April 11

Events

• Current events

1998 - Welcome to the Undernet! - An expose of child molesters in cyberspace entitled "Cybersex Cops" premiered on this date on the A&E series Investigative Reports. The show argued that the Internet provides a powerful, secretive, worldwide medium for distributing child pornography, along with information on child prostitution networks and sex tour operators. It estimated that there were 5000 web sites for child pornography and said that the US Justice Department called it a major growth crime. They said that the exploitation of children in the taking of the pictures was more the concern that the distribution of those pictures afterward. They also promoted the fear that pedophiles who trade in child pornography will, sooner or later, commit sexual crimes in their neighborhood - often using e-mail and Internet chat rooms to arrange dates with kids. On the show they coined the term the "Undernet," defined as "the nefarious alternative where pedophiles and other perverts conduct their secret communications. Strangers aren't welcome in the pedophile chat rooms. The inhabitants are suspicious -- operating under screen names and supplying false identities to their service providers." Gee, I guess that's where we are right now.

2002 - Please ignore the man behind the confessional curtain ... he's not really there at all .... - Father Steve Rossetti, a Catholic priest and a psychologist who has treated priests who have been accused of sexual abuse was interviewed on CNN on this date about the whole pedo priest scandal. In the course of his interview he claimed that about 1.6% to 2% of priests are sexually involved with minors sometime during their career and that about 2.6% to 2.9% of those who go through treatment will relapse and offend again, but 97.1% to 97.4% will not, thus he claimed "most offenders respond well to treatment and can leave chaste lives." By those numbers, it would seem that there is really no problem at all. Well, that's comforting news!