"Real-Time" Child Pornography
Of all the response to Andrew Vachss' recent PARADE article, the overwhelming majority had to do with the public's disbelief that "real-time" child pornography was happening on the Internet. News out of the U.S. Department of Justice on March 15, 2006, corroborates exactly this.
Dozens Charged In International, Internet-based Child Pornography Investigation
'Chat Room' Allegedly Used to Trade Images of Child Sexual Molestation
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A private Internet "chat room" used worldwide to facilitate the trading of thousands of images of child pornography—including streaming videos of live molestations—was infiltrated in an undercover investigation, resulting in charges against 27 individuals to date in the United States, Canada, Australia and Great Britain, the Department of Justice, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and cooperating international authorities announced today. [read more]
—U.S. Department of Justice
March 15, 2006
That is why we must begin to treat so-called "simple possession" of child pornography as the heinous crime it is. Every purchase of child pornography encourages further growth of this evil business: from "custom" child pornography—the sale of images of child rape created to order for the consumer—to "real-time" child pornography, where subscribers pay to watch the streamed online rape of children as it occurs. Still another market exists in recorded images of children being physically abused, even tortured. Some of these are marketed outright for the sexual gratification of the viewers, while others are camouflaged as "instructional materials for disciplinarians."
—"Let's Fight This Terrible Crime Against Our Children" by Andrew Vachss
PARADE, February 19, 2006
This isn't the first time The Zero or Andrew Vachss have written about "real-time" child pornography. Here's our update from November 26, 2003:
"The media has finally arrived down in the Zero. Five years ago, in Safe House, Andrew Vachss wrote about on-line molestation broadcast in real time. Earlier this month, London's Observer reported on a group committing that very crime. Check it out."
Click here to read the Safe House excerpt and the article from The Observer.
And Andrew Vachss sounded the alarm long ago ...
"But before we kneejerk ourselves into collaboration with pedophiles, let us deconstruct the slogans. Let us define 'speech' operationally, not as an abstract. And when we apply that test, we know that child pornography is not 'speech'—it is the photograph of a crime ... and the trophy of a predator. It cannot be produced without violating a child. It is per se contraband, and not within the orbit of First Amendment protection. If kiddie porn is 'speech' then so is a snuff film." —Testimony of Andrew Vachss before the United States National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, November 10, 1998
"Not so many years ago, the production of child pornography required a network of confederates for production and distribution. Kiddie porn, once a monolith, has become a cottage industry. With the advent of do-it-yourself devices such as the Polaroid camera and the camcorder, anyone can produce a 'quality' product." —"Age of Innocence" by Andrew Vachss (The Observer, April 16, 1994)
"Kiddie pornography is not a 'first amendment' issue. It is a picture of a crime." —"How We Can Fight Child Abuse" by Andrew Vachss (PARADE, August 20, 1989)
"If Vachss had his way, government and private foundations would pour money into child abuse prevention and rehabilitation programs for abused children. There would be much tougher sentences for trafficking in 'kiddy porn' and for any kind of attack on children." —"One Man's War on Child Abuse" by Nina McCain (The Boston Globe, October 17, 1988)
