Child porn victim to testify before Congress

(4/04/06) -- Justin Berry was a 13-year-old honor student and class president when he started down a dark and dangerous path.

It began with a webcam that he had hooked up to his bedroom computer with the intention of interacting with other kids his age. Within minutes of hooking it up, Berry had received his first message from a man he would later learn was a child predator.

He is now fighting back and today will testify on Capitol Hill about the child pornography rings that exist online.

Berry began running his own webcam porn site. More than 1,000 adults paid to watch. It was all hidden from his mother, until Kurt Eichenwald, a New York Times reporter, discovered his image on the Web. Eichenwald then wrote a long investigative piece about child pornography on the Internet for the Times.

"You don't realize how bad these people are," Berry told Oprah Winfrey on her show. "They can manipulate you to do just about anything."

In Berry's case, they did. At first, he was offered $50 to take off his shirt. It quickly escalated beyond any parent's imagination. Over the next five years, Berry became an Internet child porn star who was offered gifts, thousands in cash, and trips by predators who at first watched him through his webcam, and then arranged meetings in person.

"The magnitude of how terrifying this is cannot be overstated. These kids are being subjected to daily constant manipulation by the most talented manipulators I have ever seen," Eichenwald said.

Experts say that parents need to understand the technology they are putting in the hands of their children.

"Too often we're plunking down our money for technology that can put our children at risk," said Parry Aftab, executive director of WiredSafety. "What we need to do is think before we buy and before we click."

Berry has since turned his list of clients over to the Justice Department. He is now a federal witness -- whose life has been threatened by the men who once seduced him.

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