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.]
