Ghelardini Arrested

According to some Romanian news stories, Paolo Ghelardini was arrested a couple of days ago for child pornography, detained for 24 hours, and possibly taken to Bucharest for further proceedings. His house and another building were searched by law enforcement.

BBC One - Social Networks and Pedophiles

Sexual Predators Share Disturbing Images on Facebook

Fox News New York had a story about Facebook users sharing child pornography.

FBI officials describe illegal photo sharing on social networks as "rampant." Nickolas Savage, assistant security chief of the FBI's cyber division, says pedophiles exchanging pictures on social networks can feed a vicious cycle.

"They can meet other people like themselves, and go off and validate their behavior," Savage says. "When they trade with others there's always a sense they need more material."

Child predators even steal innocent pictures of children that could come from their parent's Facebook profiles and unlocked photo albums.

Stolen or illegal images can be reported to Facebook right on the site. The company removes them. But Bechard thinks the company should do more.

They shut somebody out, but they don't lock the door," he says. "They just come back right in as another profile, putting up the same images and trading the same information with other pedophiles."

This is consistent with what we've seen.  For example, "Jimmy Lemoni" (ab)uses the grou.ps social network to create a new group dedicated to child pornography.  For obvious reasons, the URL has been redacted.

His friend "Ddeby Cchrm" came back with a new account very quickly after Facebook shut down the previous one.  Given the interests, it probably shouldn't be too surprising that "Ddeby" also seems to be involved in the group that Jimmy was advertising.

Porn and School Uniforms

School uniforms are apparently a turn-on for some people.  Professional models and performers may use them as props.

From my perspective, the photo above wasn't really a problem.  Although I had no interest in viewing the video, it appeared to involve only consenting adults.  However, the logo on the sweater is associated with a particular order that's established a number of Catholic schools, and I wondered whether the order could sue the porn producer for trademark dilution.  Maybe, it turned out.  A helpful law school professor pointed me to a 1979 decision involving the Dallas Cowboys and said that the school would need to be able to show "a protectable trademark interest in their uniforms."

Practically speaking, there's no way that a school can guarantee that a distinctive piece of uniform clothing that students are required to buy will never show up in online porn.  A few years ago, a 17-year-old student at a Catholic high school in the Bronx appeared in a porn video.  Given the volume of low-quality amateur porn out there, it's unlikely that this would have gotten much attention -- except that the student apparently wore her school uniform for part of it.

It's not unusual for pedophiles on social networks to display children in their profile pictures to signal their interests.  We've seen a few of them with photos of kids in school uniforms.  Nieza Anousha has connections to some more obviously predatory users and is also displaying an image of a prepubescent girl sitting in a way that provides a clear view up her skirt.  (We've blacked out the faces of both girls.)

The solid color polo shirts and navy skirts look like school uniforms.  Luckily for the girls, they can't be readily identified.  This is a good thing since some pedophiles take a disturbing interest in the real names and locations of children in the photos that they trade.  That's why it really blew my mind when I discovered that some Catholic schools now require students' shirts and sweaters to be embroidered with the child's first initial and last name.  What were the administrators thinking?

The Real McCoy

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Christopher McCoy was arrested Thursday.

A 48-year-old Granite City man was being held without bail Thursday after Madison County prosecutors charged him with 10 counts of aggravated child pornography.

Stephanee Smith, a spokeswoman for the Madison County state's attorney's office, said Christopher H. McCoy of the 2900 block of Willow Avenue had thousands of pornographic images of children on compact discs, memory sticks and a laptop computer. She said the children depicted ranged from toddlers to teen-agers. Smith said there was no indication McCoy knew the children.

We were familiar with Christopher McCoy's Facebook account, which has since been shut down.  Below is the profile photo he used, which is somewhat more flattering than his mugshot.

A couple of people in our group ran "alt" accounts where they posed as high school girls.  McCoy got pretty creepy.  In one message, he said, "I enjoy pthc loli incest favs are 9 and under."  In another, he said, "I live across the river in granite city a steel mill town I wrk across the river in st louis .mmmm 14 is very sexy wher in wi u live [...]  wats the oldest man u been wit and how old were u."  Hopefully, the police are investigating this guy thoroughly.

He also expressed an interest in "nudism" and posted this [NSFW] cellphone photo of himself online.

Chris Wittwer Rides Again

Given that Chris Wittwer has repeatedly asked people to mass-report users, groups, and pages, one might imagine that he takes Facebook's Rights and Responsibilities very seriously.  So imagine our surprise when we saw him blatantly advertising a new profile he'd just created called "Chris Wittwer-Two."

Makes one almost wonder how many accounts he has in all.  Of course, he also seems to lose friends regularly, so perhaps that will limit the number of profiles he needs.  In the exchange below, he accuses a woman of being a pedophile lover and threatens to publicize information about her children.  What a class act.

Chris Wittwer

Chris Wittwer has gotten some press for posting names, photos, and addresses of registered sex offenders in the UK on his website.  He's named his group "Children Have Rights in Society."  The first letters of this spell out "C.H.R.I.S."  As in his name.  Of course, one problem with this is that pedophiles sometimes like to talk about "children's rights" too.  As in claiming that children should have the "right" to have sex with adults.  It's surprising that someone who claims to be very knowledgeable about online predators would not have known that.

He's had some legal issues related to anger management problems at football games and other locations.  It's unclear whether he will face charges related to posting prohibited information about a notorious juvenile offender's alleged new identity on his website.  Perhaps it's not too surprising that there's a large "Make a Donation" button that appears at the top of every page on his site, including that one.  There are also frequent requests for funds on the C.H.R.I.S. Facebook page.  Although the site has a plethora of links, there's no information about how much money the organization raises or where it goes.  C.H.R.I.S. even displays an animated graphic of a burning candle to honor children who have died of abuse.  How could one be so cynical and unmoved as to ask questions about the lack of financial transparency?  That would be almost as crass as asking about the origin of the fire that burned down the pub he used to run.

Mr. Wittwer also claims that he's been "attacked three times near his home" by sex offenders he's put on his site.  Child molesters are often wimps that avoid confrontation with adults, so it's rather amazing that there would have been three attacks.

Chris Wittwer actually has been involved in a fair amount of online conflict.  But is it really just a matter of him being targeted by online predators?  Based on screenshots someone sent me, it doesn't look like it.  He's essentially encouraging members of his group to mass-report another Facebook group called "Sexual abuse must stop."  Is this group preying on children or even violating Facebook's policies?  Not that I could see.  But it did contain some people that Chris didn't like.  Presumably, that was enough.