Internet Sex Stings & False Accusations
A Brief History of the Internet
The concepts that led to the development of the Internet can be traced back
almost 40 years to academic papers written in the early 1960s on
"packet-switching" networks. In 1969, these ideas matured into a working
proto-network called the ARPANET. Although this network had only four
"nodes" or computers connected together, it was the forerunner of today’s
Internet. By 1971, 15 universities and research institutions were
connected together, and the system was upgraded to handle a seemingly large
64-node network. In 1973, the first European computers were connected in
England and Norway.
Meanwhile the key
technologies of Ethernet, TELNET, FTP, and Unix were being invented in the early
1970’s. Ethernet (invented by Bob Metcalf, who founded 3Com) would later become
the standard for local area networks (LANs). TELNET allowed remote interactive
access to other computers. FTP (File Transfer Protocol) enabled the transfer of
large data files over the network. Unix, invented appropriately enough by the
phone company (Bell Labs) and enhanced at UC Berkeley, became the software
backbone of the Internet. Later, Sun Microsystems commercialized Unix.
The dominant use of the
Internet in the 1970s was early versions of email. In 1979, Usenet was invented
to carry discussion forums, a primitive form of today’s chat rooms. This was the
beginning of the more public side of the Internet, as contrasted to private
email and TELNET sessions. Usenet would later grow to its present volume of more
10,000 separate topic areas and more than 10 gigabytes of data. That’s the
equivalent information of a small public library that is accessed every day.
Sex and the Growth of the
Internet
Sexual topics quickly became
the largest single volume area of Usenet. Communication and discussion of human
sexuality has continued to be an important use of the Internet to this day. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the Internet grew exponentially: The number of
hosts in 1984 was 1000; in 1987, 10,000; in 1989, 100,000; and in 1992, the
number of hosts, or computers with permanent IP addresses, surpassed the one
million mark. This doesn’t even count the millions of people who dial in to the
Internet daily via modems. In 1993, Mosaic, the precursor to the Netscape
browser, took the world by storm and gave birth to what is now known as the
World Wide Web. And the rest, as they say, is history. Today, the
Internet links more than 170 countries worldwide, with over 1.5 million domain
names and over 40 million hosts.
Underscoring the new central
role of the Internet in American life--and indeed the entire world--a
three-judge Federal panel in Philadelphia in June of 1996 called the Internet
"the most participatory marketplace of mass speech that this country and indeed
the world has yet seen." However as popular as the internet has become, some
appropriate fears have developed around its use.
Because of the Internet’s
participatory nature and society’s interest in sexual topics, the police and the
general public have mistakenly begun to look at the Internet as a vast
playground for adults who are attempting to prey on children sexually.
While there can be thousands of actual acts of child molestation each day across
the nation within family households, a perceived Internet "molestation" becomes
a media circus that ends up terrorizing parents.
These alleged "internet
predators" cause parents to become afraid of nameless, faceless phantoms--more
afraid of these phantoms than they are of real live family members who
statistically pose a greater threat to their children. This fear and anxiety
becomes even more irrational when it involves homosexuals. Parents look at their
children’s monitor in the bedroom as a means for a homosexual to kidnap their
child and recruit him/her into the homosexual life style. This form of
homophobia is at the heart of parents’ fear of the Internet--and the
hysteria that endangers everyone’s constitutional freedoms.
The Mechanics of the
Internet Sting
The response of the various
police agencies to this fear and hysteria (some of which they have created
themselves), is the Internet sting operation. Here’s how the Internet sting
process got its start:
Let’s suppose that the police
want to create a sting operation to catch a person who fences (buys and resells)
stolen property. The police pretend to be burglars who have "stolen property" to
sell. The property is not actually stolen but the police pretend that it is
stolen. The fence buys the allegedly stolen property from the police. In this
scenario it is factually impossible for the fence to buy stolen property from
the police since the property is not stolen. However, even if a person attempts
to commit a crime that is factually impossible to commit, he is still guilty of
an "attempt." The fence would therefore be guilty of "attempted receipt of
stolen property."
Now, changing venues, let’s
suppose that the police want to create a sting operation to catch a molester,
but this time online. The police go on the Internet and pretend to be a
thirteen-year-old. They advertise in their "online profile" that they are
a minor looking for sex with an adult. They enter an online sex chat room
using this profile and chat with others in the sex room. A suspect then
engages the police officer who is pretending to be a minor, in sexual chat and
eventually a real life meeting is arranged. The suspect is told to bring
lubricants and condoms so that they can have a good time. The suspect
arrives at a hotel as requested by the police with condoms and lubricant in his
possession. At the hotel, the suspect is arrested for "attempted child
molestation."
It is an attempt because it
is factually impossible to be accused of child molestation with a forty-year-old
police officer pretending to be a thirteen-year-old. How serious is this? In
the many states, all attempt crimes carry as a sentence one-half of the prison
time of the named offense, in this case child molestation.
In most states, lewd acts
with a minor under the age of fourteen years carry severe prison terms;
therefore, attempted lewd acts with a minor under the age of fourteen carry
prison terms numbering in the years! Furthermore, the defendant, if convicted,
must register as a sex offender every time he/she moves and on his/her birthday
for the remainder of his/her life.
Child Pornography Stings
During this "sting chat" with
the cyber minor (actually a specially trained police officer) and the Internet
user, the cyber minor asks that the user--now a suspect--to send him pictures of
himself. The suspect sends a picture of himself clothed. This isn’t good enough
for cyber minor so he asks again for "special pictures." The suspect sends a
nude of himself or of others. The suspect will now be charged with attempted
sending of "harmful material" to a minor with the intent to arouse, appeal to or
gratify the lusts or passions or sexual desires of the adult or of "cyber
minor." In most states, a charge like this carries with it numerous years in the
state prison or a couple of years for the "attempt." Each photograph might also
be charged as a separate offense, adding years to the sentence.
Now consider this: What if
the adult and cyber minor engage in "cyber sex?" Again, the suspect might be
charged with "sending" harmful material (the conversations) to a minor. The law
would not make an oral conversation harmful "material" but the prosecution
theory is that the electronic transfer becomes "material."
Now, what if the cyber minor
now asks the suspect to send him some more pictures. This time the pictures
depict a minor engaged in a sex act or simulated sex act. The suspect is now
charged with the sexual exploitation of a minor. In most states, this
offense carries one year in the county jail on a first offense, and three years
in state prison if the suspect has a prior offense.
However, if the suspect does
not send any child pornography to cyber minor, that is not the end of the sting. When the suspect is arrested for either attempted child molestation or
sending harmful material to a minor, the police get a search warrant for the
suspect’s computer. Mixed in with adult with adult sexual photos on the hard
drive are several pictures depicting minors engaged in sexual conduct. The
suspect is then charged with child pornography or sexual exploitation
of a child.
We should talk for a moment
about how such photos (depicting sexual acts between an adult and a minor) can
get into the computer. For example, what if the suspect received an email with a
child pornography picture attached? According to the law in many states, if the
suspect receives unsolicited child pornography over the Internet, there is no
violation of the law so long as the suspect doesn’t make copies or send copies
to others. There is no mention in the law that he must destroy these files.
But in other states, merely
having that picture on his hard drive (whether he knows it or not) can subject
the suspect to many years in prison! These states have what is called strict
liability laws. If it’s there (whether knowingly or not) the possessor is
deemed guilty. Therefore, our attorneys recommend that anyone who receives such
unsolicited child pornography immediately destroy it. You don’t want to be put
in the position of proving that it got on your computer drive unsolicited.
Cyber Sex is a Masquerade
Ball--And the Police Just Don't Get It!
You might be surprised how
cyber sex originated on the Internet. Before it was even called the
Internet, a small group of scientists were connected over a network with their
computers. This network was for the exchange of highly scientific and
theoretical research ideas. The scientists were mainly men because few women
were educated in such scientific fields and fewer had the funds to own a
computer. However, there were a few women, and one day an unknown female
scientist sent a sexually explicit and provocative communication over the
network to the men. She was totally anonymous.
The men were shocked by what
they perceived as the misuse of their scientific research network; even so they
liked it and started sending back anonymous responses to the woman. And thus,
cyber sex was created, a phenomenon that was instigated by a woman, not a
man.
It is interesting to
understand some of the social aspects for this new expression of human
sexuality. Throughout all time women have been traditionally taught by society
to repress their sexuality. The women had to be both the "good girl" and
eventually the "good" mother. In other words, they were expected to be virginal
before marriage and then faithful during marriage. However, society
expected and sanctioned men to be "bad" boys and to express their sexuality in a
variety of ways.
The Internet provided women
with the freedom to ignore societal restraints on their sexuality and become the
"bad girl" who could safely engage in all sorts of sexual fantasies through
cyber sex. There was no social stigma attached because they could remain
anonymous. Women also couldn’t get pregnant, catch HIV or be infected with other
STDs. After having a great round of cyber sex she could meet her
husband/boyfriend and be the "good girl" or "good mother" and pick up her
children from school. Women had found a place to safely experiment and
explore their sexuality without any social stigma attached.
The men were not far behind. Those that engaged in cyber sex were quick to learn that the ultimate sex organ
was not the penis or the vagina. The ultimate sex organ is the human mind.
With the Internet, a
fifty-year-old mother of five could go on line and be a sixteen, year old,
engage in cyber sex and lose her virginity on a Friday night. On
Saturday, she could loose her virginity again. This may seem silly but it is an
example of a very popular kind of role playing in chat rooms on the internet. Likewise, men could pretend to have sex multiple
times a night with a variety of women.
And for gay men and women,
they too found a safe place to meet and enjoy sex without shame or stigma. Few
people realize that Internet providers actively pursued gay communities in order
to promote online business through anonymous chat rooms.
People experimented with
their sexuality over the Internet in a number of ways:
- by role-playing as a heterosexual when they
were homosexual;
- role -playing as a homosexual when they were
heterosexual;
- role-playing as a man when they were a woman;
- role-playing as a women when they were a man;
- role playing as a minor when they were an
adult; and
- minors also got on line and pretended to be
adults.
It became common knowledge in the Internet sex
world that cyber sex was role-playing--acting out fantasies--and one never
knew what was real and what was fantasy about the person with whom they were
chatting. Eventually, no one believed that the other person’s online profile was
actually real. The Internet became a masquerade ball in cyberspace.
Everyone was protected by a
mask of anonymity that hid their true identity. Was that a gorgeous blonde woman
you just had cyber sex with or was it really a man? You had no way of
knowing. Someone even developed a game on the Internet of trying to "unmask" the
other person in order to find out what was real and what was fantasy. For
example: If the person you met in a chat room sent you a picture, was the
picture real or fake? There was no way of knowing what was real and what was
fantasy without actually meeting face to face.
Soon, people started asking
to meet. Often this was done over the phone in order to learn something about
the other person. Actual meetings were usually in public places. Sometimes one
person would show up and hide just to see the other person. "Can we meet at the
mall and look at each other across the atrium" might be a typical request for
this kind of encounter. Now there is a new player in this role playing world:
the police officer.
This specially trained police
officer pretends to be a thirteen-year-old. This specially trained police
officer is not participating in this fantasy for his own exploration, he has
another agenda, and that is setting up an Internet sting operation. However, it
is important to remember that if the person chatting with the cyber
thirteen-year-old doesn’t truly believe that the cyber thirteen-year-old is
actually thirteen, then there is no attempted child molestation. If the person
chatting with cyber thirteen-year-old doesn’t really believe that cyber
thirteen-year-old is in reality a thirteen-year-old, the cyber sex cannot be
harmful material. It also follows that if the person talking to the cyber
thirteen-year-old doesn’t believe that cyber thirteen-year-old is truly a minor,
sending a nude photo of oneself cannot be charged as sending harmful material to
a minor.
The Unique Nature of
Internet Sting Cases
Internet sting cases are
unique in that almost all of the facts of the case are uncontested. The police
make direct copies of the chats. If a phone call is made, the police
record the phone call.
Our experience is that in all
of the cases that our office has seen, the adult on the chat transcript reveals
that he doesn’t necessary believe the profile of the other person. In all
of the cases that we have seen, the suspect enters into a game of unmasking the
cyber partner in order to determine what reality truly is.
In our experience, in the
very chat transcripts and the audio tapes, we find the defense theory. You see,
this is predicated on the very nature of cyberspace: the anonymity that affords
one the freedom to explore all fantasies, whether sexual or not.
Truly, the logical conclusion
is that if the suspect believes in good faith that all that is happening
is merely fantasy, he has not attempted to commit any crime. Until the
police--and the criminal justice system--realize this, innocent people who are
just having fun on the Internet are going to be falsely arrested and falsely
accused of being sexual predators and child molesters.
The Supreme Court still
hasn’t outlawed fantasy--but beware of the thought police who do not understand
the fundamental principles of cyberspace sex.
Conclusion
The myth intensifying
parents’ Internet fears is that unsuspecting children are being found on the
Internet and being lured into sexual relationships. The truth is this: If your
child isn’t looking for sex on the Internet, your child will not be found. With
over 1.5 million domain names and 40 million hosts, how do two people "find"
each other on the Internet? It’s done the same way two people find each other in
a city with millions of inhabitants. They go to an area where they share
common interests.
For instance, if you are a
biker and new in town, you go to a biker show, a biker rally, a biker bar, or a
bike sales room to find other bikers. If you are gay and new in town, you might
go to a gay bar or see a gay band. In all the cases our office has seen,
the "minor" is a policeman--an adult--who goes into adult sexual chat rooms.
The problem is that in a
world built entirely on fantasy, the other person--the victim of the
sting--cannot know who is behind the mask. He or she cannot know what is
reality, and what is cyber reality. Furthermore, the myth that the homosexual
will find a child in his/her bedroom via the monitor and then recruit them into
the gay lifestyle is a product of hysteria and media hype. Again, to find a
person on the Internet, a person--adult or minor--must actively go looking for
others by going to common meeting places like specialized chat rooms. Remember,
chat rooms are clearly marked as to what the sexual interests are of the
participants. You cannot accidentally fall into a gay chat room.
And if you did stumble on a
site you don’t want to be in, anyone knows that one click of the mouse leads you
to the exit. In cases that we have seen where real minors were involved in gay
chat rooms, the minors were homosexuals or lesbians who were looking for someone
that they could talk to and who would understand their concerns.
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