Part II: The Road to Perversion Is Paved With Pornography     4/20/2006 By Jan LaRue, Chief Counsel Porn industry panders to predators with 'teen porn.' "Karen," who didn't want her real name used, was married for 11 years to her second husband before she discovered shocking images on his computer. "Usually girls, but sometimes boys, who are just over 18, but who are marketable because they look like they're under 18," said Karen. Her emotions went from confusion and anger to fear for her teenage daughter after discovering the collection. "I was very concerned that he was going to begin to sexualize her and her friends," said Karen.1 "Karen's" husband became a threat to his own child after starting down a dark, dead-end road with no safety rails, no warning signs and no speed limit. The "adult" porn industry paves the road, operates the toll gates, and cares nothing about who's wrecked and ruined along the way. Ask yourself: What kind of "adult" markets a product that portrays "kids" as sex objects? Who is the porn industry pandering to by producing and distributing "teen porn"? Who believes that what we feed our minds doesn't affect our behavior? A "teen porn" search of the World Wide Web on any given day will provide 7 to 8 million "hits." And "regular guys" like Karen's husband are hitting on it. One "teen porn" company, Extreme Associates, is facing trial in federal court on charges of distributing obscene materials through interstate commerce. Extreme lists 38 DVDs on its Web site with "teen" in the title. They're hard-core and prosecutable under the Supreme Court's ruling in Miller v. California. When Extreme was indicted in 2003, No. 24 in its "teen" DVD series was named in the indictment. The box cover for No. 24 includes a photo of a very young-looking and barely developed "Black Cat" in pigtails, coyly lifting the top of her little girl pajamas. The promo for No. 24 describes "young 'suzie' donned in pink pajamas, pigtails, and sucking on a pacifier." Do you know any "teen" that sucks a pacifier? The box cover for No. 37 is a photo that matches the description of "young suzie," with the added touch of 'suzie' cuddling a stuffed lion. The caption below the photo reads, "Slumber Party Massacre!! 5 Young Willing Teens ******* Like Animals!" When the Extreme indictment was announced, the "mainstream adult" industry tried to distance itself by feigning criticism of Rob Zicari, co-owner of Extreme Associates: Paul Fishbein, president of Adult Video News [AVN],the trade journal of the pornographic film industry, said Zicari produced "horrible, unwatchable, disgusting, aberrant movies." Nonetheless, Fishbein said were he judging the case he'd have to rule that they "were not obscene, because the First Amendment is pure and has to remain pure."2 Fishbein exposed AVN's purely hypocritical backside by presenting its "2006 Adult Video News Reuben Sturman Award" to none other than Robert and Janet Zicari. AVN also presented the 2006 award for "Most Outrageous Sex Scene" to "Burning Angel/VCA," for "Blood, Disembowelment and F****** … What Fun." Do the AVN awards mean that Fishbein has been desensitized by his porn consumption or is he just a fraud? In a guest editorial for AVN, Rodger Jacobs leaves no doubt that Fishbein is financially dependent on pornographers. Fishbein does what it takes to keep the pimps' favor: As a man who buys his groceries with the proceeds from a trade magazine, Paul Fishbein has ample reason to regain the good favor of producers and manufacturers any time that faith strays. Trade magazines rely on advertisers' greenbacks to create a revenue stream, even more so than general interest magazines because trades have limited commercial appeal and tend to have a high rate of controlled circulation (magazines sent free of charge to individuals who work within the industry).3 The consequences to kids couldn't count less to an industry driven by insatiable greed and depraved indifference. In 2002, Fishbein made a "plea" to the industry to self-censor rather than market pseudo child porn. But Max Hardcore seems like Bambi compared to, say, the Extreme Teen series, with such scenarios as little girls being sodomized by their stepfathers. How did the adult industry get to this point? … Why does the industry need to simulate child pornography by depicting 18-year-olds, or even 25-year-olds, as underage? Just because the United States Supreme Court ruled this past April that depictions of people under the age of 18 having explicit sex, as long as they actually are not minors, are not child porn, does that mean producers really have to push that envelope. … Why do we always have to sink to the lowest level possible to try to titillate? Is this what our society needs?4 And who received AVN's "Best Vignette Series" awards for 2003 and 2004? It was none other than bottom-feeder Hustler, for its "Barely Legal" series. The May 2004 AVN dispels any notion that Fishbein's "plea" had a scintilla of sincerity. AVN brazenly admits how the industry is "cashing in on the teen revenue stream": AVN's database reveals literally hundreds of videos released in 2003 that contained the number "18," the words "eighteen," "teen," "young," "little," "virgin," "fresh," "ripe," "tender," or "cheerleader," and uses of the words "legal" and "barely" to indicate women who aren't long past their eighteenth birthdays. The abundance of "young girl" videos alone speaks to the genre's popularity. "Sin City is just pumping these things out," noted publicist Jeff Mullen. "We're on the eighth volume now of our Barely 18. [Vol. 24 is now available.] … We're making plans to shoot more Sin City Teen lines. It recognizes the success that has been seen in the marketplace by other companies, and it's a way to adjust the marketing of Sin City product to encompass the teen buyer." And it sells! Plenty of the industry's biggest buyers are only too happy to soak up as many "teen" titles as they can.5 Another resident of the lowest levels is "Max Hardcore": "We make the girls look as fresh and as cute and cuddly as possible - 'adorable cupie dolls,' I call it - and of course, like they just turned 18," he explained. "Obviously, not under 18, because that wouldn't be too cool. And there's a title card at the beginning of each movie that reads, 'No actors or actresses are intended to be portrayed as being under the age of 18.' So it really doesn't matter what the **** they say; it's just open to interpretation of the viewer. I put it to the girls this way: 'You're 18 with the mentality of a 14-year-old. You want to experiment, you want to try things. Anything your parents told you not to do, you're gonna want to do.' I'm emphasizing the point that these girls are right up to the minute legal and eager."6 An April 15, 2006, search for "teen," "schoolgirl" and "boy" on AVN and its GAYVN Web site produced hundreds of titles and hard-core still photos from the videos, promo blurbs and the names of the production companies. And they're all for sale on the Web sites. In addition to AVN, highly paid lawyers help the porn industry cash in on "teen porn" without checking in to prison. Attorney Paul Cambria, who represents several of the largest porn companies, says: If you look at the storylines, they open up by clearly having the person say, "You know, I just graduated from high school; I'm 19 years old; I'm 18," that sort of thing in every story. So content plus cover plus title, my advice to them was that all those things be done, because they're not trying to create the impression that somebody's underage; they're just trying to convey the fact that someone is young.7 Does "teen porn" "titillate"? A Web search on April 15, 2006, combining the term "soliciting minor for sex" with "pornography," produced 256,000 "hits." David Greenfield, psychologist and author of the book Virtual Addiction, says the Internet creates a sense of disinhibition. "People do and say things online that they never would do otherwise. The people I see in my office - they're not perverts, but they get online and suddenly, they're sex fiends."8 Kenneth Lanning, a former FBI profiler, believes many offenders have harbored?and suppressed?deviant urges for years. "They may never have acted out. They were able to control it, and along comes the Internet ... which is like pouring fuel on smoldering embers."9 A word to "regular guys": "Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned?"10 A few days ago a 26-year-old "with a fear of flying" flew from Massachusetts to Alabama after allegedly paying $1,200 for three hours of videotaping "two or three 10-to12-year-old girls performing oral sex on him." His e-mail "order" says that "pigtails, freckles, and school uniforms would be a plus." FBI agents took Luke Simon Goljan, an "independent film producer for ITV Direct of Beverly" into custody.11 Michael William Schleicher, a high school band teacher, was arraigned in Anoka County, Minnesota, district court March 24, 2006, and charged with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of soliciting a minor for sex. Schleicher allegedly solicited teenage girls for sex and used his live-streaming video Web cam to practice and record sex acts. "In his home, several computers and disks containing child and adult pornography were discovered, according to the complaint."12 The office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced the arrest of Timothy McDarrah on September 14, 2005, on charges of using the Internet to entice someone he believed to be a 13-year-old girl to engage in sexual activities. According to the complaint, McDarrah allegedly responded to an advertisement in the "erotic services" section of the popular Internet Web site "craigslist," offering the "freshest, youngest girls" available in all ages, and specified in graphic terms the sexual activity he desired.13 An individual expecting sex with a 12-year-old had with him a duffle bag containing a digital camera, tripod, a video camera, four sections of nylon rope, one bottle of "Secret Passion love lotion" and a short story titled "The Seduction of an Angel." The story detailed an incestuous relationship between a father and his 16-year-old daughter. After the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children received a cybertipline report on April 8, 2003, federal and state law enforcement took the suspect into custody when he arrived at a Knoxville, Tennessee, hotel. A judge in a child pornography case opined that "if it were necessary for literary or artistic value, a person over the statutory age who perhaps looked younger could be utilized"14 in a sex scene. Other than perverts and pornographers, who thinks the judge had in mind an entire genre of porn marketed as "teen," "young," "little," "virgin," "fresh," "ripe," "tender," or "cheerleader," or that it has any "literary or artistic value"? Even though "teen porn" isn't prosecutable as child pornography if the performers are 18 or older, nothing prevents its prosecution under state and federal obscenity laws. Decent adults aren't going to be ideal jurors, as porn defense attorney Louis Sirkin worries: The material's possible impact on the jury is, for Sirkin, of prime concern. The thing that's troubling is, with some of this stuff, the packaging has a psychological impact on the jury as to what the appeal is, or what it's trying to attract. … I mean, a prosecutor, when he goes back to the case in closing argument, he'll usually pick up the box and show it, and we're beginning to see that.15 [Italics added.] A word to state and federal prosecutors-bring it on. Whether one of you "regular guys" ends up running over a child, your drive down the dead-end porn road is hurting you and those you care about. Every mile defiles your thoughts about women and girls and affects the way you treat your mother, sister, friend, co-worker, wife, daughter and the rest of us. You can't consume degrading depictions and descriptions of women and "teens" and continue to treat us with respect as human beings. Stop now and call for help if you need it. Otherwise, be prepared for the day when you need a mouse to reach the only "women" willing to spend time with you. To read Part I, click here. Part III of this series will show how the porn industry grooms kids for sexual exploitation by displaying online porn in their view. This article first appeared on Human Events Online. Send this article to a friend: End Notes Lynn Sherr, "Shadowy Addiction: Cyberporn Is Having Damaging Effects on Users Who Can't Stop Clicking," ABCNEWS.com, August 27, 2004. Jake Tapper, "Court Deals Blow to U.S. Anti-Porn Campaign," ABC News, January 24, 2005, available at: http://www.sodomylaws.org/lawrence/lwnews165.htm. Rodger Jacobs, "Punks With Slingshots," AVN, March 2001, available at: http://www.adultvideonews.com/archives/200103/editorial/edit0301_02.html. Paul Fishbein, "No Conviction Thankfully, But Do We Really Need to Push This Envelope," Adult Video News, December 2002, available at: http://www.adultvideonews.com/editorial/edit1202_01.html. "Chronic Youth: Safely Cashing in on Adult's Teen Revenue Stream," Adult Video News, May 2004. Ibid. Ibid. Tracy Connor, "From Pillars to Pervs,"New York Daily News, November 1, 2003, available at: http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/132940p-118590c.html. Ibid. Proverbs 6:27, New International Version. Shelley Murphy, "Salem filmmaker held in Alabama on child pornography charges," The Boston Globe, April 11, 2006, B4. Sue Austreng, "Spring Lake Park High School band teacher charged on two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, one count of soliciting a minor for sex," ABC Newspapers, March 30, 2006, available at: http://www.abcnewspapers.com/2006/March/30offsex.html. "U.S. Arrests Magazine Reporter for Using the Internet to Entice a Minor Girl for Sexual Activity," September 15, 2005, available at: http://www.gawker.com/news/crime/us-weekly-staffer-timothy-mcdarrah-arrested-125875.php. New York v. Ferber, 458 U.S. 747, 762-63 (1982). "Chronic Youth: Safely Cashing in on Adult's Teen Revenue Stream," Adult Video News, May 2004.