David Fenton's Second Report on Child Porn on Usenet
©1996, David W. Fenton.
This report may not be copied or reproduced without express
permission of the author, David W. Fenton.
Here is my second report on what I found in monitoring the child porn groups in Usenet.
Subject: Re: CompuServe did the Right Thing.
Newsgroups: alt.censorship,alt.culture.usenet,alt.irc,
alt.online-service.compuserve,alt.politics.libertarian,alt.sex,
alt.society.civil-liberty,soc.culture.german
Followup-To: alt.censorship,alt.culture.usenet,alt.irc,
alt.online-service.compuserve,alt.politics.libertarian,
alt.sex,alt.society.civil-liberty,soc.culture.german
References: <4c23d6$ep3@news.mcn.net> <4c3tk2$qfo@orion.cybercom.net>
<4c3uug$gov@panix2.panix.com> <30e60b44.36076373@news.dnai.com>
<4c530j$mjl@news.cerf.net> <4ccea4$j5t@cmcl2.NYU.EDU>
<30eb62aa.6805759@news.dnai.com> <4cmfg9$864@netnews.upenn.edu>
<4cml8u$9qt@netnews.upenn.edu> <4cmpvg$15i@spectator.cris.com>
<4cn2jg$8ga@netnews.upenn.edu>
<30f30f41.38803304@nntp.ix.netcom.com> <4cvf56$d9@netnews.upenn.edu>
<4d04cg$la@spectator.cris.com> <4d0ebh$h8@netnews.upenn.edu>
<4d2j5g$iot@spectator.cris.com> <4d2upk$aps@netnews.upenn.edu>
<30f7420b.5299997@news.dnai.com> <4dbauq$pf9@netnews.upenn.edu>
<4dn1k2$m98@hustle.rahul.net>
Distribution:
OK. So StarOwl has reported on what he saw and what someone reported to him.
I spent 2.5 hours last night examining _everything_ in the groups most
likely to have child porn. This is my last time, since all of this is
getting really tiresome to me. It is a followup to my initial report
about three weeks ago.
This single time in over three weeks of daily monitoring, I found
examples of children having sex with adults. There were six of them,
all posted by one individual in one batch. The headers were forged, but
there is enough info. in them for the poster's ISP to identify him and
take any action necessary. I'm forwarding them to the administrative
contact. It's up to them, I think, to request that the poster cancel
them.
In fact, it seems to me that this is the answer to what can be done
about this kind of thing -- hold the original poster responsible
through his ISP. For anonymous posts, some mechanism would have to be
worked out, perhaps a threat of investigation from law enforcement
mailed to the anon ID, saying "if you don't cancel these offending and
illegal posts, we will initiate proceedings against you."
I'm not sure what poor old penet.fi should do in response, but perhaps
an accomodation for child porn could be made.
As an important aside on the issue of a "porn industry," I think it's
important to note that all but one of the six pictures were old, B&W
pictures. They appeared to me to be at least 20 years old or so. They
were clearly _not_ produced any time recently. The abused children in
the pictures are probably now adults. I say this not to minimize any
trauma it may have caused them, but to show that the issue of harm is
even more attenuated than our discussion has made it seem.
I would also point out that the volume of pictures found in
alt.sex.pedophilia that I report here was _much_ higher than the norm.
Most days when I checked the group, there were _no_ new pictures
posted. As Lizard said, it's mostly spam and crossposts.
My results follow.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I did my checking from my ISP's news server, new.bway.net, and I
downloaded with WinVN (which is extremely fast). The posts ran from
Jan. 19th to Jan. 25th in their dates, with the earlier ones appearing
mostly to be stragglers (i.e., posts that showed up a few days after
the original posting date). Most were Jan. 21st on.
alt.sex hierarchy groups examined:
---------------------------------
alt.sex.pedophile doesn't exist at this site
alt.sex.pedophilia see below
alt.sex.pedophilia.boys 6 articles
alt.sex.pedophilia.girls 9 articles
*alt.sex.pedophilia.pictures 7 articles
*alt.sex.pedophilia.swaps 4 articles
alt.sex.incest 147 articles; 6 pictures; 1 file
fragment (1 of 5)
This is adult posts, most of which are stories.
alt.sex.intergen 56 articles; 1 picture of man's dick
titled "Looking for mom/daughter to enjoy this. . ."
alt.sex.girl.watchers 42 articles; 15 pictures (from 18
posts)
This a group for adult pictures.
alt.binaries.pictures. hierarchy groups examined:
-------------------------------------------------
alt.binaries.pictures.children 4 articles, 32 pictures (all but 1 from
same person)
group does not exist for sex pictures, so I downloaded only
contact sheets and a couple of samples not covered by the
contact sheets; one CS was "boys' fashions", others looked like
they came from childrens' clothing catalogues; none could be
considered even remotely sexual. 1 picture (mycunt.jpg) of
an adult woman (like the file name says) was
just Velveeta, posted to alt.binaries.pictures.bodyart,
alt.binaries.pictures.boys,alt.binaries.pictures.boys.barefoot,
alt.binaries.pictures.cartoons,
alt.binaries.pictures.celebrities,
alt.binaries.pictures.cemetaries,
alt.binaries.pictures.children,
alt.binaries.pictures.d,alt.binaries.pictures.dorks,
alt.binaries.pictures.erotic.anime,
alt.binaries.pictures.erotic.centerfolds,
alt.binaries.pictures.erotic.children
alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.children 16 articles; only picture was
the Velveeta cited above (i.e., not a child)
alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.teen c. 200 articles; 50+ pictures;
15-20 are crossposts, already
seen in alt.sex.girl.watchers;
4 were corrupt; 3 were
improperly encoded; 10 file
fragments (incomplete)
All pictures are teens (14-18) or young adults (i.e., over 18);
mostly girls, but one series of 6 pics of a pair of teen males
(no sex); 1/3 or more of the pics were advertisements; very few
are under 18
alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.teen.female 200+ articles; 75+
pictures; 5+ fragments; 15+
crossposts; 5+ ZIP files; 2
pictures were broken down into
so many parts that they made
more than 20 separate posts
(!); also, some duplication
Like the previous group, all pictures are of older teens,
younger adults; "teen" appears to be in the eye of the
beholder.
Exceptions were two bondage pictures, one of which was the
Asian girl also posted in alt.sex.pedophilia (described above),
this time under a different file name (sub008.jpg). Header:
The other one (sub012.jpg) was not disturbing -- no visible
bruises, just lightly bound late teen girl.
*alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.teen.female.masturbation
6 articles, 1 picture
(a crosspost seen
elsewhere)
alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.teen.fuck 16 articles, 1 picture
(same crosspost as
previous group)
alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.teen.male 40+ articles; 60+
pictures, 10-15 of
which are crossposts
These are more teenage than the ones in the female group; also,
a few more of younger teens; less fucking than the female group
alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.teens doesn't exist at this
site
alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.young 21 articles; 24
pictures (all crossposted and
already seen in other groups)
alt.binaries.pictures.girls 67 articles; 35 pictures, some
crossposts
Not really teens, either.
Here are the items in alt.sex.pedophilia:
alt.sex.pedophilia 271 articles; 33 pictures (9 corrupt)
pictures downloaded date from the period 1-19 to 1-25; the
really disgusting ones all date from 1-24 to 1-25.
1 contact sheet -- 12-15yr old girl, by herself, naked, but no
concentration on genatalia
1 cartoon saying "what kind of sick bastard would get off on
this?"
1 picture of naked 10-12yr old girl, lying on stomach, clothed
in her long hair; genitals visible
1 picture of 4-6yr old girl, pulling up her slip to show her
naked body
1 picture of late teen to early twenties blonde with really big
breasts
1 picture of early to mid-teens girl on bed with nightgown
pulled up to show her genitalia, and one nipple
showing.
1 picture of very possibly altered to look like a girl
(blurring around crotch looks as though penis was
brushed out; perhaps the ring on the hand was added);
nipples appear somewhat enlarged, so could be a girl,
but the genital area is very obviously blurred.
1 picture of two early teen girls, naked, outdoors
1 picture of same two early teen girls, naked, playing together
on an inflated raft in the water
1 picture of one of the two girls emerging from the water; has
pubic hair; other girl is barely visible in background
1 picture of two different girls, neither with pubes, standing
in same location; an adult male is visible in the
background, part of an adult woman (maybe) as well --
obviously, these are nudist/naturist pictures not take
for prurient purposes.
1 naked 5-6yrold girl wearing two medals; adults appear in
background (another nudist/naturist picture); she's
obviously posing for the camera, proud of her medals,
and unashamed of her nakedness (her genitalia are
showing)
1 "Lolita" picture; 5-7yr-old girl in towel, back to camera,
bare butt showing
1 picture of girl's face (same as "Lolita" girl)
1 picture of a 5-7yr-old "Lolita" girl in a dress, no
underwear, genitals showing (posted twice -- under
different file names)
2nd picture of same girl, same situation, different pose
1 picture of same "Lolita" girl, fully naked
1 picture of girl in forest of undetermined age with pants
pulled down, shirt pulled up, bent over; improperly
uploaded (file name not in header)
9 improperly encoded/corrupt images.
1 disturbing teenage Asian girl, naked, blindfolded, bound and
hanging; appears to have bruises around nipples,
genitals (ybondage.jpg) It's from the Netherlands, and
it's probably not illegal there, but it's far more
disturbing to me than any of the five that are
described below.
Header:
Newsgroups: alt.sex.pedophilia
Path: nico.bway.net!uunet!in2.uu.net!
newsfeed.internetmci.com!
howland.reston.ans.net!EU.net!sun4nl!
Utrecht.NL.net!news
From: yourlitllegirl@home (CUNTCREEP)
Subject: Here's a pic , More to come for LL-N2 serie -
ybondage.jpg [1/1]
X-Nntp-Posting-Host: box.nl
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
Boundary="*-*-*- Next Section -*-*-*"
Message-ID:
Sender: news@inter.NL.net (News at newsutr)
Organization: Your Organization
X-Newsreader: WinVN 0.92.6+
Mime-Version: 1.0
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 1996 11:46:04 GMT
Lines: 394
Then there was this collection of photos of exactly the type Silke has
been referring to, all posted by one individual. I've included the
headers. I'll be forwarding those to the service provider involved.
1 picture of a 5-8 year-old girl sucking an adult's cock;
neutral expression on face; not as disturbing as it
sounds -- doesn't look explicitly abusive.
(adriane.jpg)
Header:
Path: nico.bway.net!news2.net99.net!news.cais.net!
news.qnet.com!news.av.qnet.com!usenet
From: johnie@my.com
Newsgroups: alt.sex.pedophilia
Subject: adriane.jpg (1/1)
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 1996 06:29:39 GMT
Organization: Quantum Networking Solutions; USA;
info@qnet.com
Lines: 442
Message-ID: <4e77pk$91c@mandolin.qnet.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: dialup10.mm.ca.qnet.com
X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.0.82
1 picture of 5-6yr-old girl with a penis (but possibly a dildo
-- the hand holding it would have to belong to someone
other than the owner of the penis) placed with the head
pressing at the opening of her vagina. Displays no
obvious signs of pain or discomfort (demon14.jpg)
Header:
Path: nico.bway.net!news2.net99.net!news.cais.net!
news.qnet.com!news.av.qnet.com!usenet
From: johnie@my.com
Newsgroups: alt.sex.pedophilia
Subject: demon14.jpg (1/1)
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 1996 06:32:18 GMT
Organization: Quantum Networking Solutions; USA;
info@qnet.com
Lines: 549
Message-ID: <4e77uq$91c@mandolin.qnet.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: dialup10.mm.ca.qnet.com
X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.0.82
*** Note that the header was incompetently forged. The
poster of this could be traced.
1 picture of 5-8yr old girl (possibly Asian) with her mouth
around the head of a man's penis, her eyes looking off
to her right; looks uncomfortable (neck is at a funny
angle (8suck.jpg)
Headers:
Path: nico.bway.net!news2.net99.net!news.cais.net!
news.qnet.com!news.av.qnet.com!usenet
From: johnie@my.com
Newsgroups: alt.sex.pedophilia
Subject: 8suck.jpg (1/1)
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 1996 06:28:36 GMT
Organization: Quantum Networking Solutions; USA;
info@qnet.com
Lines: 296
Message-ID: <4e77nl$91c@mandolin.qnet.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: dialup10.mm.ca.qnet.com
X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.0.82
*** Note that this is by the same person as the above
1 picture of 5-7yr-old girl holding a man's penis, who appears
to inserting what looks like a tampon applicator in her
vagina (bebic.jpg). Picture is obviously scanned from
very old and somewhat damaged photo.
Path: nico.bway.net!news2.net99.net!news.cais.net!
news.qnet.com!news.av.qnet.com!usenet
From: johnie@my.com
Newsgroups: alt.sex.pedophilia
Subject: bebic.jpg (1/1)
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 1996 06:30:00 GMT
Organization: Quantum Networking Solutions; USA;
info@qnet.com
Lines: 1684
Message-ID: <4e77rs$91c@mandolin.qnet.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: dialup10.mm.ca.qnet.com
X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.0.82
1 picture of girl, sitting on toilet sucking a man's cock.
Caption reads "Girl, age 8 gets toilet trained while
having teeth brushed". Man is using his hands to old
her head, looks like he's holding her hair out of the
way so that the photographer can see the dick in her
mouth. She looks uncomfortable. (g8toiltr.jpg)
Path: nico.bway.net!news2.net99.net!news.cais.net!
news.qnet.com!news.av.qnet.com!usenet
From: johnie@my.com
Newsgroups: alt.sex.pedophilia
Subject: g8toiltr.jpg (1/1)
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 1996 06:31:48 GMT
Organization: Quantum Networking Solutions; USA;
info@qnet.com
Lines: 544
Message-ID: <4e77to$91c@mandolin.qnet.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: dialup10.mm.ca.qnet.com
X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.0.82
I will note again that this group of pictures posted to
alt.sex.pedophilia constitutes by far the largest number I have ever
seen at any one time in this group. It has indeed occurred to me that
someone could post these things just to prove that my position was
wrong.
However, in light of the near _absence_ of such things in the preceding
three weeks, my point still stands:
The worst child porn is almost vanishingly rare on Usenet,
requiring long-term diligence to find.
©1996, David W. Fenton. All rights reserved.
POSTSCRIPT: I have received the following message regarding the image
of the bound Asian woman that disturbed me so much:
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 1996 16:05:08 +0100
Subject: none
To: dfenton@bway.net
From: anon-remailer@utopia.hacktic.nl (Anonymous)
Organization: Hack-Tic International, Inc.
Comments: Hack-Tic may or may not approve of the content of this posting
Comments: Please report misuse of this automated remailing service to
Comments:
Saw a post which purported to reiterate something you posted
> 1 disturbing teenage Asian girl, naked, blindfolded, bound and
> hanging; appears to have bruises around nipples,
> genitals (ybondage.jpg) It's from the Netherlands, and
> it's probably not illegal there, but it's far more
> disturbing to me than any of the five that are
> described below.
> Header:
> Newsgroups: alt.sex.pedophilia
> Path: nico.bway.net!uunet!in2.uu.net!
> newsfeed.internetmci.com!
I know the picture to which you are referring and I just wanted to assure you
it is an adult in the picture. The "bruises" around the nipples and genitals
are alterations of the picture to remove the woman's breast and pubic hair so
that she may appear as a young girl.
Hope these puts you a little at ease.
©1996, David W. Fenton. All rights reserved.
Last updated Saturday, October 13, 1996.