Call Me Lucky Page #9

of Senator DeWine now

who is less competent

in this area

of computers than I am.

- Each bravely disregarded

his cyber illiteracy

and went on to espouse

numerous platitudes

and make impassioned,

ambiguous statements.

- You know, I'm not a lawyer,

and I'm not going to say

that I know exactly where things

fall within the Constitution.

- After hundreds of hours

of documenting

things to sickening to relate,

my moment had arrived.

A man stepped up beside me.

After months of knocking

on AOL's door,

I was suddenly face to face

with Bill Burrington.

My name is Bill Burrington.

- America Online's

Assistant General Counsel

and Director of

Government Affairs.

Burrington was nattily attired

and youthfully handsome

with male model, slicked back,

wind tunnel resistant hair.

His shoes were worth

more than my education.

So there I sat'

my heart pounding

but in the right place.

Sitting in the sterile,

formal environment

of the U.S. Senate

hearing chamber,

I was haunted by

the horrifying images

I had seen over the

past seven months.

The children with the dead eyes

and (he defiled bodies.

I wished everyone

could see the pictures.

I wished no one

could see the pictures.

And I thought about the kids

who could still be protected.

My name is Barry Crimmins.

I'm a writer and a children's

rights and safety advocate

residing in Lakewood, Ohio.

I'm also an adult survivor

of childhood sexual abuse.

I go into this hearing with my

suit and my Jerry Garcia tie on

and I look like a, you know,

a marijuana grower

at his arraignment.

Much of the controversy

surrounding the problems

of online pedophile centers

on parental controls.

- Parental control protects

the vast majority of families

where parents want to control

what their children do.

In many cases, the parents

themselves are the perpetrators

of these crimes.

This issue completely

disregards the serious reality.

AOL constantly has rooms

entitled "Family Fun,"

"Nudist Families,"

"Incest is Best,"

"Have Hot Step Daughter,"

and so on.

In these rooms,

child pornography is traded

and incest is discussed

and celebrated.

Many of the photos that are

exchanged are purportedly

of people's own children.

- Mr. Crimmins rejects parental

control on the basis

that some parents transmit

images of their own children.

But we think this

misses the point.

- I'm all for

parental control software.

I was, I was mischaracterized

as being against it.

I just pointed out a flaw in it'

that some parents

abuse their children.

- He was angry, and they're

not used to hearing anger.

And of course he was angry.

Look at what he'd

just been through.

They weren't quite sure

what to make of Barry.

I hope this will result in the

arrest of numerous traffickers

m child pornography.

I also hope that it establishes

that AOL has had a great deal

of prior knowledge as to how

its service is being misused

and therefore AOL

facilitates and profiteers

on these dastardly crimes.

- I think that there were

some statements made that are,

are accurate and some

that are a bit misleading

and we appreciate Mr. Crimmins

involvement in this issue.

We want to make sure we

have an accurate record.

We want to work with

Congress to protect children;

empower parents to screen

out unwanted material;

and preserve constitutional

guarantees of free speech,

free press and

individual privacy.

- These people are

deluding themselves

if they think child pornography

is protected speech.

It is not.

It is crime evidence.

During his testimony,

he made several patronizing

references to me,

and he attempted to

dismiss as dated

many of the problems

I described.

- Much of the activity that

Mr. Crimmins has been involved

on America Online

occurred early this year,

in January/February.

Last Monday afternoon'

I was sent numerous files

of child pornography.

I attempted to forward it

to AOL's post office boxes,

the toss adviser,

toss email, they...

n said that n was unavailable

because it was full

in both cases.

I don't know how much it

would cost them to open up

another mail box

for themselves.

And I haven't heard back

about those files,

for example,

and I very rarely do.

- Now, in your case,

you did receive responses.

I've reviewed the correspondence

and you received responses...

- I've received

responses at times,

but I haven't received

responses at other times.

And the more heinous it is,

the less response I get.

It's like there's denial

involved or something.

Well, there's no denial here.

We're trying the best we

can to manage our growth.

- Mr. Burrington, let me

make sure I understand

what your testimony is.

You mention that it's

your company's policy

that if we've got a room

full of pedophiles

and you see that going on,

that you try to zap that out.

Is that correct?

- We truly have pretty much

"three strikes, you're out"

at America Online, as a

lot of the services do,

which is you are

given a warning...

- I don't think child... people

trafficking child pornography

should get three strikes.

I think they

should get one strike.

I don't think that they

deserve three strikes.

I think that's a heinous crime,

and I think one strike

and you should be out

for child pornography.

- OK, let's take it,

if I could...

- And all of a sudden

I see Chuck Grassley

lean over to his aide and go.

"Who is this guy?"

And, you know,

the guy goes,

"He's one of ours. "

Grassley's like'

"Oh, OK, OK."

I had 'em.

And Burrington

from that point on

had lost his very

expensive footing.

I've explained this to AOL,

I've sent them extensive

questions...

I've almost did an

interrogatory...

for the past several months.

Their response has been

arrogant and dismissive.

Barn/ continued,

and the buzzer's going off.

How close are you to, uh...

- I'm getting there.

I'm very close.

- OK, I hope so.

- OK.

- Barry's just blowing

right through 'em.

- It's not hyperbolic to state

that AOL is the key link

in a network of child

pornography traffickers

that has grown exponentially

over the last several months.

What has recently taken place

is nothing short

of the de facto

decriminalization

of child pornography.

This is a full scale emergency'

and I'm here to tell the

American people today

that not only are their

children in danger

when they're on AOL'

they're in danger

because of America Online.

Thank you.

- I remember not really

getting the depth

of what Barry had been through

until I saw a list of the names

of the chat rooms.

And when I sat with

that list on my desk'

after I printed it out,

I just put my head down

on my desk and sobbed.

And...

it wasn't only because

of my own abuse,

you know, because

I saw, you know,

"Daddy Does Daughter,"

and, you know,

just this vile, you know,

representation of violence

against children.

But it was because

I saw just in words

what Barry had been through.

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