Peddlers of Child Porn Get Away with Murder
The Universe
(October 19, 2003)
SEX crimes against children cause terrible injuries, irreparable psychological damage and even death.
Often, the acts of sexual abuse are taped or photographed and sold through the internet. This global network of computers connected by telephone lines has the power to facilitate immense good or evil.
Pia, a Nine-year-old in the slums of Manila, was lured by a female pimp named Lana into playing sex games with foreign sex tourists for food and money. The child was abandoned by her parents and left to grow up with an aged grandmother who could provide nothing for her.
Pia’s abusers were of all nationalities and she was molested repeatedly for the price of a coffee and cake. In 1996, when she was 11, a German paedophile ‘bought’ her for a few days from her pimp to make pornographic videos. Later, we rescued Pia and brought her abuser to justice.
Child porn sold over the internet proliferates because the latter is largely unregulated. Internet providers make millions by facilitating the pornography business through their massive routing computers that connect to millions of others worldwide.
These companies oppose any legislation that will curb their profits. The owners are not held responsible and are not obliged to monitor and report child pornography. Some close down offensive web sites, but most say it is an impossible task.
Last June, when I was transmitting my articles critical of the war in Iraq to subscribers around the world, AOL blocked PREDA’s child protection web site (www.preda.org) for ten days. If they can impose censorship on child protectors, they can block child pornography. The internet is an invention for goof but it is horribly abused and the world’s greatest crime that runs in its electronic veins is child porn.
Studies by the Children’s Charities for Internet Safety say that out of every three customers of child pornography one is an active sexual abuser of children.
Every week, there are 80 new pay-us-you-view child porn sites opening up. The University of Cork discovered that in a period of less that two months, they found pictures of 20 new child victims on the internet sites they were monitoring.
While there may be thousands of arrests of these offenders – like the recent round-up of a huge network by German police connected to 166 countries – there are few convictions. Most are let off with a slap on the wrist. The internet service providers must take responsibility for the crimes that are perpetrated using their facilities and block the web sites that provide the pictures.
And those who make and sell the images ought to receive more sever punishment.
