OPINION: Pity the children, not the porn fan

August 26, 2008

By KAREN VELIE

Not a lot shocks me anymore. Even so, I am stunned by the number of blog posters and media reporters who worry that people accused of child porn, once convicted, will be unable to get their lives back on track.

The facts, however, suggest that a great percentage of these people have been way off track for a long time and stand little chance of ever changing.

Recent local arrests were preceded by lengthy, intensive investigations, officials said. Former San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Deputy Bryan Goossens and part-time postman Jeremy Neubauer are battling charges of child pornography following a widespread roundup of suspected members of a child pornography ring. A third county man, Bryan Arnold, will be arraigned September 8.

Some people believe that child pornography is mainly about lonely men getting turned on by 16-year old Victoria Secret models who look 25. They think that a quick peek is all that is needed for the authorities to sweep in and make an arrest. The label of sex offender is then forever attached.

Nothing could be farther from the truth, and many investigators in this field believe “the media just doesn’t get it.” Not the severity of the crimes, nor the rapidly expanding frequency.

“We are not talking about someone inadvertently stumbling across a Web site,” said United States Attorney’s Office Public Affairs Officer Thom Mrozek. “People we prosecute are collectors. They have hundreds or thousands of images stored on their computers or CD ROMs. And we are not talking about teenagers in swim suits. We are talking about images of graphic sexual contact.”

Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesperson Virginia Kice said the kind of child pornography that results in prosecution “is about infants and young children being sadistically abused, bondage, and bestiality. Many of these men also act out their fantasies with children.

Though experts don’t agree on the exact percentage of child porn fans who also molest children, the figures are shockingly high. A Mayo Institute study conservatively estimates 76 percent of child porn enthusiasts also take a hands on approach. A 2007 government study reports that 85 percent of men convicted of downloading internet porn admitted to prison psychologists that they also sexually abused children.

One perspective is that exposure to child pornography fuels sexual urges, and that a constant barrage of sadistic images allows these men to feel their urges are not only “normal” but that they somehow “fit in.”

Even so, time and time again, those accused of child porn claim they only glanced at the materials, or were doing it for research purposes.

You have to look no farther than the media outrage at the child porn conviction of San Francisco radio host Bernie Ward. Numerous major newspaper articles lay blame on an “unjust system” for Ward’s impending five to 10 year sentence for actions he claims were research-oriented. The stories fail to mention that he downloaded graphic videos of young children being sadistically abused, and then passed those on to other child porn enthusiasts.

“It’s not about clicking on an image, it is downloading child porn,” Kice added. “A lot of child porn is produced in the United States, but we want to protect children around the globe, wherever a child is being abused.”

In the 80s, acquiring child porn was a dangerous and expensive venture, with the postal service playing watchdog. The Internet has provided an easily accessible — and cheap — venue to a rapidly-morphing child porn industry. Victims are increasingly younger in age, studies show: 91 percent of the victims are under 12, and 80 percent of the victims are female.

With the volume of Internet porn literally doubling every year, this crime has risen to the top of the priority list for many criminal investigators.

Within the past few weeks, apart from the 55 Central and Southern California child porn arrests, a Fresno man was convicted of kidnapping a 12-year-old and making videos of his sexual assaults. And a San Antonio woman advertised her 5-year-old daughter as a “nice piece” in an attempt to trade the child for a car and a new home.

“The demand for these pictures drives the industry,” said FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller “We try to educate the public that it is a serious crime.”

Tags:goossens, Opinion, porn