Through His Webcam, a Boy Joins a Sordid Online World

New York Times ^ | Dec 19, 2005 | KURT EICHENWALD

[SmoothTalker]

"The 13-year-old boy sat in his California home, eyes fixed on a computer screen. He had never run with the popular crowd and long ago had turned to the Internet for the friends he craved. But on this day, Justin Berry's fascination with cyberspace would change his life."

"Now, on an afternoon in 2000, one member of his audience sent a proposal: he would pay Justin $50 to sit bare-chested in front of his Webcam for three minutes. The man explained that Justin could receive the money instantly and helped him open an account on PayPal.com, an online payment system."

"Gradually the requests became bolder, the cash offers larger:"

"So began the secret life of a teenager who was lured into selling images of his body on the Internet over the course of five years. From the seduction that began that day, this soccer-playing honor roll student was drawn into performing in front of the Webcam - undressing, showering, masturbating and even having sex - for an audience of more than 1,500 people who paid him, over the years, hundreds of thousands of dollars."

No one Justin's age ever contacted him from that listing. But, within minutes, he heard from his first online predator. That man was soon followed by another, then another."

The Times inquiry has already resulted in a large-scale criminal investigation. In June, The Times located Justin Berry, then 18. In interviews, Justin revealed the existence of a group of more than 1,500 men who paid for his online images."

"As soon as Justin hooked the camera to his bedroom computer and loaded the software, his picture was automatically posted on spotlife.com, an Internet directory of Webcam users, along with his contact information. Then he waited to hear from other teenagers.

[Steely Tom]

Hung. Not shot.

It's "hanged." Picky, picky, I know.

[balch3]

Don't ban it, but there should clearly be controls on it. The Founding Fathers didn't have this in mind when they wrote the First Amendment.

[Jeff Gordon]

I just question the motives of the reporter.

It seems that Justin is natural prey for preditors: perverts, reporters, prosecuters and the FBI. What is he going to do when he runs the course of people who want to use him?

[airedale]

The boy is past puberty and this isn't pedophilia. One part of the description of the guys who were paying him is that they were gay. You'll never see that description applied to individuals like this that prey on post pubescent boys. It wouldn't be PC

[airedale]

If they are past puberty (general accepted age is 12 but can be younger depending on development of the child) then it's not pedophilia. There is a name for liking young but post pubescent children. It's still child molestation if they are below the age of consent, but it's not pedophilia and the people who are involved in this age children are attracted to the same sex post pubescent child as they would to an adult.

[america-rules]

You're defending pedophilia !

How about calling them freaks !

[NYCVirago]

In a series of meetings, The Times persuaded Justin to abandon his business and, to protect other children at risk, assisted him in contacting the Justice Department.

I'm pleasantly stunned that the Times did this.

[cherry]

admittedly old fashioned here, but why do parents seek to keep their kids away by letting them have computers with internet and tv's and dvd players etc in their bedrooms?......all it does is foster separation among family members...

we could afford to have all that junk in our kids rooms, but then I think....I'll never see them.....at least having one main tv keeps the family in the same room...

[Peleliu1944]

When the boy first started doing this he was only 13 years old. He'd been doing it for 5 years.

But, you're right.

[conservative in nyc]

Parents need to pay a lot more attention to where their kids are. Their are some sickies out there.

I've read the whole article. The sickest part is that Justin's real dad (divorced from his mom, who had custody) is a real sleaze. He fled to Mexico after running some insurance scams in his massage clinics. Eventually, Justin met up with him down Mexico way and told him what he was doing. Instead of telling Justin, who was 16 at the time, to stop, his dad became a partner in Justin's web venture, hiring Mexican hookers for Justin to have sex with on the web.

Absolutely disgusting.

[airedale]

Not defending it all. I think they should spend the rest of their days and nights in jail. But one of the dirty little secrets is that pedophiles can have any sexual orientation and from what I've read as a percentage of perverts it follows the gay straight percentages. When child molestation stories come up gays point to the statistics and literature and say see it's unfair to blame us because the percentages say most of the perpetrators are straight. But this specific case and over 80% of the Catholic Church cases involve boys past puberty which is not pedophilia, yet the stories are often characterized as pedophilia to disguise what's really going on. It's a really important distinction. Once past puberty those preying on the young go after their victims based upon the predators sexual orientation. Straight guys go after post pubescent girls and gays go after post pubescent boys.

[Knitebane]

Don't ban it, but there should clearly be controls on it.

Yes, because just like guns, as soon as put a few "reasonable" restrictions on it, all the problems will go away. /sarcasm.

How about we just kill the child molesters (after a fair trial, of course)?

Keep your busybody hands off of my Internet!

[raccoonradio]

yeah it's something like epopophilia (forget exact word)
which I think is Latin for "Michael Jackson Disease".

[WasDougsLamb]

----I blame the parents as much as the perverts. A kid should be supervised at ALL times when on the web because you cannot trust what is out in cyberspace and buying a webcam was incredibly stupid. A family pc should be located in the family room where your childs activity can be monitored. The parents should be ashamed of themselves and from now on watch the kid, who obviously doesn't have enough intelligence to know when he is being prayed upon by perverted adults. At 13 he should have known better.

[conservative in nyc]

I blame the parents as much as the perverts.

Read the whole article. You'll be fuming at Justin's father pimp.

[WasDougsLamb]

I did .

[Caesar Soze]

I've long considered camwhoring, but I'm too old for the ephebophiles and not cute enough for the gay men and lonely women. We all have to work with what God gave us.

[SmoothTalker]

"Moreover, these adults are often people adept at manipulating teenagers. In its investigation, The Times obtained the names and credit card information for the 1,500 people who paid Justin to perform on camera, and analyzed the backgrounds of 300 of them nationwide. A majority of the sample consisted of doctors and lawyers, businessmen and teachers, many of whom work with children on a daily basis."

This is disturbing.

[monday]

"If I ever have a kid he will only be allowed on the Internet where I can actually see what he is doing. There will also be a lot of spying. The world is just brimming with sickos."

Most parents warn their children about perverts on the Internet. Kids are not stupid. They don't want to be taken advantage of by strangers. You need to warn them. If you teach your children right, spying or banning the Internet from their lives shouldn't be neccessicary.

[monday]

"Even so, the parent should not have allowed the kid to have the damn thing. Guess it's not all fairies,elves and unicorns over at Earthlink after all. Good grief!"

So now it's Eaqrthlinks fault? Good grief is right!