I think the first arrest should be the parents! I'm talking about the

[patricia92243]

young man who is testifying before the senate about child porn on the internet. He said he had a web-cam in his bedroom that led to him starting to be in porn photos - WHEN HE WAS 13 YEARS OLD. Some of the news people are going on about more of his "clients" should be arrested - which is correct - but WHERE WERE HIS PARENTS?

I have a cheap little computer, but it still has controls on it so that no child should be exposed to porn if the parents are even half way doing what they should.

My rant!

[rusty charly]

1. not buying his "victim" routine, either

[malaise]

10. The kid may not have known what he was

getting into but he sure enjoyed the money. The mother must have known that money was coming from somewhere.

[Blue_In_AK]

33. I agree...

They're trying to make out like the mom was checking up on him and he was finding ways around her surveillance, but how in the hell could she not notice that he was making thousands and thousands of dollars? I'm not buying it. Something about this entire story bothers me.

[philosophie_en_rose]

2. 13 year olds can be very savvy.

I have a cousin who entered every number between 1111 and 9999 to find the code to unlock access to on demand (including porn) on the cable box. I'm sure that a kid could find a way to do what they want on the internet.

Doesn't excuse the parents, at all. However, there is a way around any security measure.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

7. Maybe one of the best security measures

would be to make sure a 13 year old isn't spending all his time online. Exercise, be it sports or simply taking a hike with a parent or mentor would be a healthy way of spending time.

[philosophie_en_rose]

20. True. But in two-parent households it can be tough.

This kid's case was extreme. I can't imagine parents not knowing anything at all about a child's internet porn activities or that they wouldn't suspect a 13 year old of accessing porn.

While I think most parents would suspect a 13 year old of looking up porn, I don't know that they would know to suspect the kid was transmitting naked pictures. :shrug:

The key in this case is that the parents (or at least the dad) DID have actual knowledge, and knowingly facilitated child porn. So much worse than little Johnny looking at boobies on the internet.

[bigwillq]

17. LOL!

I tried that was on my old DVD player, which I got rid of about 2 months ago.
I wanted to watch this new porn I had bought and it said that the parental control lock was on and it wouldn't let me watch it.

Anyway, it asked for the password and I didn't know it. I never remember even setting the password and I had thrown away the owner's manual soon after I bought the DVD player.

So i tried to input every possible number but it took me so long to do that, I eventually said "screw it"


Long story short---Yes, kids can find a way to get into any kind of trouble.

[proud2BlibKansan]

27. My son had a friend whose parents put a lock on their entertainment center

So the kids couldn't watch a thing or play any video games unless the parents unlocked the cabinet.

I thought that was a brilliant idea.

[proud2BlibKansan]

23. One of my kids was like that

And we watched him like a hawk. We locked up stuff - like the video game controllers and the TV remote control.

We kept telling ourselves we were smarter than he was. And we were.

It was pain but it was worth it. He is grown up now and a great kid.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. I was wondering where his parents were as well

I never had my own children, but my boss and my co-worker both have boys who are around 13. Both dads know what their kid is doing-and it isn't porn on the internet. It's sports and hunting and fishing. And they know because they are there to be with their kid, either cheering from the bleachers or sharing a deer stand or a fishing boat.

[pitohui]

4. if i couldn't pull the wool over my parents' eyes at 13

i would not have considered myself to deserve the title of teen-ager

my parents had no idea of my sex life as a teen and that's as it should be, parents need to be sheltered from information that serves no purpose except to make them freak out

porn kid sounds like he knew exactly what he was doing

[cali]

5. Certainly true of the father

who wasn't living with him at the time but cashed in on his son when he was a little older by whoring him out, less clear about mom. Really, I wish everyone would read the NYT story that started the whole thing several months ago. It's an incredibly long and thorough investigative piece, and I don't believe anyone can grasp the situation unless they've read it. The kid was a computer whiz who had his own legit business at 13. Anyway, read the article.

[LisaL]

8. His business wasn't exactly legit, considering child porn is

illegal.

[LisaL]

6. Where are his parents? Well, for one, his father was supposedly

making money off his son.

[leftchick]

9. I totally agree with you

The parents are negligent and should be prosecuted for letting their child Make Porn!

[cali]

11. Everyone's forming an opinion

with very little information. At least read the NYT investigative piece that uncovered this story so that you understand it. Yes, his father is a total scumbag who exploited his son, but he wasn't living with the child when this started, and his mother should not be arrested. The article is an amazing piece of investigative journalism, pages and pages long. Well worth reading.

[leftchick]

12. I formed my opinion

after reading a lot of information. Duh! Who knew there were other sources of information other than my tv???

I stand by my statement. :eyes:

[cali]

14. With all due respect

unless you read the NYT article, you don't have the full story.

[leftchick]

18. with all due respect

I did. Along with several other reports from several other publications. Perhaps you do not have the full story?

[sproutster]

15. Thanks Cali - I saw Oprah which had the boy and the investigator

People are also under the impression this kid was busted. He wasn't. He had freinds that died.

[sproutster]

13. He did it in his bedroom.

His mother was stupid but not culpable. She bought her son a "toy."

He ran away when his friends found out about his porn site. He ran to his father and came clean. His father said "well how can I help you make more money?"

[TheWebHead]

16. I gotta say

This person talking on Larry King, Oprah, and in front of congress about making $50 for taking off his shirt in front of a web cam using paypal is not a way to prevent this from happening. Kids are seeking easy money more than anyone because school and social obligations prevent them from earning any money through work. And they have a need for money because of fashion, friends, drugs, and alcohol.

They see this kid all over the TV talking about making what appears to be $100k+, while not having to expose themselves to criminal prosecution as would be the case selling drugs or burglary, since they would be considered rightfully a victim in this case, seems to be telling kids who would otherwise not think about it doing this what kind of money could be made.

To me, it would be like this kid going to the media and congress to discuss bomb making while offering instructions at every appearance.

[Fleshdancer]

19. My kid is going to hate me when she's 13 but I don't care.

My husband and I have no desire to put a computer, television or telephone in our daughter's room. Ever. Yes she will have access to all three but not behind a closed door for hours at a time. We believe in only having one television (living room) and computers belong in the home office area. I just don't understand this warped mentality that kids must be given everything they want anytime they want it.

:shrug:

[proud2BlibKansan]

26. You are a smart parent

We didn't let our kids have their own TVs until they were much older than 13. And we didn't hook them up to cable.

Another thing we did that I strongly recommend is that the TV did not come on in the morning when we were getting ready for school. So my kids didn't zone out on cartoons or video games first thing in the morning. It was a sacrifice for me since I am a news hound and missed my morning TV. But I didn't want my kids to get into the habit of watching mindless TV before going to school. I am a teacher and watching cartoons just doesn't strike me as a good way to start your day.

My sister had no TV at all for most of the years her kids were growing up. They would come over to my house and become mesmerized by TV. It was funny but creepy too.

[Fleshdancer]

30. That's a good idea about no tv in the morning

Did you limit the amount of tv your kids could watch? Our daughter is barely 6 yrs old so her tv time is extremely limited but I wonder what other parents do when their kids get older.

As for the computer, our daughter will be told all the time that she has no privacy on it. The computer that she can use will belong to the entire family and there will be no such thing as secret files, downloads, sites, instant messaging, etc. I expect her to fight me on it when she's older, but again, I just don't care. It sounds cold but it's the truth. I want to be her parent, not her friend.

[proud2BlibKansan]

32. TV wasn't really a problem

One of my kids didn't watch much TV at all until he got to be a teenager and got into sports. Now he is 27 and watches ESPN but not much of anything else. The other one would have lived in front of the TV if we let him but he learned to enjoy other pastimes. LOL

We always made sure to watch TV with them. I just refused to use it as a babysitter. We were also lucky in that we lived in an area that had no cable TV. So we didn't have to deal with HBO and porn. We sure watched a lot of PBS. We also had a good friend who had cable and he would tape shows we really wanted to see.

[Malikshah]

31. I never hated my parents--don't worry

We were allowed 2 hrs of TV a week growing up. (70s 80s)
No computer. No cable. No Atari.

The excuse that they need it for school work, etc.-- doesn't wash. Computers/TVs can be in the open house.

[stillcool]

21. Ah Abuse....an issue that's near and dear...

to my heart. As a survivor, the cycle of abuse is familiar. There is plain old neglect, then the abuse w/ neglect, and then the traumatic stuff. And it was all taught and it was all learned. You take your basic humanoid and subject it to a bunch of un-earthly shit, and what you get isn't pretty. Until society decides that people are more important than profits, people are going to be in piss-poor shape, doing piss-poor things, for lack of experiencing another way. And to this argument, there is always one that says..."What about John Doe? He had it bad and look where he is today". And to that my answer is John Doe is one very lucky son of a bitch, and he MUST have had someone who valued his life in his formative years. The mom, the dad, and the kid....all victims...all criminals.

[proud2BlibKansan]

22. I wondered about the parents too

Who in their right mind would let a 13 year old have a web cam???

[sproutster]

24. Someone who's mind is not in the gutter...

[apollo56]

25. The kid almost upstaged Bush for lies

[emdee]

28. I think I heard him say

that his dad had paid for some of the prostitutes that he slept with in front of the webcam. If that's true, his dad should definitely be rounded up.
emdee

[sproutster]

29. "These kids are the ones being manipulative,"

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/19/national/19kids.ready.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5090&en=aea51b3919b2361a&ex=1292648400&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
<snip>
Not long ago, adults sexually attracted to children were largely isolated from one another. But the Internet has created a virtual community where they can readily communicate and reinforce their feelings, experts said. Indeed, the messages they send among themselves provide not only self-justification, but also often blame minors with Webcam sites for offering temptation.

"These kids are the ones being manipulative," wrote an adult who called himself Upandc in a posting this year to a bulletin board for adults attracted to children.

Or, as an adult who called himself DLW wrote: "Did a sexual predator MAKE them make a site? No. Did they decide to do it for themselves? Yes."

---Sound familiar??