Children in Maine and around the world are being sexually assaulted, molested and exploited by people who also misuse computers and related technology. The abuse is being photographed and distributed to an international marketplace of child pornography consumers via the Internet. That marketplace — along with related Internet sites that encourage child sexual abuse — is leading to new assaults against children.
No longer are schools, public libraries and homes safe harbors from sexual predators. These institutions are subject to electronic invasion by pedophiles — people whose sexual fantasies focus on girls or boys — from around the world.
Many of these pedophiles are willing to travel across the country or even internationally for the chance to abuse a child.
Victims, meanwhile, spend their lives with the memory of child sexual abuse; the sense that adults are hurtful people who cannot be trusted, rather than loving caregivers; and the knowledge that photos or video of their abuse still circulate worldwide.
"This is a violent crime against our children," said Douglas Rehman, a former Florida state police officer who has extensive experience investigating online child pornography and predation. "It's a violent crime that seriously affects our society."
On Sept. 14, police arrested a 23-year-old Portland man on charges of distributing child pornography via the Internet to a New Hampshire detective who was posing as a 14-year-old boy. Two days later, police also charged the man with molesting a 10-year-old Portland boy.
On Sept. 3, U.S. Customs agents accused two men, from South Portland and Kennebunk, of participating in a sophisticated international ring that traded sexually explicit pictures of children as young as 2 via the Internet. The same day, a former college professor was sentenced to six years in prison for taking sexually explicit photos of homeless girls as young as 12 with a digital camera, having sex with one of the girls, and storing the pictures on computers in his Gorham home and his Portland office.
Less than a week earlier, a convicted child molester from Bangor was charged with sexually assaulting local teen-agers, photographing the abuse and distributing the pictures over the Internet.
Other Mainers have been accused of traveling out of state with the intent of having sex with a child encountered online, distributing child pornography via the Internet in high volume, and setting up a computer bulletin board to lure children into sex.
Active child molesters in Maine have been found with stories, obtained online, that describe adult-child sex in graphic, glowingly positive terms and with illegal child pornography gathered through the Internet.
And given the rapid growth of online computing, the problem is sure to expand in scope and severity in the years ahead.
The Maine Sunday Telegram investigation found that the following is already taking place:
ÝMaine children are on their own in this potentially dangerous environment. Few children receive the education or supervision they need to stay safe online. Few adults understand the nature of the dangers or how to address them. And few institutions in Maine are taking the threat seriously.
TECHNOLOGY ALTERS
LANDSCAPE of ABUSE
Child pornography and child sexual abuse have long been part of the American social fabric. Countless news stories during the past 20 years have demonstrated the scope and damage caused by these related, once-hidden problems. Statistics vary, but the most commonly cited estimate is that one in five children may be molested by the age of 18.
Today, computer technology is changing and complicating this landscape of abuse in ways society is ill-prepared to address.
"Technology has given pedophiles something they've never had before, and that's the ability to instantly distribute child pornography," said Debbie Mahoney, founder of Safeguarding our Children — United Mothers, a California advocacy group. Technology also gives pedophiles, for the first time, support from other people with a sexual interest in children and "access to children in their own schools and homes," she said.
Pedophiles are people — mostly men but also a few women — whose sexual fantasy lives are focused on children. Not all pedophiles assault children and not all child molesters are pedophiles.
In fact, more than 90 percent of all child sexual assaults are committed by people who know their victims and see them as convenient targets. However, abuse by strangers becomes a greater concern in the computer era, both because of the nature of pedophilia and of computer technology.
Pedophilic child molesters typically exhibit a long-term pattern of abusive behavior, assault far more victims than other molesters, and often have highly developed techniques for obtaining victims. Research suggests that three-quarters of all child sexual assaults involve girls, but that pedophiles are slightly more likely to be interested in boys.
Pedophilic child molesters are so focused on having sex with children that they may pursue this compulsion to the exclusion of other activities, such as going to work.
Computer networks allow these pedophiles to identify and contact potential victims without revealing their identities. Often, adult predators pretend to be children until they have gained their victims' confidence.
Some predators will even travel cross-country or to other nations for sex with children they've encountered online.
Police in Keene, N.H., have found that out through their ongoing investigation of the problem. They have arrested 15 men who traveled to the town, which is in southwestern New Hampshire, from various parts of North America and Europe to have sex with children. The men have traveled to Keene from Norway, Holland, Canada, Georgia, Pennsylvania, New York and other states.
Computer technology also makes it easy for child molesters to create and distribute still pictures and, in some cases, video of their sexual abuse.
"With the advent of the scanner and of digital cameras, (child molesters) are taking the time — the few seconds really — to record the abuse," said Senior Special Agent Steven MacMartin, a U.S. Customs Service officer who has investigated extensively the trade in child pornography online.
"It's being recorded and it's being transmitted to the consumers," he said.
Federal law defines child pornography as photographs or video that depict people under the age of 18 involved in sexually explicit conduct — such as sexual intercourse, bestiality, masturbation, and sadistic or masochistic abuse. Also prohibited are pictures involving children that include a "lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area."
Possession of child pornography carries a potential sentence of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, or both. People convicted of distributing child pornography face up to 15 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, or both.
Creating or possessing child pornography also violates Maine state law.
Nevertheless, those laws are not stopping Mainers from creating, distributing and obtaining the sexual images.
Peter Lehman, a former University of Southern Maine professor, used digital cameras and computers to make his own child pornography. Robert J. Seger, a 38-year-old convicted child molester from Bangor, has been accused of sexually assaulting two local children, taking pictures of the abuse and distributing those images to the world via the Internet.
Gregory J. Grant, 24, a computer-industry worker from South Portland, has been charged with operating a sophisticated computer system in his home that allowed pedophiles from around the world to obtain child pornography directly from his machine, via the Internet. Customs agents allege that people needed at least 10,000 sexual images of children and a willingness to trade them to join this so-called Wonderland Club. Grant is free on bail and has not yet entered a plea in that case.
"With a computer, you can make a perfect copy (of child pornography) literally millions of times," MacMartin said. "The ease of availability of this stuff causes more crimes against children and causes more people with psychological problems to begin with, who are teetering on the edge, to go over that edge and begin victimizing children.
"The (World Wide) Web is like gasoline on the fire," he said, referring to the best-known part of the Internet.
LINE OF DEFENSE HAS
LITTLE SUBSTANCE
There's little to protect children from the new threat.
Federal agencies lack the manpower to cope with all the criminal activity taking place online. Few local law enforcement officers are trained in computer technology.
Internet providers generally fail to educate their customers about ways to protect children from sexual predators. Few schools or libraries offer real safety training programs for children online. Many parents have no idea what threats exist or even how the technologies in question work.
The whole issue of sexual predators' misuse of computers — and the resulting threat to children — has sprung upon Maine suddenly.
As recently as the autumn of 1996, only 9 percent of Maine schools were connected to the Internet, and only 9 percent of Maine households subscribed to an online service. Today, every school and library in the state has Internet access. Nearly a quarter of homes now subscribe to an online service.
Homes with children are more likely to be online than households without kids, according to a recent survey of Mainers' attitudes and activities by Market Decisions Inc. of South Portland. A third of all homes with children have online connections, compared to only 17 percent of those without children.
With that backdrop, news stories about the arrest of online child predators have worried many parents.
Three people surveyed by Market Decisions said they have decided not to go online at home because they can't monitor their children's activities or do not want their children on the Internet. Some parents also have declined to let their children go online in class, several Maine teachers and school librarians said.
But child-safety experts say that pulling the computer plug fails children in two ways. It denies them access to what is, arguably, the richest source of information, entertainment and educational opportunities the world has ever known. It also will tempt some children to use the Internet secretly, a situation that is ideal for sexual predators. Child molesters often try to undermine the trust and communication between parents and children.
SCOPE OF PROBLEM
DIVIDES EXPERTS
Some people are skeptical about the extent of this problem. Many members of the online community, in particular, consider any discussion of online predators and child pornography to be political grandstanding or media hype. In their view, it is not something that requires serious attention.
"It's relatively uncommon and relatively rare," said Marilyn McShane, chairwoman of the criminal justice department at Northern Arizona State University. "In any new field, the extent of the problem gets blown out of proportion."
In fact, nobody knows how extensive computer-assisted child exploitation has become. No reliable studies have been conducted. Any effort to quantify the problem would be futile, given the size of the Internet and the speed with which it is growing.
Still, several hundred arrests have been made and several thousand criminals identified nationally during the past couple of years.
The FBI's Innocent Images investigation of online child pornography has led to the convictions of 207 Americans who were trading child pornography, luring children into sexual encounters online and sexually abusing minors as the result of Internet communication.
Meanwhile, U.S. Customs Service investigations led to the convictions of 178 people on Internet-related child pornography charges in 1997, up from 94 in 1996 and 35 in 1995. Another big increase is projected this year.
Local police investigations nationwide have led to dozens of other arrests and convictions in the past year.
Police know of no Maine state or municipal agency that has anyone investigating the problem. Federal investigations and undercover work by local police officers outside Maine have led to most of the arrests here.
The office of Jay McCloskey, the United States attorney for Maine, is now investigating a dozen child pornography cases. The office saw maybe two in the previous 20 years, prior to the popularity of online computing, McCloskey estimated.
People familiar with the problem have little patience for those who minimize its scope or impact.
"They've either never seen what they are talking about or have never been personally affected by it," said Tracey O'Connell-Jay of California, whose 14-year-old sister disappeared in November 1996 with a man she met on a system called Internet Relay Chat. IRC is a section of the Internet where people type messages to one another in real time. It is one of many types of live discussion forums, known as "chat channels," available online.
"There's an extraordinary number of children who never, ever say what happened to them," O'Connell-Jay said. "Did my sister tell her family? Did this man tell anyone? No. That's how it's done. It's all secretive."
Federal law enforcement officials and national child advocates agree. Prosecutions and complaints represent only a fraction of the problem, say officials who are investigating the situation in Maine and the nation as a whole.
"The problem is very large and very pronounced," said Larry Foust, an FBI special agent and spokesman for the agency's Baltimore division. "We have only hit the tip of the iceberg."
CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
READILY AVAILABLE
Anyone with a little computer know-how can see the problem directly. They can watch dozens of people, at any hour of the day or night, distributing and obtaining child pornography online. On any Friday night, hundreds will be involved.
(Actually obtaining any of the images — no matter why you have done so — is illegal and subject to federal prosecution.)
These are crimes in progress, happening before the observer's eyes.
Much of the illegal trading in child pornography happens in so-called "chat rooms," where people meet, type messages to each other in real time and, often, distribute computer files — including pornographic photos or video of children.
"The chat rooms that trade kiddie porn are unbelievable," said MacMartin, the Customs Service agent. "The willy-nilly trading of this stuff gets into a frenzy. Thousands of pictures can get trafficked in a number of minutes."
These chat channels are open for business around the clock and are constantly occupied, sometimes so crowded that users have to establish other Internet sites to accommodate the rush.
Most of the chat channels and newsgroups dedicated to child pornography specialize in specific sexual appetites — say erotic pictures of babies or hard-core photographs of runaway teen-age girls. Newsgroups are portions of the Internet where people exchange text messages and computer files through a kind of electronic bulletin board system.
MacMartin said he personally has seen more than 100,000 pictures and video segments, all obtained online, of children being sexually exploited. Those pictures, in themselves, cause harm.
"Children used in pornography are desensitized and conditioned to respond as sexual objects,¾ wrote Kenneth Lanning of the FBI Behavioral Science Unit in his monograph, "Child Molesters: A Behavioral Analysis."
"They are frequently ashamed of their portrayal in such material. They must deal with the permanency, longevity and circulation of such a record of their sexual abuse.¾
These images are illegal. The chat channels themselves, and the text messages being exchanged by participants, are not. They are protected by the free speech clause of the U.S. Constitution.
These child-porn chat channels and newsgroups are established by individuals with ordinary Internet connections. They cannot be shut down by government action. Nor can Internet providers effectively block them.
"The irony is that if you want to find naked women having sex on the 'Net, you generally have to pay for it," MacMartin said. "If you want pictures of children having sex, it's generally free."
The easy availability of child pornography online has essentially removed profit from the market. Only those who produce video — too slow to transmit via most computer networks right now — or who repackage photographs can make money.
MacMartin's team arrested one such individual, a Swiss man who had been advertising his child-pornography CD-ROM in an Internet newsgroup. A CD-ROM, which stands for "compact disk—read only memory," stores large amounts of data such as video or still photographs for use on computers.
When the man traveled to Buffalo, N.Y., to set up a distribution network, agents seized his CD-ROMs. They contained more than 100,000 pictures and video clips of children being sexually abused. They were selling for $80 each.
PREDATORS USE
WEB'S SECRETIVENESS
The Internet's threat to children goes beyond child pornography. Molesters also are using it to troll for victims and contact other pedophiles.
Online, molesters can identify and contact children in online chat rooms. Or they can use the brief biographies, known as "profiles," that children sometimes write about themselves online to target potential victims who can immediately be reached via electronic mail.
Newsgroups available through many Maine service providers offer mutual support networks for pedophiles, tips on how to assault children and advice on how to avoid detection.
More than 8,000 sites on the World Wide Web are devoted to promoting sexual contact between children and adults. An estimated 10 percent of all the stories in online erotica groups describe adult-child sex.
Online, pedophiles can interact with children without notice. Predators can conceal their identities, even pretending to be another child or a person of the opposite sex. Adults are not likely to notice a stranger lurking online, as they might near a school or playground.
Predators frequently demand that the child keep their communication secret.
"Ultimately, what they are trying to do is tear the child away from whoever is protecting them," O'Connell-Jay said.
The secretiveness of Internet communication meshes well with the psychology of child molesters, said Robert Freeman Longo, co-author of the new book "Sexual Abuse in America."
"Sex offender behavior is often secretive and private," said Freeman Longo, who has extensive experience working with child molesters.
As part of his research for the book, Freeman Longo posed as 15-year-old boys and girls in several adult chat rooms. He always received sexual comments, and a couple of participants asked to meet him for sex.
Many children do not immediately end such contact, as parents obviously would advise. Instead, they ignore the comments but stay in the discussion or react directly to them in conversation.
Children, as well as adults, are more likely explore their sexual curiosity and talk with strangers about intimate subjects online than in face-to-face encounters.
"They think they are safe where they are,¾ said Colin Gabriel Hatcher, executive director of Cyberangels, a California-based division of the Guardian Angels that is dedicated to online safety and helping to police the Internet. "You can't be safer than you are at the computer at home in the living room with your mom in the kitchen.¾
Child molesters often target children who seem lonely, sad and otherwise vulnerable. These children are less likely to talk to their parents about the contact and more eager to meet friends online.
Predators will groom these potential victims over long periods of time. Predators tell children that they are special, that nobody else cares about them and that they can offer new, exciting experiences.
"These guys do not start out with 'What color is the underwear you're wearing?'Ý" said Corrine Zipps, a probation officer with the Maine Department of Corrections. "They're willing to spend time building a relationship. Things that seem inappropriate from a stranger seem perfectly fine from a friend.
"When they finally meet, they don't think it's a stranger,¾ said Zipps, who discovered that one of her charges, Paul Sykes, was using a university computer network to contact young children in Maine.
Molesters then try to convince the child to have sex or to meet them in a location where sex can be forced.
Under no conditions is it legal for an adult to have sex with someone under the age of 18. Even if a child says "yes," state and federal law say that a crime has occurred. No child is ready to make a decision with such damaging consequences, lawmakers have concluded.
When such illegal encounters occur, they often create behavioral and emotional problems for the child, including outbursts of anger, failure in school, depression or sexual assaults on other children.
Later in life, the victims of child sexual assault are more likely than others to be victimized again, have troubled relationships, engage in prostitution and — in something like 14 percent to 33 percent of all cases — sexually molest children as adults.
"It's the only crime I know of that is self-perpetuating," said Rehman, the former Florida state police officer.
But this cycle of abuse can be broken. Children can be taught how to stay out of trouble online, before they get in too deep. And that's where the focus needs to lie, safety experts agree.
"Once a child has been damaged, I can tell you personally, it is very difficult to put the pieces back together again," O'Connell-Jay said.
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The result is an explosive growth in the production and distribution of illegal child pornography, as well as new forms of child predation, the Maine Sunday Telegram found in a two-month investigation of the problem.