All Children Vulnerable to Online Predators

April 6, 2006 — -- Between the arrest of Brian Doyle, deputy press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, and the testimony of a child pornography victim on Capitol Hill, the dangers of online predators have been major news this week.

Authorities say that's a good thing, and that parents can learn an important lesson from the headlines -- any child, even overachievers from healthy homes, can be lured into the underworld of child pornography from online predators.

"My experience is not as isolated as you might hope," Justin Berry, 19, said to a House committee. "This is not, as so many want to believe, the story of a few bad kids whose parents paid no attention. There are hundreds of kids in the United States alone who are right now wrapped up in this horror."

When he was 13, Berry was sent a free webcam by an online predator, and agreed to take off his shirt for $50. That seemingly innocent act started Berry down the seedy and dangerous path of online child pornography that culminated with him beginning his own online sex site.

Growing up, Berry lived with his mother, who thought she was attuned to her son. She also believed he was safe from online predators, having purchased Internet protection software and frequently having checked on him in his bedroom. She told Oprah Winfrey that if any parent should have known what was really going on, that it would have been her.

"That's what's so ironic is that this is what I actually did for a living, was work with kids that have been molested," Karen Berry said. "So of course, I have studied for years and I know the signs. That's why it's so mind-boggling that this happened to Justin right here in my own home."

Katherine Tarbox is familiar with Berry's case and countless others. She knows from firsthand experience how conniving online predators can be.

When Tarbox was 14 and at the top of her class, she was molested by an online child predator whom she had communicated with for six months.

"The word 'sex' was never mentioned," Tarbox said. "This guy played he was a confidant, my peer, somebody that cared about my well-being."