“Justin had no idea that most of his new friends were actually adults posing as teenagers. In fact he had entered an online community of pedophiles who (it was later found out) were discussing a strategy and carefully planning his seduction.

It started with one man telling Justin that he’d pay him $50 to take off his shirt. Justin agreed as he didn’t really find anything offensive about doing that and was told to log on to an online payment website to accept payment. The requests slowly got bolder and soon Justin was masturbating online for his new ‘friends’. Up until this point he really didn’t think there was anything wrong with what he was doing for in his own words “I was doing what most 13-year-old boys do in their room, and I was getting paid for it.”

In addition to the money he was making the Pedophiles got Justin to set up a wish list for himself of all the cool computer gadgets he wanted. These would then be mailed to him on a regular basis as ‘gifts’. Justin still didn’t feel there was any threat to him because as far as he was concerned no one knew where he lived.

By age 16, Justin's young face had become extremely popular among Internet pedophiles. Fans began asking to meet him in person. One businessman offered Justin thousands of dollars to fly to Las Vegas for the weekend. Justin agreed, telling his parents he was attending a computer convention with a friend. When he arrived in Las Vegas, he was repeatedly sexually molested by the man who had lured him there.

When Justin returned home, the man continued to exploit him. He paid for a secret apartment for Justin just minutes from his parents' home, allowing him to spend more time on his webcam.

Justin's webcam activity was finally uncovered when a classmate found the pornographic footage online, made copies and passed them out to classmates. Embarrassed and scared that his mother would find out about his secret life, Justin asked his mother permission to visit his father in Mexico.

He arrived in Mexico with plenty of cash from his webcam business. When his father asked him where he had gotten so much money, Justin told him the truth.

After the truth was out, Justin says his father didn't stop him from producing pornographic material…he actually offered to help "maximize the earning potential," Justin says.

Justin says that with his father's assistance, he created his most sophisticated website yet. Before long, the website had more than 1,000 adult subscribers who paid monthly fees to watch Justin perform in live sex shows.”

This is just one horrific case story of many. For every pedophile who stalks the streets there are hundreds who stalk the Internet. It’s extremely easy for a child to wander into the dangerous waters of the Internet where Child Predators lurk.

The Internet is allowing Child Predators to form online communities and bonds like never before. For the first time pedophiles have instant access to other predators worldwide. They use this access to discuss and share their sexual desires and debate new ways of luring/seducing children. They’re networking to learn how to better their chances of escaping law enforcement agencies and they’re patting each other on the back for indulging in these heinous crimes.

They are more organized and have more access to children than ever before. The Internet provides pedophiles with any number of disguised identities (including presenting oneself as a child) to approach and build relationships with millions of children worldwide. They have ready access to children’s spaces on the web like Teen Chat Rooms where they hang around and identify potential victims, and they have the means to identify and track down children’s home/school contact information. The Internet provides the ideal platform through which to build long-term relationships with children prior to taking sexual advantage of them. This access over time gives them the additional benefit of being able to educate and induct children into their way of thinking. One proclaimed offender for example, was teaching children online how to manipulate parents so they do not "cause problems," how to answer questions about their on-going sexual relationship, how to type in responses to sexually oriented questions being sent from a chat room etc.

The sense of community and support that pedophiles are discovering for each other through the net have helped them become bolder and more aggressive in the ways in which they describe and brag about their sexual encounters with children online. They’re telling each other that its okay to do what they do and that there is a whole brotherhood around to help protect and support them.

For all the above reasons the Internet has become the most favored route for Pedophiles to take. Child predators are exceptionally skilled in being able to diagnose vulnerability in children. Children who are needy for love, are troubled in some way and or depressed are high on the target list of Child Predators.

Here are some frightening statistics:

Law enforcement officials estimate that as many as 50,000 sexual predators are online at any given moment (Dateline, January 2006).

One in five children who use computer chat rooms have been approached over the Internet by pedophiles. (Detective Chief Superintendent Keith Akerman, Telegraph.co.uk January 2002).

Nine out of 10 children aged between eight and 16 have viewed pornography on the Internet. In most cases, the sex sites were accessed unintentionally when a child, often in the process of doing homework, used a seemingly innocent sounding word to search for information or pictures. (London School of Economics January 2002).

Statistics show that child pornography is the fastest-growing of all Internet businesses, estimated to bring in several billion dollars a year.

Whereas personal arousal is definitely one reason for collecting child pornography, pedophiles also use it to desensitize and educate potential child victims. Pedophiles refer to it as the ‘grooming’ phase. During this phase children are skillfully introduced to child pornography amidst other ‘enticing’ games. This allows pedophiles to lower children’s resistance to sex by making it appear to be ‘cool’, ‘normal’ and something which other kids are doing – a sure shot winner with children. Child pornography is therefore not just a degenerate and perverted form of entertainment but also used as a weapon to create new victims.

Child pornography proliferates on the Internet and here is the evidence:

More than 20,000 images of child pornography are posted on the Internet every week. (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, 10/8/03)

There has been a 345% increase in child pornography sites from 2/2001 – 7/2001. (N2H2 press release, 8/01)

26 popular children’s characters, such as Pokemon, My Little Pony, and Action Man, revealed thousands of links to porn sites. 30% were hard-core. (Envisional 2000) Pornographers disguise their sites (i.e. “stealth sites) with common brand names, including Disney, Barbie, ESPN, etc., to entrap children. (Cyveillance Study, March 1999)

So what did happen to Justin? Well he got lucky because a New York Times reporter stumbled upon his website by accident and decided that he was going to rescue him. He read the online discussions and realized that there was a group of men who were keeping track of Justin’s every breathing moment. And he decided to do something about it.

Kurt Eichenwald managed to track Justin down through the Internet and after several conversations, convinced him to meet him. When Kurt met Justin he was ‘emaciated and on drugs’. “Justin opened up to Kurt and described the dark underworld of "camkids"—children who use webcams to produce pornography. He also described how credit card corporations and other adult enterprises helped him operate his business. Kurt knew that this story wasn't just about Justin—there were many more victims out there.

’By that point, I knew that this kid was at the center of a massive criminal enterprise—that he knew everything," Kurt says. "I had to get him to flip on a business that was paying him thousands of dollars a week. I had to get him to the point where he was sober so that he could talk to me. And he said, 'I'll do it.'"

Justin shut down his website and over the next six months helped Kurt navigate through the huge industry of child pornography on the Internet. Justin also had five years of saved online discussions and financial transaction records with his clients, a huge help in tracking down his predators. Of the 1500 customers that Justin had a sample was taken of 300 and a research conducted as to their professional backgrounds. They turned out to be teachers, lawyers, pediatricians and counselors. All professions that involve direct contact with children.

Even though Justin’s name was blacked out on all federal investigation documents, the alleged offenders were able to figure out his identity and have been harassing him since. Since the word spread in the child pornography community Justin has received several death threats. He now lives in hiding.

Not every child is as lucky though. Justin’s story, as tragic as it is, is also rare, not in terms of exploitation, but in how he managed to escape the trap of sexual exploitation. So here’s my question: if Justin is not able to heal the rage, humiliation and shame of this experience, if somehow his faith in the light of life is not restored, if his own sense of courage, wisdom to overcome the inner victim and ability to transform pain to strength do not become overwhelming powers, is it improbable to assume that Justin might grow up and turn a pedophile himself? And finally if child pornography is the fastest growing porn on the net does it not make you wonder that many more people are pedophiles than we like to think?