The Child Protection eNewsletter

Pedophile website “Sugar and Spice” targets young girls…

Sugar and Spice is specifically designed to look like a child's Web site, but the site is run by Lindsay Ashford, an American who talked to ABC News by telephone from his home in the Netherlands. http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/ He says he set up his site to attract and "teach [young girls] about having a romantic relationship with adults." He says he has never had a physical relationship with children.

Like many Web sites set up by pedophiles, it has been operating in a gray area of cyber law, but could be in violation of the Child Online Privacy Protection Act of 2003, according to cyber law experts consulted by ABC News. Ashford maintains he has not broken the law. "If society wants us to abide by its laws, it has an obligation to provide us with a safe outlet where we can discuss our feelings without fear of being ostracized," he said.

But free speech arguments often fall on deaf ears in an American culture unsympathetic to pedophilia and constantly searching for legal ammunition and legislative loopholes to combat it. Pedophile and "girllover" Web site hosts like Ashford know how to walk the line between constitutionally protected free speech and illegal child exploitation, experts say.

On his site, Ashford details how young girls can get intimately involved with adults. "A girl and a loving adult can form a very special bond, as the adult provides experience and knowledge, and the girl provides a fresh way of seeing the world and her excitement for life. … Girllovers usually show young girls … that they love them in many different ways," he says on his site.

"Because so many people think that these relationships are bad, it is not always possible to be really open about these relationships," he says on his site.

In one of the sections, Ashford lists U.S. state-by-state "ages of consent" for children to legally have sex with adults, in case, as he puts it, "you are wondering how old you have to be to touch your special friend without either of you getting into trouble." Although no formal charges have been brought against Ashford, law enforcement officials said that they have been monitoring him closely.

Some Internet law experts suggested that people like Ashford are effectively providing a service to pedophiles, doing the research for them and explaining how to have sex with a young person without violating the law.

But, pedophile Web hosts who specifically attract young visitors could be prosecuted under some relatively recent cyber laws, said Internet lawyer Parry Aftab, who founded Wiredsafety.org, the world's largest online safety and help group.

"While free speech laws protect what pedophiles might say online, some of these sites may be running afoul of COPPA [Child Online Privacy Protection Act] violations if they ask kids under the age of 13 to communicate with them or solicit information from them," she said. Aftab is training a coalition of concerned mothers called Wiredmoms that will help in her efforts to combat child exploitation online.

French commandos free 12-year-old abducted by cult…

Sixteen members of a religious cult — including a leading fugitive — were in custody on an Indian Ocean island Monday after French commandos stormed their compound and rescued a boy they allegedly kidnapped. http://www.foxnews.com/ Among those arrested was the believed head of the group, Julien Verbard, a 25-year-old who was convicted in absentia of raping two boys but had evaded police on the French island of La Reunion for three years.

Police say the cult considered 12-year-old Alexandre Thelahine a "new messiah" and abductors seized him from his parents' residence in Saint-Denis de la Reunion. They escaped by car before abandoning it and switching to another vehicle. The child was kept in a house rented by the cult, called Mary's Painful and Immaculate Heart, in the southern part of La Reunion, a popular vacation destination for tourists from the French mainland.

On Sunday, agents from the elite GIGN police force stormed the compound near the Piton-de-la-Fournaise volcano. Four hours later, police said they had rescued the boy and arrested the cult members "without incident." Verbard faces potential charges of child abduction by an organized crime group.

The boy had been kidnapped once before, on July 9, and was found the next day. A believed member of the sect was arrested in that case. "He is doing fine," his mother, Catherine, said Monday. She added that he had not been abused physically or sexually, but understood "those people wanted to harm him."

In other news… 

A self-described pedophile who says he is attracted to young girls but doesn't actually molest them was ordered Friday to stay at least 30 feet away from every person under age 18 in California. Read More The temporary restraining order was issued against Jack McClellan by Superior Court Judge Melvin Sandvig, who also scheduled an August 24 hearing to discuss the matter further. The order was obtained by attorneys Anthony Zinnanti and Richard Patterson, both parents of young children. As soon as Sandvig issued it, Zinnanti raced to Los Angeles International Airport to serve it on McClellan, who had boarded a flight to Chicago for a TV appearance. For years, McClellan maintained a Web site in Washington where he posted photos of children he had taken in public places. He also discussed how he liked to stake out parks, public libraries, fast-food restaurants and other areas where little girls, or "LGs," congregate.

According to new research, there's a genetic reason why some have the gift or curse of retaining emotional memories. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ The research, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, found that those with a certain common genetic variation tend to more readily remember emotionally charged events, for better or for worse. There are specific chemicals in the brain that have the effect of covering up old emotional memories — like a photo that fades with time. But for those with this particular genetic variation, these "images" are preserved, resulting in enhanced emotional memory.

Social networking Web sites such as MySpace.com are increasingly juicy targets for computer hackers, who are demonstrating a pair of vulnerabilities they claim expose sensitive personal information and could be exploited by online criminals. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/ The flaws are being demonstrated this week at the Black Hat and Defcon hacker conferences, which draw thousands of people to Las Vegas each year for five days of training and demonstrations of the latest exploits.

A 7-year-old girl kidnapped by her cousin from a home in Weymouth, Massachusetts was found dead in a stolen SUV after officers pursued the driver in a high-speed chase, Norfolk County district attorney William Keating said. http://www.thebostonchannel.com/ Ryan Bois, 20, who was described by police as homeless, drove away after they pulled him over for speeding on Washington Street in Weymouth early Sunday morning. When police caught up with him, they found the dead body of 7-year-old Joanna Mullin inside.

Three New Mexico sisters who ran away last week in search of their biological mother have been reunited with their adopted family, authorities said. Mercedes Marie Lara-Dickson, 14, Stacy Ellen Lara-Dickson, 13, and Elizabeth Sue Lara-Dickson, 7, fled their adopted home near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico and made their way to Mexico, where they met their biological mother and other relatives, Sergeant Glenn Hamilton of the Sierra County Sheriff's Office told ABC News. http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw Their biological mother, identified by Hamilton as Elizabeth Rodriguez, is under a court order not to have any contact with her children, Hamilton said. After seeing the publicity generated by their disappearance, Rodriguez told her daughters that she could not stay with them for fear of being caught in violation of the court order and sent to prison, Hamilton said. The girls turned themselves in to U.S. border officials and were returned to their adopted family.

*for access to member only sites like the New York Times, use the ID "JohnDoeID" and the password "whatever". On sites asking for an email address, feel free to use "info@childprotectionprogram.org"