From: craig@passport.ca (Craig Hubley)
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 95 02:51:09 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Tabloid TV coverage of pedophiles using BBS - with feedback #s
Message-ID: <m0rYXEE-0002H6C@forged.passport.ca>
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On TV as I am hacking here, is some Tabloid Trash called
"The Crusaders",  which I would have definitely flipped off
once the late movie was over, if it hadn't been for these
'intriguing' sound bites they ran:

"Your children may fall victim to pedophiles in the safety of
 their own bedroom!  And the Crusaders are out to stop them..."

"The newest high tech scheme sex offenders use on your children,
 and how you can stop it!  Child molestors on your home computer!"

I am staying tuned through stories on adoption reunions and nursing 
home neglect, just to see how to protect my children...

(20 min. later)

They show a lot of kids using computers, then modems and BBS systems.
They mentioned the usefulness of nets for 'homework' and games, but:

"We recently tapped into a bulletin board containing hordes of files,
 from lingerie shots to shocking pictures... that show anything goes."

"10% of the adult population on the boards are looking to solicit children,
 says a police chief in (Amish country in PA)."

From there I expected a lot worse, but actually it got a whole lot better:

"Talk to your kids, and don't use the computer as a babysitter... parents
 need to know there are dangerous people out there..."

An FBI expert said that the 'best way' to combat pedophiles was to educate
police how computers work, and second to make people aware without implying
that a computer is a bad thing.  He said he thought teenagers would seek
out sexually explicit material and that current 'protections' (e.g. warnings
on explicit files) were inadequate.  [What this had to do with pedophilia he
didn't say.  All the kids interviewed had been solicited on other premises...
e.g. one had been lured to a pedophile's home to install a non-existent net.
It seems that none of the pedophiles had lured kids with sexual materials
but no point was made of this.  They indirectly implied a relationship.]

Other advice offered was to keep kids from offering personal information on
the BBSs, and to accompany your child the first time they go to meet someone
they met on a BBS.

There was no brainless advocacy of censorship, nor a call to ban anoynimity
(although the police chief in PA said he thought pedophiles were 'emboldened'
by the 'anonymous computer environment' which is probably more or less true),
even though they talked directly to one (male) kid who'd actually been raped.
This was exploitative, but it was also real, and it was just stark enough to
make the point.  No hysteria, the kid was calm.  This was the kid who had
been lured to install the net.

Given that they actually gave practical advice that might actually work and
was not generally hysterical, it was about as good as one might expect.  They
fell short of saying that the pedophilia was isolated and unrelated to most
of the graphic material on the boards.  The "10%" was the only number they
offered. Apparently they could find only 2 convictions for BBS-related pedo-
philia in the US.  

Actually it seemed to me that the most objectionable things was this crazy
10% estimate, which might mean 10% of the adults on purely porn-oriented BBS
sites, but it was left implied that 10% of *all* adult BBS/network users were
trying to lure children into sexual situations!

After that the most objectionable thing was the hysterical tag lines which
are mandatory on Tabloid TV.  They didn't seem to be written by the reporter.

Reporter's name was Howard Thompson, editor was Ralph Herman
Fax number for the show is 818-841-6500.

Transcripts of the show are available for $6 at 1-800-777-T-E-X-T (Burrelle)

Craig