By Terry Vanderheyden
WASHINGTON, April 5, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A teen victim told his story of being lured into posing for pedophiles on line before a US Congress House panel Tuesday.
Justin Berry, now 19, started posing for pedophiles on line and was eventually paid for it at the age of 13. He told the panel he was lured into the pornography trade by pedophiles who gained his trust. “At 13, I believed these people were my friends,” he said, as reported by the Associated Press. “They were kind. They complimented me. They wanted to know about my day.”
Berry said he went on line to meet friends after his parents divorced and he was lonely. Within “minutes” of posting his photo on a website called Spotlife.com, Berry received an instant message from an adult. A few weeks later, “everything changed,” he said, when a man offered him $50 to remove his shirt in front of his web cam. He carried on his online pornography business for five years before finally turning over a list of 1,500 contacts to federal authorities.
Within only a few years, child pornography has become a multi-billion dollar commercial enterprise, and is among the fastest growing businesses on the Internet. Through the use of digital and web cameras, child pornography has become easier and less expensive to produce. Distribution on the Internet has facilitated instant access by thousands and possibly millions of individuals throughout the world. The ability to use credit cards to purchase child pornography has made it easier than ever to obtain.
Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra told the panel that the unit investigating Berry’s list has seen a 450% increase in work load in the last four years.
“The ease and anonymity of using home computers has revolutionized accessibility as well as the production and distribution of child pornography, especially across international borders,” said Ernie Allen, President and CEO, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC).
“The fact that child pornography can be purchased using a credit card, or traded at no cost on the Internet, is causing an exploding global problem and an immeasurable impact on the sexual exploitation of children.”
NCMEC’s congressionally mandated CyberTipline received 21,603 reports of child pornography in 2001, and in 2004 it received 106,176 reports—a 491% increase over a four-year period.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
9 Canadians, 13 Americans Busted in ‘Worst Imaginable’ Child Porn Ring
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06031603.html