up 
   young girls and take pornographic pictures of them Telesha 
   said. 
 
   "I think people ought to know what's going on. I just want 
   to see it stopped," he said. 
 
   End Article 3 
 
 
   [Article 4 reports on exchanges between Telesha 
   masquerading as three different girls and AOL subscribers.  
   Too disgusting to post.  Censorship imposed for lurking 
   kiddies.]