The Child Protection eNewsletter

ACLU trial to overturn child porn law begins… 
A federal judge yesterday heard opening arguments from attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in a long-running tussle over the legitimacy of the Children's Online Protection Act (COPA).  http://www.eschoolnews.com  Salon.com, Nerve.com, and other plaintiffs backed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) are suing over the 1998 Child Online Protection Act (COPA).  They believe the law could restrict legitimate material they publish online--exposing them to fines or even jail time.  Officials at the U.S. Department of Justice contend their primary target is commercial pornographers who use sexually explicit "teasers" to lure online customers.

The ACLU has a history of defending pornographers in court.  COPA, signed into law by then-President Clinton, requires adults to use some sort of access code, or perhaps a credit-card number, to view material that might be considered "harmful to children."

Wired magazine finds hundreds of convicted sex offenders on MySpace.com… 
A technology reporter for Wired Magazine uncovered hundreds of convicted sex offenders on MySpace with a computer program that he developed, leading to one man's arrest.  http://abcnews.go.com  There are more than 100 million users on MySpace, an online social networking service largely used by young people, who post profiles and pictures of themselves, but it's also used by another group:  sexual predators.

"There were some with records of crimes against children with a large number of children on their lists," Wired Senior Editor Kevin Poulsen told ABC News.  Using names and addresses of convicted sex offenders on state registries, the editor designed his own computer program to cross-reference that information with profiles listed on MySpace.  Inputting close to 386,000 sex offenders from 46 states, Poulsen found thousands of possible matches.

Poulsen began looking at the site, combing through 7,000 profiles.  Among them, he said, were 744 sex offenders with profiles on the site.  One particular sex offender stood out.  "In his MySpace profile, he had links to half a dozen kids — all young boys — and he was posting messages to their public comment boards of a sexual nature," Poulsen said.  Police investigated and found evidence to charge that individual.

The 7,000 figure doesn’t include any sex offenders who open MySpace accounts under fictitious names.

Experts: Priest in denial about behavior with Foley… 
Experts on sex abuse say the comments of a Roman Catholic priest who acknowledged being naked with Mark Foley when the former congressman was young fit a pattern of distorted thinking that they've seen over and over among offenders.  http://hosted.ap.org  The Rev. Anthony Mercieca told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that he was naked with Foley in a sauna, and was quoted in other interviews saying he also fondled him.  Mercieca told the AP that the encounters weren't sexual; a distinction abuse experts found disturbing.

The priest told the Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune that he and Foley "loved each other like brothers" and that although he taught Foley "some wrong things" related to sex, Mercieca insisted their interactions were innocent.  "It was just fondling," he told WPTV of West Palm Beach, Fla.  From the perspective of people who have worked with abusers and their victims, that thinking is typical of a molester.  Offenders, who are sexually immature, commonly view their involvement with their victims as normal and are baffled when others see things differently.

The Maltese diocese of Gozo said it was opening its own investigation of the priest.  http://abcnews.go.com  A statement from the diocese of Gozo, a small Mediterranean island off Malta, said that its bishop, Mario Grech, contacted the Archdiocese of Miami on Thursday evening seeking further information about the case.  The statement, issued late Thursday, said the diocese had learnt of the case for the first time in the international press.

Meanwhile, after interviewing some 40 former congressional pages, FBI agents have yet to turn up any evidence of direct sexual contact between underage pages and former Congressman Mark Foley.  http://blogs.abcnews.com Instead, according to law enforcement officials and several former pages, a pattern is emerging of seduction by Foley that began when the boys were 16 and 17.  In cases where actual sex followed, it was not until the boys were at the legal age of 18.

The age of consent in Florida is 18, but it is only 16 in the District of Columbia.  Child advocates believe one way pages could be better protected would be to raise the age of consent in the District of Columbia to 18.

In other news...  
A neighborhood group is warning members that the man who was briefly a suspect in the slaying of JonBenet Ramsey is now living in the community with his father.  http://hosted.ap.org  The Chastain Park Civic Association sent an e-mail Thursday to its 2,000 member homeowners announcing that John Mark Karr had moved into his father's home in the well-to-do Atlanta neighborhood where houses sell for more than $600,000.  The e-mail noted that Wex Karr's house is about three blocks from a playground.

The woman at the center of a criminal case involving polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs was 14 when forced into a marriage with her first cousin, a source close to the case said Friday.  http://hosted.ap.org  At Jeffs' direction, in 2001 she was married despite her objections to the cousin, who was older than 18, the source told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to protect the woman's identity.

The City of Philadelphia's human services commissioner resigned and one of her top deputies was fired amid reports that at least 20 children died of abuse or neglect under the agency's watch.  http://hosted.ap.org  "Children are dying and we're concerned about it," Mayor John Street said Friday.  "We hold this department and ourselves to a high standard."

Police in Arizona have arrested a Perry County, Pennsylvania man who was wanted for more than 250 sexual assaults.  http://www.wgal.com  Pennsylvania State Police said Clair James Smith, 56, was arrested Saturday morning in Holbrook, Arizona.  Smith is accused of luring four teenage boys into his home with money and drugs then sexually abusing them.

A New Jersey Bible camp counselor and a Boy Scout leader from Texas were among 125 people arrested nationwide in an Internet child pornography case in which subscribers purchased photos and videos of children engaged in sex acts with adults, federal authorities said.  http://cbs11tv.com  The case originated in New Jersey, but quickly spread to 22 states.  The defendants were charged with either possession or receipt of child pornography.  Additional arrests are expected.  Prosecutors said that the Web site alerted subscribers that its content was illegal and urged them to be discreet about their purchases.  "When I say `hard-core' pornography, I am talking about child pornography that includes images of children as young as six months involved in bondage and sodomy," U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie said.  "This type of depraved conduct is something a civilized society cannot tolerate."  http://hosted.ap.org


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