Associates of an Infoseek exec arrested for using chat to solicit a minor may have been shocked and surprised, but not the FBI.
As it turns out, a corner office at a high-profile, high-tech company isn't such an unlikely place to find an online pedophile -- not according to records being yielded from a three-year-old Federal Bureau of Investigation crackdown on Internet pornography.
Of the 413 people arrested as part of the agency's "Innocent Images" investigation since 1995, "only a handful have not been upper-middle-class, educated white men," said Special Agent Pete Gulotta who serves as the investigation's chief spokesman. "They're almost all white males between the ages of 25 and 45.
"We've had military officers with high clearances, pediatricians, lawyers, school principals, and tech executives," Gulotta said of those arrested under Innocent Images.
Here are some you might want to check out later.. And for some more info to ''weigh in''
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Memoirs of a pedophile victim
A Profile of the Child Molester
predators
Child abuse investigations
National Conference
Dr. Chaiken reported that of the 95,000 sex offenders in State prisons, 60,000 most likely committed their violent sex crimes against children under age 18. The majority of those serving time for violent sex offenses against children committed their crimes against victims age 12 or under. He endorsed the implementation of the National Incident-Based Reporting System, which collects more detailed crime information, leading to higher quality crime data and, ultimately, stronger laws.
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Hackers against pedophelia
Valor tracks down pedophiles over the Internet, breaks into their computers, erases any child porn images he comes across and destroys their hard drives. Then he hacks into the target's Internet Service Provider to change the log-in message so that every user who tries to get on the net that day learns that one of their members was found in possession of kiddie porn. For good measure, he sends the pictures and directory to the ISP's systems administrator, "so they don't come after me," Valor says. Valor tracks down pedophiles over the Internet, breaks into their computers, erases any child porn images he comes across and destroys their hard drives.
Graphic Pedophiles always have been out there. The Internet didn't create them. But it gave them a huge and seemingly anonymous arena in which to trade child pornography or to lure children into sexual encounters. Just like the real world, much of the Internet is safe for children. But electronic conversation areas called chat rooms or chat channels allow direct, unsupervised contact between adult strangers and children, most of whom would never talk to adult strangers face to face. What more could a sexual predator ask for? "Historically, pedophiles thought they were alone out there," McCants said. "Now it's booming on the Internet because they feel validated. It almost makes them more aggressive." Put pedophiles together with millions of teen-agers discovering their sexuality and surfing the World Wide Web, and you have a situation ripe for abuse. "Your children are actually with some stranger in their bedroom," Hubbell says of online predators, called "travelers" by investigators. "These guys will travel all over the country to meet these kids who say yes."
Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal to a new federal law banning the sale of sexually explicit material on military bases. Such a law is warranted considering the rash of sex scandals in the military. The less provocation the better. However, rapists and pedophiles, for whom such a ban is needed even more so, are free to purchase, view and display obscene material. ,P. In a recent case in New Jersey, Judge Alfred Wolin of Federal District Court in Newark handed down an outrageous decision. A suit was filed by two pedophiles who challenged a law banning pornography from the state’s Avenel correctional facility for repeat sex offenders. (Washington Times, 7/2/98) Judge Wolin stated that the law’s broad language was unconstitutional and that the state failed to prove that such a ban would rehabilitate prisoners. (New York Times, 7/23/98) According to the 1986 Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography, more than half of rapists say they were provoked to commit an offense by pornography, and 42 percent of child molesters "implicated pornography" in their crimes. (Washington Times, 7/2/98)
In Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio enforced a ban of all depictions of frontal nudity in his jails. One inmate, when he was denied his subscription to Playboy, filed a suit citing First Amendment violations. In the papers he filed, the inmate claimed he was denied access to newsworthy interviews and investigations. (Washington Times 7/28/98) A three-judge panel in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco declared Arpaio’s ban unconstitutional. Again, broad language was the reason given. The panel did suggest that a more specific definition of "sexually explicit" would create a new case. (Washington Post, 7/18/98)