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National Desk; SECTA

**Through His Webcam, a Boy Joins a Sordid Online World**

By KURT EICHENWALD\
6,988 words\
19 December 2005\
The New York Times\
Late Edition - Final\
1\
English\
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved.

The 13-year-old boy sat in his California home, eyes fixed on a computer
screen. He had never run with the popular crowd and long ago had turned
to the Internet for the friends he craved. But on this day, Justin
Berry\'s fascination with cyberspace would change his life.

Weeks before, Justin had hooked up a Web camera to his computer, hoping
to use it to meet other teenagers online. Instead, he heard only from
men who chatted with him by instant message as they watched his image on
the Internet. To Justin, they seemed just like friends, ready with
compliments and always offering gifts.

Now, on an afternoon in 2000, one member of his audience sent a
proposal: he would pay Justin \$50 to sit bare-chested in front of his
Webcam for three minutes. The man explained that Justin could receive
the money instantly and helped him open an account on PayPal.com, an
online payment system.

\'\'I figured, I took off my shirt at the pool for nothing,\'\' he said
recently. \'\'So, I was kind of like, what\'s the difference?\'\'

Justin removed his T-shirt. The men watching him oozed compliments.

So began the secret life of a teenager who was lured into selling images
of his body on the Internet over the course of five years. From the
seduction that began that day, this soccer-playing honor roll student
was drawn into performing in front of the Webcam \-- undressing,
showering, masturbating and even having sex \-- for an audience of more
than 1,500 people who paid him, over the years, hundreds of thousands of
dollars.

Justin\'s dark coming-of-age story is a collateral effect of recent
technological advances. Minors, often under the online tutelage of
adults, are opening for-pay pornography sites featuring their own images
sent onto the Internet by inexpensive Webcams. And they perform from the
privacy of home, while parents are nearby, beyond their children\'s
closed bedroom doors.

The business has created youthful Internet pornography stars \-- with
nicknames like Riotboyy, Miss Honey and Gigglez \-- whose images are
traded online long after their sites have vanished. In this world,
adolescents announce schedules of their next masturbation for customers
who pay fees for the performance or monthly subscription charges. Eager
customers can even buy \'\'private shows,\'\' in which teenagers
sexually perform while following real-time instructions.

A six-month investigation by The New York Times into this corner of the
Internet found that such sites had emerged largely without attracting
the attention of law enforcement or youth protection organizations.
While experts with these groups said they had witnessed a recent deluge
of illicit, self-generated Webcam images, they had not known of the
evolution of sites where minors sold images of themselves for money.

\'\'We\'ve been aware of the use of the Webcam and its potential use by
exploiters,\'\' said Ernest E. Allen, chief executive of the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a private group. \'\'But this
is a variation on a theme that we haven\'t seen. It\'s unbelievable.\'\'

Minors who run these sites find their anonymity amusing, joking that
their customers may be the only adults who know of their activities. It
is, in the words of one teenage site operator, the \'\'Webcam
Matrix,\'\' a reference to the movie in which a computerized world
exists without the knowledge of most of humanity.

In this virtual universe, adults hunt for minors on legitimate sites
used by Webcam owners who post contact information in hopes of
attracting friends. If children respond to messages, adults spend time
\'\'grooming\'\' them \-- with praise, attention and gifts \-- before
seeking to persuade them to film themselves pornographically.

The lure is the prospect of easy money. Many teenagers solicit
\'\'donations,\'\' request gifts through sites like Amazon.com or
negotiate payments, while a smaller number charge monthly fees. But
there are other beneficiaries, including businesses, some witting and
some unwitting, that provide services to the sites like Web hosting and
payment processing.

Not all victims profit, with some children ending up as pornographic
commodities inadvertently, even unknowingly. Adolescents have appeared
naked on their Webcams as a joke, or as presents for boyfriends or
girlfriends, only to have their images posted on for-pay pornography
sites. One Web site proclaims that it features 140,000 images of
\'\'adolescents in cute panties exposing themselves on their teen
Webcams.\'\'

Entry into this side of cyberspace is simplicity itself. Webcams cost as
little as \$20, and the number of them being used has mushroomed to 15
million, according to IDC, an industry consulting group. At the same
time, instant messaging programs have become ubiquitous, and high-speed
connections, allowing for rapid image transmission, are common.

The scale of Webcam child pornography is unknown, because it is new and
extremely secretive. One online portal that advertises for-pay Webcam
sites, many of them pornographic, lists at least 585 sites created by
teenagers, internal site records show. At one computer bulletin board
for adults attracted to adolescents, a review of postings over the
course of a week revealed Webcam image postings of at least 98 minors.

The Times inquiry has already resulted in a large-scale criminal
investigation. In June, The Times located Justin Berry, then 18. In
interviews, Justin revealed the existence of a group of more than 1,500
men who paid for his online images, as well as evidence that other
identifiable children as young as 13 were being actively exploited.

In a series of meetings, The Times persuaded Justin to abandon his
business and, to protect other children at risk, assisted him in
contacting the Justice Department. Arrests and indictments of adults he
identified as pornography producers and traffickers began in September.
Investigators are also focusing on businesses, including credit card
processors that have aided illegal sites. Anyone who has created,
distributed, marketed, possessed or paid to view such pornography is
open to a criminal charge.

\'\'The fact that we are getting so many potential targets, people who
knowingly bought into a child pornographic Web site, could lead to
hundreds of other subjects and potentially save hundreds of other kids
that we are not aware of yet,\'\' said Monique Winkis, a special agent
with the Federal Bureau of Investigation who is working the case.

Law enforcement officials also said that, with the cooperation of
Justin, they had obtained a rare guide into this secluded online world
whose story illuminates the exploitation that takes place there.

\'\'I didn\'t want these people to hurt any more kids,\'\' Justin said
recently of his decision to become a federal witness. \'\'I didn\'t want
anyone else to live the life I lived.\'\'

A High-Tech Transformation

Not long ago, the distribution of child pornography in America was a
smallish trade, relegated to back rooms and corners where even the
proprietors of X-rated bookstores refused to loiter.

By the mid-1980\'s, however, technology had transformed the business,
with pedophiles going online to communicate anonymously and post images
through rudimentary bulletin board systems. As Internet use boomed in
the 1990\'s, these adults honed their computer skills, finding advanced
ways to meet online and swap illegal photos; images once hard to obtain
were suddenly available with the click of a mouse.

As the decade drew to a close, according to experts and records of
online conversations, these adults began openly fantasizing of the day
they would be able to reach out to children directly, through instant
messaging and live video, to obtain the pornography they desired.

Their dream was realized with the Web camera, which transformed online
pornography the way the automobile changed transportation. At first, the
cameras, some priced at more than \$100, offered little more than grainy
snapshots, \'\'refreshed\'\' a few times per minute. But it was not long
before easy-to-use \$20 Webcams could transmit high-quality continuous
color video across the globe instantly.

By 2000, things had worked out exactly the way the pedophiles hoped.
Webcams were the rage among computer-savvy minors, creating a bountiful
selection of potential targets.

Among them was Justin Berry. That year, he was a gangly 13-year-old with
saucer eyes and brown hair that he often dyed blond. He lived with his
mother, stepfather and younger sister in Bakersfield, Calif., a midsize
city about 90 miles north of Los Angeles. Already he was so adept at the
computer that he had registered his own small Web site development
business, which he ran from the desk where he did his schoolwork.

So Justin was fascinated when a friend showed off the free Webcam he had
received for joining Earthlink, an Internet service provider. The device
was simple and elegant. As Justin remembers it, he quickly signed up,
too, eager for his own Webcam.

\'\'I didn\'t really have a lot of friends,\'\' he recalled, \'\'and I
thought having a Webcam might help me make some new ones online, maybe
even meet some girls my age.\'\'

As soon as Justin hooked the camera to his bedroom computer and loaded
the software, his picture was automatically posted on spotlife.com, an
Internet directory of Webcam users, along with his contact information.
Then he waited to hear from other teenagers.

No one Justin\'s age ever contacted him from that listing. But within
minutes he heard from his first online predator. That man was soon
followed by another, then another.

Justin remembers his earliest communications with these men as
nonthreatening, pleasant encounters. There were some oddities \-- men
who pretended to be teenage girls, only to slip up and reveal the truth
later \-- but Justin enjoyed his online community.

His new friends were generous. One explained how to put together a
\'\'wish list\'\' on Amazon.com, where Justin could ask for anything,
including computer equipment, toys, music CD\'s or movies. Anyone who
knew his wish-list name \-- Justin Camboy \-- could buy him a gift.
Amazon delivered the presents without revealing his address to the
buyers.

The men also filled an emotional void in Justin\'s life. His
relationship with his father, Knute Berry, was troubled. His parents
divorced when he was young; afterward, police records show, there were
instances of reported abuse. On one occasion Mr. Berry was arrested and
charged with slamming Justin\'s head into a wall, causing an injury that
required seven staples in his scalp. Although Justin testified against
him, Mr. Berry said the injury was an accident and was acquitted. He
declined to comment in a telephone interview.

The emotional turmoil left Justin longing for paternal affection, family
members said. And the adult males he met online offered just that.
\'\'They complimented me all the time,\'\' Justin said. \'\'They told me
I was smart, they told me I was handsome.\'\'

In that, experts said, the eighth-grade boy\'s experience reflected the
standard methods used by predatory adults to insinuate themselves into
the lives of minors they meet online.

\'\'In these cases, there are problems in their own lives that make them
predisposed to\'\' manipulation by adults, Lawrence Likar, a former
F.B.I. supervisor, said of children persuaded to pose for pornography.
\'\'The predators know that and are able to tap into these problems and
offer what appear to be solutions.\'\'

Justin\'s mother, Karen Page, said she sensed nothing out of the
ordinary. Her son seemed to be just a boy talented with computers who
enjoyed speaking to friends online. The Webcam, as she saw it, was just
another device that would improve her son\'s computer skills, and maybe
even help him on his Web site development business.

\'\'Everything I ever heard was that children should be exposed to
computers and given every opportunity to learn from them,\'\' Ms. Page
said in an interview.

She never guessed that one of her son\'s first lessons after turning on
his Webcam was that adults would eagerly pay him just to disrobe a
little.

The Instant Audience

It was as if the news shot around the Web. By appearing on camera
bare-chested, Justin sent an important message: here was a boy who would
do things for money.

Gradually the requests became bolder, the cash offers larger: More than
\$100 for Justin to pose in his underwear. Even more if the boxers came
down. The latest request was always just slightly beyond the last, so
that each new step never struck him as considerably different. How could
adults be so organized at manipulating young people with Webcams?

Unknown to Justin, they honed their persuasive skills by discussing
strategy online, sharing advice on how to induce their young targets to
go further at each stage.

Moreover, these adults are often people adept at manipulating teenagers.
In its investigation, The Times obtained the names and credit card
information for the 1,500 people who paid Justin to perform on camera,
and analyzed the backgrounds of 300 of them nationwide. A majority of
the sample consisted of doctors and lawyers, businessmen and teachers,
many of whom work with children on a daily basis.

Not long ago, adults sexually attracted to children were largely
isolated from one another. But the Internet has created a virtual
community where they can readily communicate and reinforce their
feelings, experts said. Indeed, the messages they send among themselves
provide not only self-justification, but also often blame minors with
Webcam sites for offering temptation.

\'\'These kids are the ones being manipulative,\'\' wrote an adult who
called himself Upandc in a posting this year to a bulletin board for
adults attracted to children.

Or, as an adult who called himself DLW wrote: \'\'Did a sexual predator
MAKE them make a site? No. Did they decide to do it for themselves?
Yes.\'\'

Tempting as it may be for some in society to hold the adolescent Webcam
operators responsible, experts in the field say that is misguided,
because it fails to recognize the control that adults exercise over
highly impressionable minors.

\'\'The world will want to blame the kids, but the reality is, they are
victims here,\'\' said Mr. Allen of the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children.

But there is no doubt that the minors cash in on their own exploitation.
With Justin, for example, the road to cyberporn stardom was paved with
cool new equipment. When his growing legion of fans complained about the
quality of his Webcam, he put top-rated cameras and computer gear on his
Amazon wish list, and his fans rushed to buy him all of it.

A \$35 Asante four-port hub, which allowed for the use of multiple
cameras, was bought by someone calling himself Wesley Taylor, Amazon
receipts show. For \$45, a fan nicknamed tuckertheboy bought a Viking
memory upgrade to speed up Justin\'s broadcast. And then there were
cameras \-- a \$60 color Webcam by Hawking Technologies from banjo000; a
\$60 Intel Deluxe USB camera from boyking12; and a \$150 Hewlett-Packard
camera from eplayernine.

Justin\'s desk became a high-tech playhouse. To avoid suspicions, he hid
the Webcams behind his desk until nighttime. Whenever his mother asked
about his new technology and money, Justin told her they were fruits of
his Web site development business. In a way, it was true; with one
fan\'s help, he had by then opened his own pornographic Web site, called
justinscam.com.

His mother saw little evidence of a boy in trouble. Justin\'s grades
stayed good \-- mostly A\'s and B\'s, although his school attendance
declined as he faked illness to spend time with his Webcam.

As he grew familiar with the online underground, Justin learned he was
not alone in the business. Other teenagers were doing the same things,
taking advantage of an Internet infrastructure of support that was
perfectly suited to illicit business.

As a result, while it helped to have Justin\'s computer skills, even
minors who fumbled with technology could operate successful pornography
businesses. Yahoo, America Online and MSN were starting to offer free
instant message services that contained embedded ability to transmit
video, with no expertise required. The programs were offered online,
without parental controls. No telltale credit card numbers or other
identifying information was necessary. In minutes, any adolescent could
have a video and text system up and running, without anyone knowing, a
fact that concerns some law enforcement officials.

There were also credit card processing services that handled payments
without requiring tax identification numbers. There were companies that
helped stream live video onto the Internet \-- including one in Indiana
that offered the service at no charge if the company president could
watch free. And there were sites \-- portals, in the Web vernacular \--
that took paid advertising from teenage Webcam addresses and allowed
fans to vote for their favorites.

Teenagers, hungry for praise, compete for rankings on the portals as
desperately as contestants on TV reality shows, offering special
performances in exchange for votes. \'\'Everyone please vote me a 10 on
my cam site,\'\' a girl nicknamed Thunderrockracin told her subscribers
in 2002, \'\'and I will have a live sleep cam!\'\'

In other words, she would let members watch her sleep if they boosted
her up the rankings.

Fearing the Fans

Justin began to feel he belonged to something important, a broad
community of teenagers with their own businesses. Some he knew by their
real names, others by the screen names they used for their sites \--
Strider, Stoner, Kitty, Calvin, Emily, Seth and so on. But collectively,
they were known by a name now commonplace in this Internet subculture:

They call themselves \'\'camwhores.\'\'

Justin chatted with the boys online, and sometimes persuaded the girls
to masturbate on camera while he did the same. Often, he heard himself
compared to Riotboyy, another young-looking teenager whose site had
experienced as many as 6,400 hits in a single week.

In conversations with Justin, other minors with for-pay sites admitted
to being scared of certain fans. Some adults wrote things like \'\'It
wants to possess you.\'\' They had special wardrobe requests for the
adolescents: in jeans with a belt, without a belt, with a lacy bra,
showing legs, showing feet, wearing boxers with an erection, and others.

One 16-year-old who called himself hot boyy 23 finally found the
entreaties too much. \'\'Hey guys,\'\' he wrote when he shut down his
site, \'\'I\'m sorry, there are just too many freaks out there for me. I
need to live a more normal life, too. I might be back someday and I
might not. I\'m sorry I had to ruin all the fun.\'\'

It was not only the minors operating Webcam sites for pay who faced
frightening adults. Earlier this year, a teenage girl in Alabama posed
seminude on her Webcam in a sexually charged conversation with someone
she thought was another teenage girl. But her new confidant, it turned
out, was an adult named Julio Bardales from Napa, Calif., law
enforcement officials said. And when the girl stopped complying, she
received an e-mail message from Mr. Bardales containing a montage of her
images. Across them was a threat in red letters that the images would be
revealed unless she showed a frontal nude shot over the Webcam. Mr.
Bardales was subsequently arrested. The police said he possessed images
of more under-age girls on Webcams, including other montages with the
same threat.

Justin says that he did not fully understand the dangers his fans posed,
and before he turned 14, he was first lured from the relative safety of
his home. A man he met online hosted Justin\'s Web site from Ann Arbor,
Mich., and invited him there to attend a computer camp. Justin\'s mother
allowed him to go, thinking the camp sounded worthwhile.

Another time, the man enticed Justin to Michigan by promising to arrange
for him to have sex with a girl. Both times, Justin said, the man
molested him. Transcripts of their subsequent conversations online
support the accusations, and a video viewed by The Times shows that the
man, who appears for a short time in the recording, also taped
pornography of Justin.

From then on, Justin\'s personality took on a harder edge, evident in
the numerous instant messages he made available to The Times. He became
an aggressive negotiator of prices for his performances. Emboldened by a
growing contempt for his audience, he would sometimes leave their
questions unanswered for hours, just to prove to himself that they would
wait for him.

\'\'These people had no lives,\'\' Justin said. \'\'They would never get
mad.\'\'

Unnerved by menacing messages from a fan of his first site, Justin
opened a new one called jfwy.com, an online acronym that loosely
translates into \'\'just messing with you.\'\' This time, following an
idea suggested by one of his fans, he charged subscribers \$45 a month.
In addition, he could command large individual payments for private
shows, sometimes \$300 for an hourlong performance.

\'\'What\'s in the hour?\'\' inquired a subscriber named Gran0Stan in
one typical exchange in 2002. \'\'What do you do?\'\'

\'\'I\'ll do everything, if you know what I mean,\'\' Justin replied.

Gran0Stan was eager to watch, and said the price was fine. \'\'When?\'\'
he asked.

\'\'Tonight,\'\' Justin said. \'\'After my mom goes to sleep.\'\'

As his obsession with the business grew, Justin became a ferocious
competitor. When another under-age site operator called Strider ranked
higher on a popular portal, Justin sent him anonymous e-mail messages,
threatening to pass along images from Strider\'s site to the boy\'s
father. The site disappeared.

\'\'I was vicious,\'\' Justin said. \'\'But I guess I really did Strider
a favor. Looking back, I wish someone had done that to me.\'\'

By then, fans had begun offering Justin cash to meet. Gilo Tunno, a
former Intel employee, gave him thousands of dollars to visit him in a
Las Vegas hotel, according to financial records and other documents.
There, Justin said, Mr. Tunno began a series of molestings. At least one
assault was videotaped and the recording e-mailed to Justin, who has
since turned it over to the F.B.I.

Mr. Tunno played another critical role in Justin\'s business, the
records show. When he was 15, Justin worried that his mother might
discover what he was doing. So he asked Mr. Tunno to sign an apartment
lease for him and pay rent. Justin promised to raise money to pay a
share. \'\'I\'ll whore,\'\' he explained in a message to Mr. Tunno.

Mr. Tunno agreed, signing a lease for \$410 a month for an apartment
just down the street from Justin\'s house. From then on, Justin would
tell his mother he was visiting friends, then head to the apartment for
his next performance. Mr. Tunno, who remains under investigation in the
case, is serving an eight-year federal sentence on an unrelated sexual
abuse charge involving a child and could not be reached for comment.

The rental symbolized a problem that Justin had not foreseen: his adult
fans would do almost anything to ensure that his performances continued.
At its worst, they would stand between him and the people in his offline
life whom they saw as a threat to his Webcam appearances.

For example, when a girlfriend of Justin\'s tried to convince him to
shut down his site in December 2002, a customer heaped scorn on her.

\'\'She actually gets mad at you for buying her things with the money
you make from the cam?\'\' messaged the customer, a man using the
nickname Angelaa. \'\'Just try and remember, Justin, that she may not
love you, but most of us in your chat room, your friends, love you very
much.\'\'

A Life Falls Apart

In early 2003, Justin\'s offline life began to unravel. A former
classmate found pornographic videos on the Internet from Justin\'s Web
site, made copies and handed them out around town, including to students
at his school. Justin was taunted and beaten.

Feeling embarrassed and unable to continue at school, Justin begged his
mother to allow him to be home-schooled through an online program.
Knowing he was having trouble with classmates, but in the dark about the
reasons why, she agreed.

Then, in February, came another traumatic event. Justin had begun
speaking with his father, hoping to repair their relationship. But that
month, Mr. Berry, who had been charged with insurance fraud related to
massage clinics he ran, disappeared without a word.

Despairing, Justin turned to his online fans. \'\'My dad left. I guess
he doesn\'t love me,\'\' he wrote. \'\'Why did I let him back in my
life? Let me die, just let me die.\'\'

His father did not disappear for long. Soon, Mr. Berry called his son
from Mazatlan, Mexico; Justin begged to join him, and his father agreed.

In Mexico, Justin freely spent his cash, leading his father to ask where
the money had come from. Justin said that he confessed the details of
his lucrative Webcam business, and that the reunion soon became a
collaboration. Justin created a new Web site, calling it mexicofriends,
his most ambitious ever. It featured Justin having live sex with
prostitutes. During some of Justin\'s sexual encounters, a traffic
tracker on his site showed hundreds watching. It rapidly became a wildly
popular Webcam pornography site, making Justin one of the Internet\'s
most sought after under-age pornography stars.

For this site, Justin, then 16, used a pricing model favored by
legitimate businesses. For standard subscribers, the cost was \$35,
billed monthly. But discounts were available for three-month, six-month
and annual memberships. Justin used the cash to support a growing
cocaine and marijuana habit.

Money from the business, Justin said, was shared with his father, an
accusation supported by transcripts of their later instant message
conversations. In exchange, Justin told prosecutors and The Times, his
father helped procure prostitutes. One video obtained by the F.B.I.
shows Mr. Berry sitting with Justin as the camera is turned on, then
making the bed before a prostitute arrives to engage in intercourse with
his teenage son. Asked about Justin\'s accusations, Mr. Berry said,
\'\'Obviously, I am not going to comment on anything.\'\'

In the fall of 2003, Justin\'s life took a new turn when a subscriber
named Greg Mitchel, a 36-year-old fast food restaurant manager from
Dublin, Va., struck up an online friendship with the boy and soon asked
to visit him. Seeing a chance to generate cash, Justin agreed.

Mr. Mitchel arrived that October, and while in Mexico, molested Justin
for what would be the first of many times, according to transcripts of
their conversations and other evidence. Mr. Mitchel, who is in jail
awaiting trial on six child pornography charges stemming from this case,
could not be reached for comment.

Over the following year, Justin tried repeatedly to break free of this
life. He roamed the United States. He contemplated suicide. For a time
he sought solace in a return to his boyhood Christianity. At one point
he dismantled his site, loading it instead with Biblical teachings \--
and taking delight in knowing the surprise his subscribers would
experience when they logged on to watch him have sex.

But his drug craving, and the need for money to satisfy it, was always
there. Soon, Mr. Mitchel beckoned, urging Justin to return to
pornography and offering to be his business partner. With Mr. Mitchel,
records and interviews show, Justin created a new Web site,
justinsfriends.com, featuring performances by him and other boys he
helped recruit. But as videos featuring other minors appeared on his
site, Justin felt torn, knowing that these adolescents were on the path
that had hurt him so badly.

Justin was now 18, a legal adult. He had crossed the line from under-age
victim to adult perpetrator.

Look Behind the Secrecy

In June, Justin began communicating online with someone who had never
messaged him before. The conversations involved many questions, and
Justin feared his new contact might be an F.B.I. agent. Still, when a
meeting was suggested, Justin agreed. He says part of him hoped he would
be arrested, putting an end to the life he was leading.

They met in Los Angeles, and Justin learned that the man was this
reporter, who wanted to discuss the world of Webcam pornography with
him. After some hesitation, Justin agreed. At one point, asked what he
wanted to accomplish in his life, Justin pondered for a moment and
replied that he wanted to make his mother and grandmother proud of him.

The next day, Justin began showing the inner workings of his online
world. Using a laptop computer, he signed on to the Internet and was
quickly bombarded with messages from men urging him to turn on his
Webcam and strip.

One man described, without prompting, what he remembered seeing of
Justin\'s genitals during a show. Another asked Justin to recount the
furthest distance he had ever ejaculated. Still another offered an
unsolicited description of the sexual acts he would perform on Justin if
they met.

\'\'This guy is really a pervert,\'\' Justin said. \'\'He kind of scares
me.\'\'

As the sexual pleadings continued, Justin\'s hands trembled. His pale
face dampened with perspiration. For a moment he tried to seem tough,
but the protective facade did not last. He turned off the computer
without a final word to his online audience.

In the days that followed, Justin agreed in discussions with this
reporter to abandon the drugs and his pornography business. He cut
himself off from his illicit life. He destroyed his cellphone, stopped
using his online screen name and fled to a part of the country where no
one would find him.

As he sobered up, Justin disclosed more of what he knew about the Webcam
world; within a week, he revealed the names and locations of children
who were being actively molested or exploited by adults with Webcam
sites. After confirming his revelations, The Times urged him to give his
information to prosecutors, and he agreed.

Justin contacted Steven M. Ryan, a former federal prosecutor and partner
with Manatt, Phelps & Phillips in Washington. Mr. Ryan had learned of
Justin\'s story during an interview with The Times about a related legal
question, and offered to represent him.

On July 14, Mr. Ryan contacted the Child Exploitation and Obscenity
Section of the Justice Department, informing prosecutors that he had a
client with evidence that could implicate potentially hundreds of
people. By then, Mr. Ryan had learned that some of Justin\'s old
associates, disturbed by his disappearance, were hunting for him and had
begun removing records from the Internet. Mr. Ryan informed prosecutors
of the dangers to Justin and the potential destruction of evidence. Two
weeks passed with little response.

Finally, in late July, Justin met in Washington with the F.B.I. and
prosecutors. He identified children who he believed were in the hands of
adult predators. He listed the marketers, credit card processors and
others who supported Webcam child pornography. He also described the
voluminous documentary evidence he had retained on his hard drives:
financial information, conversation transcripts with his members, and
other records. But that evidence would not be turned over, Mr. Ryan
said, until Justin received immunity.

The meeting ended, followed by weeks of silence. Word came back that
prosecutors were wrestling with Justin\'s dual role as a victim and a
perpetrator. Justin told associates that he was willing to plead guilty
if the government would save the children he had identified; Mr. Ryan
dissuaded him.

By September, almost 50 days had passed since the first contact with the
government, with no visible progress. Frustrated, Mr. Ryan informed
prosecutors that he would have to go elsewhere, and contacted the
California attorney general.

That proved unnecessary. Prodded by the F.B.I. and others in the Justice
Department, on Sept. 7, prosecutors informed Mr. Ryan that his client
would be granted immunity. A little more than four weeks after his 19th
birthday, Justin became a federal witness.

A Final Online Confrontation

Five days later, on the third floor of a lakeside house in Dublin, Va.,
Greg Mitchel \-- Justin\'s 38-year-old business partner on his
pornography Web site \-- rested on his bed as he chatted online with
others in his illicit business.

Ever since Justin\'s disappearance weeks before, things had been tense
for Mr. Mitchel. Some in the business already suspected that Justin
might be talking to law enforcement. One associate had already declared
to Mr. Mitchel that, if Justin was revealing their secrets, he would
kill the boy.

But this night, Sept. 12, the news on Mr. Mitchel\'s computer screen was
particularly disquieting. An associate in Tennessee sent word that the
F.B.I. had just raided a Los Angeles computer server used by an
affiliated Webcam site. Then, to Mr. Mitchel\'s surprise, Justin himself
appeared online under a new screen name and sent a greeting.

Mr. Mitchel pleaded with Justin to come out of hiding, inviting the
teenager on an all-expense-paid trip to Las Vegas with him and a
15-year-old boy also involved in Webcam pornography. But Justin
demurred.

\'\'You act like you\'re in witness protection,\'\' Mr. Mitchel typed.
\'\'Are you?\'\'

\'\'Haha,\'\' Justin replied. Did Mr. Mitchel think he would be on the
Internet if he was a federal witness? he asked. Justin changed the
subject, later asking the whereabouts of others who lived with Mr.
Mitchel, including two adolescents; Mr. Mitchel replied that everyone
was home that night.

In a location in the Southwest, Justin glanced from his computer screen
to a speakerphone. On the line was a team of F.B.I. agents who at that
moment were pulling several cars into Mr. Mitchel\'s driveway, preparing
to arrest him.

\'\'The kids are in the house!\'\' Justin shouted into the phone,
answering a question posed by one of the agents.

As agents approached the house, Justin knew he had little time left. He
decided to confront the man who had hurt him for so long.

\'\'Do you even remember how many times you stuck your hand down my
pants?\'\' he typed.

Mr. Mitchel responded that many bad things had happened, but he wanted
to regain Justin\'s trust.

\'\'You molested me,\'\' Justin replied. \'\'Don\'t apologize for what
you can\'t admit.\'\'

There was no response. \'\'Peekaboo?\'\' Justin typed.

On the screen, a message appeared that Mr. Mitchel had signed off. The
arrest was over.

Justin thrust his hands into the air. \'\'Yes!\'\' he shouted.

In the weeks since the first arrest, F.B.I. agents and prosecutors have
focused on numerous other potential defendants. For example, Tim
Richards, identified by Justin as a marketer and principal of
justinsfriends.com, was arrested in Nashville last month and arraigned
on child pornography charges. According to law enforcement officials,
Mr. Richards was stopped in a moving van in his driveway, accompanied by
a young teenage boy featured by Mr. Richards on his own Webcam site. Mr.
Richards has pleaded not guilty.

Hundreds of thousands of computer files, including e-mail containing a
vast array of illegal images sent among adults, have been seized from
around the country. Information about Justin\'s members has been
downloaded by the F.B.I. from Neova.net, the company that processed the
credit cards; Neova and its owner, Aaron Brown, are targets of the
investigation, according to court records and government officials. And
Justin has begun assisting agents with Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, who hope to use his evidence to bring new charges against
an imprisoned child rapist.

Justin himself has found a measure of control over his life. He revealed
the details of his secret life to his family, telling them of all the
times in the past that he had lied to them. He has sought counseling,
kept off drugs, resumed his connection with his church and plans to
attend college beginning in January.

In recent weeks, Justin returned to his mother\'s home in California,
fearing that \-- once his story was public \-- he might not be able to
do so easily. On their final day together, Justin\'s mother drove him to
the airport. Hugging him as they said goodbye, she said that the son she
once knew had finally returned.

Then, as tears welled in her eyes, Justin\'s mother told him that she
and his grandmother were proud of him.

Documenting a Crime That Thrives on Anonymity

Reporting about child pornography on the Internet presents complicated
journalistic and legal issues, both in gathering the information and in
doing so while not violating laws against possession of such images.

In reporting this series, The New York Times interviewed boys and girls
who were operating Webcam sites, as well as adult customers, law
enforcement officials and experts on child safety.

Some minors contacted on the Internet declined to reveal their
identities or locations, but guided The Times to sites where their
customers posted messages. In each instance, The Times encouraged the
youths to shut their sites, speak with their parents or seek counseling.

To verify information received from minors and found online, The Times
obtained an array of documents, including copies of online conversations
and e-mail messages between minors and adult admirers; records of
payments to minors; membership lists from Webcam sites that charge fees;
and information about companies that facilitate their operation. The
Times also examined sites maintained by children and adults, and defunct
sites stored in online archives.

To confirm Justin Berry\'s story, The Times reviewed and obtained access
to thousands of pages of evidence, including files he retained on his
computer over several years, original documents, financial records,
credit card processing data and other information. The paper also
interviewed members of his family and people he knew at various stages
of his life.

Decisions in the reporting were reviewed with Times lawyers to ensure
legal compliance. While it was occasionally necessary to review
offensive images, The Times avoided downloading child pornography or
independently subscribing to sites containing such material. In each
instance that The Times located illegal images on the Internet,
information about them was provided to law enforcement officials. KURT
EICHENWALD

A Hidden World

Related information is online at nytimes.com/national, including:

A video interview with Justin Berry.

How this article was reported.

Who Justin\'s subscribers were.

The history of child pornography.

To report child pornography online: the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children at
[www.cybertipline.com](javascript:window.open('http://www.cybertipline.com');void(0);)
.

To report instances of child exploitation, the center\'s hot line is
1-800-843-5678.

Photos: Justin sometimes received gifts from his adult fans that were
ordered through his wish-list registry at Amazon.com.; Above, Justin
Berry reflected in a computer screen this summer. At left, Justin as he
appeared at age 13 during a Web broadcast from his bedroom. Now 19, he
has become a witness in a wide-ranging federal investigation into online
child pornography. (Photo by Noah Berger for The New York Times)(pg.
A30); Justin Berry at his computer station. He hid Webcams behind his
desk during the day so his mother would not find them.; Justin and his
father, Knute Berry, right, in Mexico. Justin says he told his father of
his business and shared the proceeds.; Recently, Justin has sought
counseling, stayed off drugs and renewed his faith, including being
rebaptized, above.; A teenager\'s self-produced Webcam image. (pg. A31)

Chart: \'\'An Easy Path To Trouble\'\'

Using technology and online services available to more and more
households, minors have begun producing Webcam Internet pornography,
with themselves as both star and victim.

The Tools of Self-Produced Child Pornography

PRIMARY TOOLS

COMPUTERS \-- Sixty-five percent of American homes have access to the
Internet, and faster modems and computer processor speeds now allow
effective streaming of video images.

WEBCAMS \-- These miniaturized cameras allow users to feed live video
across the Web, without the need for a separate Web site. They can be
bought for less than \$25.

INSTANT MESSAGING \-- Allows real-time computer-to-computer private
communication. Instant messaging services on Yahoo, AOL and MSN allow a
user to transmit video as well as text.

SECONDARY TOOLS

NETWORKING SITES \-- Used legitimately by young people seeking friends,
sites like MySpace and Xanga.com are also used by adults to uncover
minors\' personal information or initiate sexual advances.

WISH LISTS \-- Gift registries at sites like Amazon.com allow users to
make lists of their wants. Minors can use them to have an
\'\'admirer\'\' shop for them, rather than paying them outright with
cash.

PAYMENT SITES \-- Services like PayPal and Western Union allow anyone to
transfer funds electronically. Recipients can obtain the cash in many
ways, including by using a cooperating adult\'s debit card.

Graph tracks the number of U.S. households with webcams (in millions)
since 1998.

Online Behaviors That Can Make Minors Vulnerable

The Youth Internet Safety Survey found that young Internet users may
post information or engage in behaviors that leave them open to
predators.

PERCENTAGE OF UNDER AGE INTERNET USERS WHO:

Posted e-mail address for all to see: 21%

Posted some personal information for all to see: 11%

Went to X-rated sites on purpose: 8%

Sent picture of self to someone they met online: 7%

Posted picture of self for all to see: 5%

Talked about sex online with someone they had never met in person: 4%

From a telephone survey conducted by the Crimes Against Children
Research Center from August 1999 to February 2000 of a representative
national sample of 1,501 young people, ages 10 through 17, who use the
Internet regularly.

(Sources by IDC; National Center for Missing and Exploited Children)(pg.
A31)

Document NYTF000020051219e1cj00021