Kids and Online Pornography

Editors Note: We conclude our series on Kids and the Internet with a look at the Internet pornography industry. Express contributing editor Rick Coates, in previous articles, has looked at the impact that social networking sites such as MySpace have had on teens and kids, along with Internet gambling and cyberbullying. The articles may be found online at www.northernexpress.com in the editorial archive. This week, Coates looks at Internet pornography from two perspectives: access to online pornography by kids and teens, and the disturbing Internet child pornography industry that exists right here in Northern Michigan’s backyard. It should be noted that Coates did not access or view child pornography during his research. Statistics and facts reported here came from several federal and state agencies found through Internet searches.


 
By Rick Coates
 

Last spring, 31-year-old Paul Kraft, from an affluent suburban area near Cincinnati, Ohio, went online to an Internet chat room called “Baby and Pre-Teen Sex.” Kraft typed, “I will rape my three-year-old daughter and broadcast it live in exchange for someone raping a child and broadcasting it live for me to watch.”
Paul Kraft delivered on his promise and raped his daughter five times, broadcasting the rape live twice on the Internet. He and his 26-year-old wife have five children, all under the ages of six, and filmed the children having sex with each other, broadcasting those tapes online as well. Federal authorities caught the Krafts and both are spending the rest of their lives in prison.
Unfortunately, this type of act was not the first. In 1997 investigators in New York found 200,000 online images of children, including babies being raped, sodomized, or otherwise sexually abused during a search of the Internet.
These acts represent the most despicable examples of the growing Internet child pornography industry. In fact a recent study conducted by the United Nations found that Michigan ranks 10th in the world for the amount of child pornography viewed online.

CLOSE TO HOME
The pursuit of online child pornography exists in our own backyard. A counselor at a boarding school in the area was caught in an online sting and his computer had several pornographic pictures of children. He is now in prison. Recently a local musician, whose wife works for the local courts, was arrested for possessing images of child pornography downloaded from the Internet. He is awaiting trial.
A member of the Northern Michigan medical community was arrested last year in a downstate sting. He brought camera equipment to a hotel in hopes of filming himself having sex with young boys to sell online. He is in prison. And a couple was prosecuted last fall by the United States Department of Justice. Their Northern Michigan-based business was manufacturing and selling child pornography, including videos of kids having sex with animals. The couple is serving federal prison time.
  While not as graphic as what happened in Ohio, children from Northern Michigan have also been victims of this industry. Lured in through chat rooms, some have been “groomed” by the predator and then photographed and filmed. These images have and are being sold online.
‘ACCIDENTAL ACCESS’
But this is only one part of it. For most parents the fear of their child or teen falling victim to these hideous acts of violence is highly unlikely. However, the trauma of pornography for most kids in Northern Michigan will come from the “accidental” access of it online.
Last year during the Express MySpace series of articles, a friend shared with me that they had taken what they thought were “all of the precautions necessary for their kids using the computer online.” They had the latest and greatest filters. They kept the family computer in the living room. They sat in the living room while their kids used the computer.
These important steps, however, didn’t prevent their 10-year-old son from acci-dentally stumbling onto Internet pornography. While Googling capital punishment for a school report, one of the links led to a graphic porn site. When her son tried to click out of the site, it opened up several more porn sites. In a matter of seconds her son was exposed to pictures and videos of oral sex, anal sex and violent sex acts.
This scenario is becoming more com-mon as crafty Internet porn site developers have found ways around filters, attaching their sites deceptively to popular searches for kid-related subjects and cultural icons like cartoon characters or sports figures.

HIGH NUMBERS
A recent national study found that 80% of teens ages 13-17 have viewed pornography online at least once during the past 12 months. Of those, 66% said they “viewed it unwillingly.” In another study, the London School of Economics found that “nine out of 10 children ages eight to 16 have viewed pornography on the Internet. In most cases, the sex sites were accessed unintentionally when a child, often in the process of doing homework, used a seemingly innocent sounding word to search for information or pictures.”
Just how big is the Internet pornography business?  Big and getting bigger by the day. For example, 68 million daily search engine requests (25% of all search engine requests) made worldwide are for pornography. There are over five million pornographic websites around the world, along with 400 million pornographic pages. Every month, 1.5 billion pornographic downloads take place (about 35% of the total of all downloads made online).
Every day, 116,000 search engine requests are made for child pornographic materials. In addition, there are 100,000 sites offering illegal child pornography items ranging from photographs to videos that may be viewed online. Equally startling is that 89% of the sexual requests made in chat rooms are seeking sex with kids. As for kids, 40% of them who visit online chat rooms will be solicited for sex.

SHORT-LIVED CELEBRATION
  Recently, at a convention on morality, religious leaders gathered to celebrate a study that showed traditional pornography was on the decline. That celebration was short-lived when another study came out a few weeks later showing that Internet porn was generating revenues far in excess to the decline of traditional pornography revenues.
The industry is lucrative. Some estimates show the Internet porn industry makes about $6 billion annually of the $60 billion worldwide pornography industry. Internet pornography is greater than the combined annual revenues of CBS, NBC and ABC. Child pornography is estimated to be at $3 billion annually and growing, with close to $1 billion of that taking place online.
Common sense suggests that if the data exists, pointing to all of these illegal child porn sites, law enforcement ought to be able to shut them down. These porn sites are a lot like spider webs in that it’s easy to destroy the web, but harder to catch the webmaster. Tear away a spider web but don’t catch the spider, and he will quickly make another web. So goes the Internet child porn site creators: shut down a site but don’t catch the creator, and he quickly returns with another site.

LIMITED RESOURCES
With a state economy in shambles and financial priorities elsewhere, resources in Michigan are limited to pursue child pornographers.  For example, the Michigan Attorney General’s office told me it “would be weeks before someone could get back to me to answer my questions,” stating “lack of funding has our department faced with limited personnel.”
Considering Michigan is one of the leaders in the world in downloading child pornography, it seems more should be done to catch these traffickers and viewers. Despite budget challenges, the Michigan State Police are pursuing Internet child pornographers to the best of their ability with limited financial resources.
The Michigan State Police Computer Crimes Unit (CCU) provides computer-related investigative expertise and support to law enforcement agencies across the state. A majority of the work of this unit involves child pornography. The Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force is funded by a grant from the United States Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The Michigan ICAC Task Force includes officers from several state law enforcement departments, including the Michigan State Police.
Both units are active in sting operations that have netted child pornographers and child sex molesters.

THE SEX TRADE
The Internet has helped to perpetuate another growing industry: Child Sex Tourism (CST). According to the United States Department of State, over a million children annually are exploited in the global commercial sex trade. Primarily taking place in underdeveloped nations, CST is a multi-million dollar industry. Teens and children from the United States are being sold into this industry. While much of the industry is centered on men flying to these CST destinations (such as Thailand) to have sex with young children, a growing aspect of the industry is the filming and photographing of children for use on the Internet.
The United Nations has played a lead role in curbing CST and has created The Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism.
There are some gray areas that result with pornography being legal in the United States. Those who download pornographic images may be unaware that the images were of minors if the photos were not marketed that way. Here is another one. Is it child pornography to possess “bathtub shots” of your young children? The courts are still debating this.
In Michigan, law enforcement and the courts are cracking down on the possession of child pornography and giving little leeway. Even minors (15 and 16-year-olds) are being prosecuted for posting or possessing nude pictures of their minor friends.

PARENTAL MONITORING
As for children “accidentally” stumbling onto Internet pornography sites, this can only be prevented by parents working alongside their children while they are online. Parents should monitor search efforts by elementary-aged students and verify sites before allowing their child to access them. While Internet filtering software is a good idea, parents should realize that this is not 100% effective for preventing your child from accessing Internet pornography.
Parents looking for more information on Internet safety issues and Internet usage by children and teens should visit the Michigan Attorney General’s website at www.michigan.gov/ag.  
If you suspect someone is creating, trafficking or possessing child pornography, contact the Michigan State Police Cyber Creep, 1-877-5529-2373.
While the “Internet neighborhood” possesses many dangers to children and teens, it also is the gateway to their future. Just as you warn your child of the dangers of crossing the road, the use of drugs and alcohol, and accepting rides from strangers, you must do the same with them about their Internet usage. 
Ask yourself this. Would you let your 10-year-old wander the mall or a strange neighborhood alone? If you answered no, then why would you let your child wander the Internet alone? Would you let your 15-year-old daughter or son go off with a stranger? If you answered no, why would you let them go to online chat rooms
that are accessible by adults who are child sex predators?   View On Our Website