Criminal Justice: Teen Gets a Webcam

The New York Times tests its multimedia ambitions with a child pornography investigation. A long article (and an elaborate online production) tells the tale of Justin Berry, Internet porn star at the age of 13.

In an exhaustive cautionary tale for our brave new world of webcams and instant messaging, the front-page article describes how Justin Berry easily improvised a pornography business from his bedroom, right under the nose of his mother.

Criminal Justice Career Meets the Webcam

It all began when Justin was thirteen and received a free webcam with his Earthlink membership. Moments after setting it up and his image uploaded to a webcam website, Justin received friendly, if flirty, solicitations from adult men.

Soon he was offered money to take his shirt off. Paid immediately through Paypal, the online payment center, he happily did so and everything took off from there.

Criminal Justice and Pornography

After a few months, Justin had a business going. His many admirers paid him to perform through Paypal or by buying items off of the teenager's amazon.com wish list. Eventually he even met with fans (for up to a thousand dollars a meeting). Not surprisingly, these meetings almost always resulted in molestation.

Despite the hardships, the money was too good and besides, though only a teenager, Justin had developed a cocaine dependency. The work was too lucrative to pass up.

No Criminal Justice Approach

According to the article, before the New York Times developed a relationship with Justin, there wasn't a concerted criminal justice approach to online websites like Justin's. But websites operated by teenagers for money on the Internet have proliferated in recent years. Hundreds if not thousands of troubled teenagers make extra cash by entertaining pedophiles on the Internet.

Reporter to the Rescue?

At Times writer Kurt Eichenwald's prodding, Justin contacted the FBI. Justin knew of many online impresarios who ran teenage websites and even housed children in their homes for online performances. According to Eichenwald, the FBI took a month to grant Justin immunity (he was no longer a minor) and knock on the doors of the alleged pedophiles and kidnappers.

The Internet has created a whole criminal justice career to itself. And all criminal justice jobs will increasingly have to pass through the many ways criminals, including pedophiles, have found to break laws in the not always so virtual world.

About the Author
Amy Fanter can be found working hard for her clients most mornings and playing with her daughter most afternoons.

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