Pedophilic Paranoia? (part 1)

[Pangloss62]

A Web of Deception

The booklet — recently circulated through a Web site for pedophiles — had been written, it said, “for any boy who is old enough to be able to read it.”

Called “Straight Talk for Boys,” it is an 18-page discussion of sex, particularly between children and adults, from the pedophiles’ viewpoint. Such encounters are depicted as harmless, even beneficial. The document criticizes parents and therapists. And it encourages boys to wear Speedo bathing suits and shower naked in public places.

But it repeatedly returns to one message: boys should never tell about sex with adults. “Older boys and men may be frightened about getting caught having sex play with you, because they can be put in jail,” it says. “So you have to think of ways to ‘signal’ your interest in another person without openly saying what you want,” adding that “nobody else can know about what you agree to do.”

The booklet comes with instructions, advising pedophiles on how to distribute it. “The best and safest way is to leave quantities of the booklet in places where boys in the 8 to 14 range can find them, and where adults will not discover them too quickly,” the instructions read. “Obviously, you don’t want to be observed placing the booklets in your chosen locations.”

The booklet reflects how pedophiles can use the Internet to advance their interests in the real world. Like many of those efforts, this one involved deception: the booklet does not reveal, for example, that it has been written and distributed by men who are sexually attracted to children, but instead portrays itself as objective fact.

Using deception to gain access to children is a recurring theme. For example, on a site for adults attracted to boys, someone calling himself Vespucci asked in June whether a single man could become a foster father. The respondents cautioned Vespucci to disguise his pedophilia.

“You better have a darned good excuse why you never married, such as your fiancée died in a car wreck,” replied a man calling himself simply “d.” “I highly recommend you date women for several years and keep at least a couple of those relationships going for at least a couple of months. Around the women, make a point of being nice to children.”

The deception would be worthwhile, d wrote. “It will help out in the reference-check dept. when you apply.”

Pointers on ways to get close to children were frequent topics. One man posted an Internet “help wanted” advertisement from a single mother seeking an overnight baby sitter for her 4-year-old daughter; another recommended shopping at weekend estate sales, since plenty of bored minors showed up accompanying inattentive parents.

Some participants in these conversations claimed to have established charitable efforts that put them in contact with children. For example, an organization called BL Charity said it was seeking money to send Eastern European children to camp.

The charity’s site, which recently closed, showed scores of images of children at camp and in their homes, supposedly taken by the men running the site. The effort was organized by pedophiles; BL is the online term for “boy-lover.” It eventually shut down, largely from a lack of money, according to a posting from the site’s operators. After the site closed, further details of BL Charity could not be learned. Not every organization and effort of the pedophiles is directly tied to trying to reach children. For example, pedophiles have created Internet radio stations for the purpose of providing support for one another and encouraging their perceived social movement.

It is not known how many such stations exist, nor the size of the audience. The most prominent station appears to be Sure Quality Radio, which on its home page proclaims, “From all levels of society you will find us, not as predators but as human beings, loving and caring for boys or girls or both.” The site has a program schedule and an online store selling mainstream music and movies featuring children.

People who work with Sure Quality Radio did not respond to questions e-mailed to them from The Times, although one person with the online name of boystory replied by saying he was immediately severing all ties with the station.

There are also online podcasts, recorded talk shows of 60 to 90 minutes featuring discussions among pedophiles. The discussions, as described online, deal with topics like “benefits of age difference in sexual relationships”; “failure of sex offender registries”; “children’s sexual autonomy, practices and consequences” and “the misrepresentation of pedophilia in the news media.”

With the chat rooms, radio stations and other organizations, pedophiles’ views are continually reinforced. But some realize that this online echo chamber can warp reality. For example, a man calling himself AtosW reported to fellow pedophiles that he had been chatting on a game site frequented by boys. A conversation began about the Dutch pedophile party, AtosW said, and the minors reacted with threats of violence.

AtosW was perplexed. “Why are posters THAT young so angry about it?” he asked. “It is after all THEIR rights that they are pushing for.”

A man calling himself Ritter responded. “Your post is a typical example of what happens when you spend too much time in the online BL community,” he wrote. “Believe it or not, most young children are NOT anxious to have sex with adult men.”

[glatt]

The great thing about the internet is that it can bring like-minded people together into a community.

The terrible thing about the internet is that it can bring like-minded people together into a community.

[Pangloss62]

That's so true, glatt. It's all so paradoxical.

Maybe that's what W. meant when he referred to the "internets."

[Stormieweather]

Those people are absolutely, totally, sick.

I trust no one. I regularly search the online site for any pedophiles living nearby. There happens to be one about 6 blocks away and all my children have been shown his picture and home and told to STAY AWAY. I don't leave my children with babysitters (not even family). They are not allowed to go into neighbor's or their friend's homes unless I give explicit permission.

But even so...there are occasions where a pedophile could possibly have had contact with one of my children. For example, my 10 yr old was granted a scholorship to a local, well known performing arts center for summer dance class. I knew none of the teachers. She was there for 7 hours a day. Their friend's parents or older siblings may 'seem' ok to me, but a determined pedophile will hide his/her perversion well under a mask of normality. Years ago, one of my son's elementary school teachers was arrested for child pornography. Apparently the school did not do a thorough enough background check as he had been fired for the same thing in another state.

The scary truth is that a parent can never be 100% certain that the person they are entrusting their child to is trustworthy. And all it takes is a moment to destroy a child. Even a child that is taught to fight or 'tell' will be forever damaged once molested (or an attempt is made to molest).

Let me tell you, if anyone ever touches one of my children, they will forever regret it (and not just from the comfort of a prison cell).

Stormie

[Pangloss62]

That's really sad, stormi. I was just talking to my brother the other day about how we esentially had a carte blanche when we came home from school. We could, and pretty much did, go anywhere, just as long we were home in time for dinner. We even hung out at some creepy guy's house who invited us in for ice cream...yeah, he probably was a pedophile, but he never "did" anything with us other than talk. I suppose we were lucky. I don't know how restrictive I would be if I had any kids.

One problem with the registries is related to how they define "sexual offender." Here in GA, that includes presently married couples in their 20s with kids who got "together" at a very young age. Their "offense" was having underage sex.

[9th Engineer]

The problem is that they seem to be hiring better and better PR firms, and the attitude is largly live-and-lt-live because of all the years of being told everything devient is just a lifestyle. Expect to see more and more people swayed by their argument in places like Holland, and definately expect to see it exported here soon afterward.

[Pangloss62]

But as a parent, I don't want any predators near my kids.

What about people with lots of DUIs or convictions for assault? I wouldn't want pedos near my kids (if I had them) either, but recidivism is not limited to that group. I'm not trying to "define deviancy down," but the pedos who served their time are being singled out for the nature of their crime when others are not.

There's gotta be a good drug that will make them sexually inert.

[9th Engineer]

Well, they are being singled out in the same way that anyone who commits such a grotesque crime will always be, doing the time doesn't change the person. The difference we see in the treatment between someone who rapes an 8 year old boy and someone who tortures someone to death is that the torturer isn't let back out on the street after a few years. Personally I don't care how much time someone did, your actions show who you are and nothing can change that.

[Stormieweather]

The biggest difference I see between common_criminal_A and pedophiles is that many times common criminals can be rehabilitated.

I'm by no means an expert, but everything I've read said that child molestors have almost no possibility of gaining control over their problem. All the therapy and medication in the world can't stop their attraction to small, undeveloped bodies and in many cases, once they've acted on the attraction they are unable to control themselves in the future.

On the other hand, I also know that some people labeled as 'sex offenders' are not typical child molestors. I personally know one young man who turned 18 and continued to have sex with his 15 yr old girlfriend. GF's mother had him prosecuted for statutory rape and he was convicted. He is now a registered sex offender for the rest of his life. Obviously he doesn't fit in with the group I described in the above paragraph.

Stormie