Internet Anti-Luring Law
cadieux@librarybook.com
Thu, 9 Oct 1997 21:23:44 -0400
Date: Thu, 9 Oct 1997 21:23:44 -0400
Message-Id: <3.0.32.19971009212657.007be7a0@librarybook.com>
From: cadieux@librarybook.com
To: Multiple recipients of list <conntech>
Subject: Internet Anti-Luring Law
Oct. 9, 1997
>From CyberTimes, the New York Times on the Web
By Carl S. Kaplan
There is one recently enacted Internet censorship law that seems to be a
keeper -- and that could serve as a model for other states to follow. The
American Civil Liberties Union has not targeted it for assassination. A
major anti-porn group thinks it's a step in the right direction.
The law that almost everyone seems to love is New York Penal Law 235.22.
Effective Nov. 1, 1996, the statute makes it a crime to disseminate
indecent material online to minors for the specific purpose of inducing
them to engage in sexual acts.
In the recent Brooklyn case, People v. Barrows, Justice Alan Marrus of the
New York State Supreme Court for the first time upheld an indictment under
the luring statute.
The defendant in the case was a Connecticut resident who was the target of
a sting operation orchestrated by the Brooklyn district attorney.
According to evidence presented to the grand jury, the Barrows case began
when an investigator posed as a 13-year old girl with the name of "Tori 83"
in a private chat room operated by America Online.
Among numerous conversations in the "preteen" room on Aug. 21, 1996, the
investigator had the opportunity to talk to a person with the screen name
of "Captain Jake." After a number of chats, Captain Jake asked "Tori 83" if
she liked older men, and if she would go into a private chat room, "XX
Jake," where "she" and Captain Jake could have a sexually explicit
conversation. Upon entering the inner sanctum, Captain Jake told Tori that
he was not just into "cyber"; he would like to meet with "Tori 83." Later,
Captain Jake sent Tori two indecent stories and some photo files.
According to legal papers, a meeting was arranged between Captain Jake and
Tori 83 for Dec. 23, 1996, in the Tamaqua fishing station in Gerritson
Beach, Brooklyn. At the appointed hour, a female undercover officer was
stationed on a boat. The defendant pulled into the parking lot of the
fishing station, approached the young woman. She asked him, "Are you
Captain Jake?" He said, "Yes, I am. Are you Tori?" The defendant, James
Barrows, also known as Captain Jake, was then arrested. A search of his car
netted a rope, a sexual lubricant and paper towels.
Based on this evidence, a grand jury indicted Barrows, 56, of Madison, Ct.,
on charges of obscenity, child pornography and for violating the Internet
"luring" law.
The above article was edited for ConnTech to reduce length.
Please read full text at:
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/law/100997law.html