Spam Tastes Gross: Degradation — and illegality — in your in-box

It's a disgusting topic, and one that most people would rather turn away from -- which is just how the pornographers like it, of course. They would rather we just shuddered and threw up our hands. This goes for all pornography, but I am concerned for the moment with the kind that arrives by e-mail, cluttering and blighting your in-box.

How's your e-mail been lately? Mine's been pretty foul. I get between five and ten porno e-mails a day. Others get upwards of 50 -- through no fault of their own, mind you. Let me provide some choice recent samples from my in-box. This isn't "nice" porn; it isn't pretty ladies and men posing on European beaches. It's sick stuff, with a very heavy emphasis on children, incest, and bestiality.

One e-mail has on the subject line, "Family." And inside: "Incest at Its Finest. Grandparents give grandkids sex lessons. Dad & Daughter. Young girl cannot control her urges." One e-mail address is "teeniesuckathon." Another e-mail has on its subject line, "Sorry about the late Christmas gift" (this came in early January). Inside: "Girls F***ing Animals After School" and "Teen Sluts Covered in Sperm." Another e-mail informs, "We have selected a list of the 25 best pay sites in the preteen industry."

Note "preteen": In all likelihood, this is no idle boast, as anyone in the anti-child-porn field will tell you. Preteen means preteen. And that is not only abhorrent, but illegal -- a crime.

A great many people are embarrassed about being the mere recipient of these e-mails. They're apt to think they've done something wrong: that they perhaps were on a naughty site, and thus ensnared for all time. And if they squawk about the porn they're receiving, others might say, "Gee, why are you so interested? Turn you on a little, huh?" (Anti-porn activists get this frequently.) Some people are also afraid of being thought prudish or illiberal if they complain about porn: These things are part of the big, wicked world, and there's the Bill of Rights, of course.

But it bears repeating: Child porn is illegal, and so, for that matter, is "obscenity," whose definition is a lot less slippery than some people think, or than some interested parties pretend. Many people want to do more than "just hit delete" ("JHD," as Internetters put it). If the material is sufficiently bad -- particularly when it involves children -- they want to do something, not just sit there helpless. And they can.

For one thing, they can contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Washington. Four years ago, the center set up what they call the Cyber Tip Line, found at www.cybertipline.com. There a concerned citizen can make a report. He can say, "I found something fishy. Looks like it involves kids. Here it is -- please check it out." People can also go directly to a Justice Department website, www.usdoj.gov/criminal/ceos/report.htm, where further information on reporting child porn is available. No one has to sit helpless, if he doesn't want to.

At the National Center, there are not only the outfit's own staff but federal agents from the Postal Service, Customs, and the FBI. All of these scour the Internet and deal with citizen tips. According to John Rabun, chief operating officer of the center, the more tips about one site -- or one "spammed" e-mail -- the better. "It's the old squeaky- wheel thing." Law enforcement is making plenty of arrests off the tips; the center has been receiving about 900 a week. But the arrests, says Rabun, constitute just a drop in the bucket -- which is better than nothing at all, of course.

One citizen who is very definitely "on the case" is Julie Posey, a homemaker in Colorado. She's a heroine of the anti-child-exploitation movement, its archangel, or avenging angel, its Joan of Arc. When you read about her and talk with her, you think, "They should really make a movie about her." And they are: A company has just bought the rights to her story.

Julie Posey's role in life is to monitor the Internet looking for the abuse of children, sniffing out the pedophiles who lurk there. Her entire operation is detailed and resident at www.pedowatch.org. "My mission," she says on her site, "is to protect children online from the predators who abuse them. I do this by receiving tips from people on the Internet about suspicious activity that they have found and following up on the information. I then identify the suspects involved and pass the information along with all evidence to law enforcement for further investigation." Her work has led to more than 20 arrests and convictions. Nothing gives her more satisfaction than to see a pedophile hauled away. The average pedophile, she says, will rape or otherwise molest 200 children in his "career." Every time she busts someone, or leads to that bust, she thinks, "Well, that's X number of children saved from that particular pedophile." The drops in the bucket add up.

Posey herself was raped when she was an adolescent; the rapist got 90 days. He raped again, of course: and then was put away for longer. Posey is fearless in going about her work. Others, she understands, can't be so fearless. "People are afraid to contact police," she says. "They want to make anonymous tips." They're sort of paralyzed. Since her efforts have been publicized -- there was a profile recently in the Los Angeles Times -- people have flooded her website, wanting her to act on this or that offense. She can hardly keep up. She herself uses www.cybertipline.com. A better situation, of course, would be a nation of Julie Poseys, thousands of citizens who get off their duffs when they spot child porn or suspect child endangerment. Some people -- such as defense attorneys -- view Posey as a "vigilante" and "busybody." But she has earned the admiration and gratitude of law enforcement. Professional badge-wearers can't conduct this war alone.