27 perpetrators charged - unfortunately, most only listed by screen name.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/03/15/childporn.arrests/index.html

This is indeed bittersweet news. I can only hope that if some of these perpetrators indeed had immediate access to the victims, those victims have been located.

Yes, that's the side that the news coverage always seems to miss. What about the kids? Is an effort made to track them down and find help for them?

That said, I suppose such a task would be nearly impossible, since the abusers are unlikely to keep records of who these kids are.

Larry

I must admit that when this news was first reported it felt like a crushing blow to my body.

It was temporary though as it really brings home the need for advocacy and activism on so many fronts; governmental, criminal, civil and most importantly for these innocents, health care.

This is another call to action folks. As someone's signature line says, if you get knocked down 10 times, get up 11 times.

18 months old? You've got to be kidding me!

Zipser

Jake,

Perps abusing their own kids for a kiddy porn chat room - that's just about the lowest I have heard about.

You're right, especially since kids are usually abused by people they know. I hadn't thought of that, but it sure is a relief.

But do the cops usually try to find the kids in these cases, or are they just going for the arrests? Just a question.

Larry

"We plan to prosecute them and others involved in this vile chat room to the fullest extent of the law," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told reporters in Chicago, adding that the victims "are now in safe custody."

I hope and pray all of this true.

ROCK ON........Trish

Thanks Trish, I missed that bit.

Larry

It is my understanding that chatrooms like this aren't unique, but they are very difficult to get a handle on for a few reasons. Most of these little groups require new members to submit some kind of illegal material as proof that they aren't law enforcement, and this is in reality quite effective at keeping the blue out. The only chance cops have is catching an offender in a regular chatroom, for instance, or on a P2P network, raiding him, and finding out that he is a participant in one of these secret groups; whereby they can use said perv's already established and "trusted" account to sneak in. That seems to be the case with what happened here. They're sly, these people. But they slip up. And, as Arnold said in Predator, "If it bleeds - we can kill it."

melliferal,

Thanks for your clarifications. When I see things like this it reinforces my suspicion that I have no understanding of evil whatsoever. I know these things exist and I have seen stories of how sick they can get, but when a new one shows up I get appalled and shocked all over again, as if it's something entirely new.

Actually I think it's just that if there's an explanation for this sort of thing, I don't even want to hear it.

Sorry for rambling.

Larry

"Know thy enemy", so the saying goes. For a while some time ago, I actively researched this sort of thing. At the time I was driven by something like guilt (an odd sort of guilt, actually), and I learned a lot. I even joined a web organization called "Perverted Justice", a group of well-meaning people who assist police by spotting and uncovering pedophiles who lurk in chatrooms trying to find underage victims. I argued with pedophiles on bulletin boards, and I heard some of the most twisted and off-the-wall rationalizations for their behavior. I did these sorts of things for a while, but something unfortunate happened which caused me to lose my stomach for the work.

I am for the nonce rather like a cheerleader. On some of the other non-CSA message boards I post at, when the issue comes up I try to educate the other members as much as I can, and post links to articles like the one we're discussing here. It's the least I can do, I feel - but unfortunately it's also the most I can do at this point in time.

here in the UK the police go to great lengths to identify the child victims.
In the TV documentary "The Hunt For Britains Paedophiles", which was screened for about 6 hours in total, they showed the methods used such as going through the films frame by frame to try and identify any scrap of information, and they were remarkably good at it. In one instance a curtain wasn't fully drawn and they identified a tiny part of a shop front, and linking that with their suspicions they found the location where the abuse took place and then the abuser.

We owe a great deal to these guys who sit looking at this shit all day long.

Dave