NEWS ABOUT: child pornography
child pornography stories: 53 news briefs
Washington Post Jun 18, 09 3:44 PM CDT
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Police discovered child pornography on a computer during a search of the home of suspected Holocaust Museum gunman James von Brunn, the Washington Post reports. FBI agents would not detail the amount or type of material discovered in the 88-year-old's Annapolis apartment. They also found a rifle, a handwritten will, and what seems to be a painting of Hitler and Jesus.
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Guardian (UK) Jun 12, 09 3:33 AM CDT
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Shouting parents pounded on and hurled bottles at a van carrying a British daycare teacher charged with distributing child porn, reports the Guardian . Photos found in Vanessa George's home showed children as young as infants being sexually assaulted, according to law enforcement authorities. Parents lined up for hours to confront the teacher at a court appearance. They shouted as the van later rushed her from the courthouse, then ran down the street to attack the vehicle. Two men were arrested in the attack.
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MSNBC Jun 5, 09 12:46 PM CDT
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The FTC has taken the rare step of shutting down an Internet Service Provider that it says was a haven for child pornography and malware run by Eastern European criminals, MSNBC reports. The case gives "a rare glimpse into the seediest parts of the web," writes Bob Sullivan. Authorities found 700 reports of child porn hosted on the servers of 3FN.net, an ISP ostensibly based in Oregon. The FTC believe it is actually controlled from Ukraine and Estonia.
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Stalkers, potential employers may have access to photos years later
Reuters May 4, 09 6:00 AM CDT
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The critical problem with sexting is that salacious snaps teens send of themselves from their cell phones can exist forever in cyberspace. That's the message Australian authorities are stressing in a new educational anti-sexting campaign. Nude pictures sent in fun could end up being posted on the Internet by sexual predators years later or could scuttle job prospects if spotted online by potential employers, reports Reuters.
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Team with ACLU, sue DA over teens' felony child-porn cases
Wall Street Journal Apr 21, 09 9:09 AM CDT
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A Pennsylvania district attorney is trying to snuff out “sexting” by threatening felony child-pornography charges for teens who have taken, appeared in, or sent naughty pictures, the Wall Street Journal reports. But while many capitulated, the parents of three others have teamed with the ACLU to sue George Skumanick instead, saying he’s violated freedom-of-expression laws.
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Bill moving through legislature to legalize sexually explicit teen communications
Burlington Free Press Apr 14, 09 10:45 AM CDT
(Newser Summary) -
Vermont’s state government is in an awkward position. Current law has the state prosecuting teens who send sexually explicit pictures of themselves to each other—sexting—as sex offenders. The state Senate has passed a bill to exempt an exchange of images between people between 13 and 18 years old from classification as child pornography, reports the Burlington Free Press , and the state House will take up the bill this week.
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'Internet cowboys and cowgirls' twist results
of online surveys
Wall Street Journal Apr 8, 09 10:05 AM CDT
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One in five teenagers have shared naughty pictures of themselves over the phone or online—at least according to reports of the “sexting epidemic” that’s been causing hysteria lately. But the figure might be bogus, the Wall Street Journal reports, because it’s based on a voluntary online survey. “These kinds of samples select Internet cowboys and cowgirls,” said a researcher.
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14-year-old may have to register as sex offender
WPIX11 Mar 27, 09 3:54 AM CDT
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A 14-year-old New Jersey girl has been charged with possessing and distributing child porn for posting nude photos of herself on her MySpace web pages, reports WPIX-TV. If convicted, the girl may have to register as a sex offender. The case highlights increasing problems with children posting or texting racy images of themselves. "This is a wake-up call for parents," said an official. "The girl posted the photos because she wanted her boyfriend to see them."
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Toddlers identifiable in controversial Street View map feature
Independent (UK) Mar 22, 09 8:49 AM CDT
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As mounting privacy concerns hit Google's new Street View service in the UK, the company has removed pictures of naked children playing outdoors in London. The British government is considering launching an investigation if officials determine that Google has made other images of naked children available to internet users, reports the Independent . Google removed pictures of the toddlers after being informed of them by reporters who spotted the children after just 10 minutes of searching.
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Busted weeks after
Fox News producer
in similar case
The Smoking Gun Feb 27, 09 8:58 AM CST
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Looks like kiddie porn is a bipartisan offense: just 2 weeks after a Fox News producer was arrested on child porn charges, a former NPR editor has been nabbed over the stuff, the Smoking Gun reports. David Malakoff, who worked in DC, is named in a felony criminal document charging that he possessed the illegal material between April and June of last year, at his NPR office. The onetime science editor and on-air correspondent resigned in June.
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Gawker Feb 24, 09 11:39 AM CST
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If you ever wanted Aaron Bruns, the Fox News producer busted earlier this month on child porn charges, to demonstrate sexual positions for you, you’re in luck. It seems Bruns posed naked for The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Supercharged Kama Sutra Illustrated . “Someone had to pay Bruns, in other words, to get naked with an adult woman,” quips Gawker.
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OPINION
Slate Feb 17, 09 3:47 PM CST
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The recent—or recently discovered—“sexting” epidemic has produced a reasoned response from educators, and a wild overreaction from police,” Dahlia Lithwick writes on Slate. “Schools are enacting what amounts to a don't-ask-don't-tell policy” on teenagers sending out naked pictures of themselves, and others, she writes. But cops are hauling in high-schoolers on child pornography charges. “Cyber-humiliation shouldn't be grounds for a very real and possibly lifelong criminal record.”
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Cops find images of under-10s being abused on newsman's computer
The Smoking Gun Feb 11, 09 1:48 AM CST
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A Fox News producer faces child porn charges after federal agents discovered photos and videos on his computer depicting children as young as 5 being sexually abused, the Smoking Gun reports. Aaron Bruns, 29, who covered Hillary Clinton's campaign for the network, was sentenced to three years probation in 1999 after police found thousands of pornographic images of children on his computer.
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Wis. native posed as girl, then blackmailed male students
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Feb 5, 09 11:21 AM CST
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A Wisconsin teen has been arrested for allegedly using Facebook to sexually blackmail male students at his former high school. Anthony Stancl, 18, solicited naked photos of at least 31 boys by pretending to be female. He then forced at least seven, all underage, to perform sexual favors to keep the pictures from being distributed at school, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel .
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Nude photos shared by phone could make senders sex offenders
WPXI Pittsburgh Jan 16, 09 11:20 AM CST
(Newser Summary) -
Pennsylvania teens are in trouble over child-porn photos—of themselves. Three girls who took the pictures, and three boys who got them via cell phone, have been charged, Pittsburgh’s WPXI-TV reports. A student was caught with one of the phones in school in October, prompting a police investigation. But the charges violate the spirit of state child-pornography laws, says an attorney.
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Abusers targeted victims as young as 12 months old
BBC Dec 11, 08 4:42 AM CST
(Newser Summary) -
Australian authorities have busted 19 men, including a retired cop, in a 70-nation kiddie porn ring that distributed at least 500,000 images and 15,000 videos of youngsters, reports the BBC. Some of the abuse victims were as young as 12 months old and some children were abused for as long as two hours at a time, said investigators, who termed the abuse among the worst they've seen. Victims appeared to be from Eastern Europe and North and South America.
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And 1 in 3 say they've received such photos
Boston Globe Dec 10, 08 11:24 AM CST
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A New Hampshire teen suspended from school last week for sending a racy photo via cell phone wasn’t the first, the Boston Globe reports—and won’t be the last: One in five teens has uploaded a compromising image, and nearly one in three has received a half-naked or nude shot, a new online survey shows.
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ANALYSIS
HP yanks tune by pedophile Gary Glitter
Advertising Age Oct 31, 08 3:49 PM CDT
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HP's decision to change an ad because it featured a song by convicted child molester Gary Glitter has Charlie Moran in Advertising Age wondering about how far we should go in drawing the line between the artist and his art. The ad for the TouchSmart PC drew complaints because it used Joan Jett’s 1982 cover of “Do You Want to Touch Me,” which was written by Glitter.
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Chicago Tribune Oct 22, 08 1:49 PM CDT
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A 25-year-old Chicago stockbroker was sentenced yesterday to 35 years in prison for soliciting sex from minors on Facebook, the Tribune reports. Facebook said this appears to be the first case of a sexual predator using the social networking site. Michael Macalindong posed as a girl to lure a teenage boy, and then blackmailed the teen with video of their encounters.
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Young people seek instant fame through sending sexual images of themselves
ABC News Oct 15, 08 1:38 PM CDT
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Young people like the Ohio teen facing child porn charges for sending nude photos of herself to classmates are often clueless as to the consequences of their actions, experts tell ABC News. Heavily influenced by a culture in which porn is readily available and increasingly acceptable, some teens seek a quick 15 minutes of fame—no matter what the long-term damage.
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