Kids, sex, the Internet

By Julie Foster

Parents of a murdered boy are suing the

North American Man-Boy
Love Association
and the group’s Internet service provider, accusing both of encouraging their son’s killers.

The civil lawsuit was filed in Massachusetts Federal District Court on Tuesday, May 16, and charges NAMBLA with wrongful death.

In 1997, 10-year-old Jeffrey Curley was picked up by two men, one of whom was Charlie Jaynes. The men took Curley to the

Boston Public
Library
where Jaynes accessed NAMBLA’s website.

Jaynes and another man later attempted to sexually assault Curley, but the boy fought back. Attempting to restrain him, Jaynes gagged the 10-year-old with a gasoline-soaked rag, eventually killing him.

According to attorney Larry Frisoli, Jaynes kept a diary in which he wrote that he turned to NAMBLA’s website in order to gain psychological comfort for what he was about to do. The killer had been stalking Curley prior to the boy’s murder.

Both killers are now serving life sentences. The family has filed a $200 million lawsuit against NAMBLA and the Internet service provider that hosted its site, arguing their son might still be alive were it not for the group and its website.

NAMBLA teaches pedophiles how to profile kids, Frisoli told WorldNetDaily.

An overt pedophile organization, NAMBLA provides resources to pedophiles seeking information about sexual relationships between men and boys. Its mission statement says the group “supports the rights of all people to engage in consensual relations, and we oppose laws which destroy loving relationships merely on the basis of the age of the participants.”

While members of NAMBLA say they do not believe all children should engage in such relationships, they do “believe that when this does occur, society should be able to distinguish between those relationships that are loving, supportive and mutually desired, and those which are harmful and involve force or coercion.”

In the organization’s regularly published bulletin, various articles and letters reporting the sexual experiences of members are printed . One statement from the bulletin, as printed in the lawsuit, says, “Call it love, call it lust, call it whatever you want. We desire sex with boys, and boys, whether society is willing to admit it, desire sex with us.”

The statement was excerpted from NAMBLA Bulletin No. 18.4. The publication is described by members as “a nice collection of photos of cute boys (practically on every page.)”

The NAMBLA Constitution and Position Papers state that “… children especially, and all people in general, must be empowered to have control over all aspects of their lives, so far as the exercise of that control does not infringe on the rights of others. Children in our society are presently denied that control and are treated in the law and in fact as virtually the property of their parents and wards of the state, to be used as their parents and the state wish.”

“Sex education should be made available to children as early as children wish,” the document continues.

“I think it’s long overdue that groups like NAMBLA came under the same type of microscope that companies have come under for pushing products seen as dangerous,” Bob Knight, of the

Family Research
Council,
told Family News in Focus, a publication of Focus on the Family.


Verio Inc.,
NAMBLA’s Internet service provider, canceled the group’s service the day after the lawsuit was filed.

Frisoli noted Verio did not begin providing service to the group until Oct. 17, 1997 — 16 days after Curley’s death. Verio was initially named as a defendant in the case, but was removed on May 18. The lawsuit will be amended to include the pro-pedophile group’s ISP from the time of the murder, now referenced only as “John Doe, Inc.”


Queer Resources Directory
includes

NAMBLA
on its website, which “contains 25,317 files about everything queer.”

The Internet service provider in the Curley case will likely use a free speech argument as a defense tactic, Frisoli said.

“Free speech isn’t as absolute as everybody would like to think it is,” he said, mentioning certain restrictions. “Speech is not always protected when it advocates the commission of a crime.”

While federal law exempts ISPs from criminal liability for the actions of its customers, there is no such exemption for civil cases.

The Curley family hopes Jeffrey’s death will be a catalyst for change in the ISP industry.

“There are no industry standards,” remarked Frisoli. “Everybody’s concerned about where we’re going legally. I think [ISPs] would like laws that would allow them to censor” what kinds of information they are disseminating.

“What we’d like to see is some type of further standards … in America with respect to the Internet to protect children,” he concluded.

Related columns:


The darker data


Kinder, gentler pedophiles?

Julie Foster

Julie Foster is a contributing reporter for WorldNetDaily. Read more of Julie Foster's articles here.