"Real-Time" Child Pornography

Andrew Vachss first wrote about online child molestation occurring in "real-time" in his 1998 novel, Safe House. The overwhelming reaction from the public was disbelief, and the same accusations of a "sick mind" that he heard when he wrote about modem-trafficking in kiddie porn back in 1987's Strega. But evidence in the press has been mounting since 2003, proving that what Vachss wrote about wasn't from his imagination at all, but what he saw down here.

International child 'cybersex' ring in the Philippines busted

Authorities have uncovered "cybersex dens" in the Philippines that streamed live child sex abuse to paying pedophiles around the world. ... The virtual abusers try to justify these cybersex sessions and the "cottage industry" they've created by insisting that they never have physical contact with the children, says Noemi Truya-Abarientos of the Children's Legal Bureau. But she doesn't see this as a valid excuse, since the psychological effects of the abuse are very real. "The client gives the instruction to touch this and touch that," Truya-Abarientos told the BBC. "They even send sex toys to these children." [read more]

—Daily News
January 16, 2014

Chicago-area man gets 40 years in infant porn case

CHICAGO, IL — A Chicago-area man who created a live online video of himself sexually molesting an infant was sentenced to 40 years in prison on child pornography charges, prosecutors said on Tuesday. Brian Annoreno, 35, was among several Chicago-area men charged in 2006 with participating in a private Internet "chat room" used to facilitate the trading of child pornography images, prosecutors said. [read more]

—Reuters
June 14, 2011

Mom Julie Carr gets 20 years for sexually abusing own daughter in video chats with British teen

BANGOR, ME — A woman who sexually abused her own baby girl on a webcast with a teenager in England will have at least 20 years to think about her sick crime. [read more]

—Daily News
March 16, 2011

Dozens Charged In International, Internet-based Child Pornography Investigation
'Chat Room' Allegedly Used to Trade Images of Child Sexual Molestation

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A private Internet "chat room" used worldwide to facilitate the trading of thousands of images of child pornography—including streaming videos of live molestations—was infiltrated in an undercover investigation, resulting in charges against 27 individuals to date in the United States, Canada, Australia and Great Britain, the Department of Justice, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and cooperating international authorities announced today. [read more]

—U.S. Department of Justice
March 15, 2006

That is why we must begin to treat so-called "simple possession" of child pornography as the heinous crime it is. Every purchase of child pornography encourages further growth of this evil business: from "custom" child pornography—the sale of images of child rape created to order for the consumer—to "real-time" child pornography, where subscribers pay to watch the streamed online rape of children as it occurs. Still another market exists in recorded images of children being physically abused, even tortured. Some of these are marketed outright for the sexual gratification of the viewers, while others are camouflaged as "instructional materials for disciplinarians."

—"Let's Fight This Terrible Crime Against Our Children" by Andrew Vachss
Parade, February 19, 2006

This isn't the first time The Zero or Andrew Vachss have written about "real-time" child pornography. Here's our update from November 26, 2003:

"The media has finally arrived down in the Zero. Five years ago, in Safe House, Andrew Vachss wrote about on-line molestation broadcast in real time. Earlier this month, London's Observer reported on a group committing that very crime. Check it out."

Click here to read the Safe House excerpt and the article from The Observer.

And Andrew Vachss sounded the alarm long ago....

"But before we kneejerk ourselves into collaboration with pedophiles, let us deconstruct the slogans. Let us define 'speech' operationally, not as an abstract. And when we apply that test, we know that child pornography is not 'speech'—it is the photograph of a crime ... and the trophy of a predator. It cannot be produced without violating a child. It is per se contraband, and not within the orbit of First Amendment protection. If kiddie porn is 'speech' then so is a snuff film." —Testimony of Andrew Vachss before the United States National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, November 10, 1998

"Not so many years ago, the production of child pornography required a network of confederates for production and distribution. Kiddie porn, once a monolith, has become a cottage industry. With the advent of do-it-yourself devices such as the Polaroid camera and the camcorder, anyone can produce a 'quality' product." —"Age of Innocence" by Andrew Vachss (The Observer, April 16, 1994)

"Kiddie pornography is not a 'first amendment' issue. It is a picture of a crime." —"How We Can Fight Child Abuse" by Andrew Vachss (PARADE, August 20, 1989)

"If Vachss had his way, government and private foundations would pour money into child abuse prevention and rehabilitation programs for abused children. There would be much tougher sentences for trafficking in 'kiddy porn' and for any kind of attack on children." —"One Man's War on Child Abuse" by Nina McCain (The Boston Globe, October 17, 1988)