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Don’t Thank Yahoo! for Solving Abduction Case: AFA Expert 1/16/2002 Don’t Thank Yahoo! for Solving Abduction Case: AFA Expert A specialist on combating child pornography says the FBI should not be congratulating Internet service provider Yahoo! for helping to solve a recent kidnapping case, because Yahoo!’s permissive policies facilitated the abduction in the first place. “The FBI credited a tipster, as well as the Internet service provider Yahoo!, with helping to rescue the girl,” read a January 5 Washington Post article on the kidnapping of a 13-year-old girl from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Alicia Kozakiewicz, by 38-year-old reported sadist Scott Tyree of Herndon, Virginia. Kozakiewicz was found chained to a bed in Tyree’s townhouse, two days after leaving her home without telling her parents where she was going. The FBI had to use bolt cutters to free the girl, who authorities believe had been in an online relationship with Tyree. American Family Association Director of Government Affairs Pat Trueman said Yahoo! should not be thanked for its role in solving the crime. “It’s outrageous that the FBI would thank Yahoo!,” Trueman told C&F Report. “Yahoo! makes available all of the tools child molesters like Scott Tyree need to find and abuse kids.” “Yes, Yahoo! turned over the name and address of Tyree to authorities but that doesn’t exonerate it in this case,” said Trueman. “Yahoo! hosted Tyree’s club and many others that cater to younger kids meeting adults for sex.” The FBI requested profile and contact information for the suspected kidnapper from Yahoo! after it received a tip from a Florida man. The unnamed man connected the missing girl to one of his Internet contacts by comparing a published newspaper photo of the missing girl with a recent Web-cam image sent by Tyree. This is not the first such case. In August of last year, a 15-year-old Massachusetts girl was kidnapped and raped by a man who then advertised the girl for rent on another Yahoo! club. Cases like the Kozakiewicz kidnapping are on the increase, according to authorities. “I’m seeing far too many of these cases coming across my desk, and I mean older persons trying to solicit children for illicit activities,” Pittsburgh Police Detective John Wilbur told The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Wilbur is assigned to the FBI Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force and was one of the investigators on the Kozakiewicz case. According to authorities, Tyree used the Internet name “Slave master for teen girls” and, under hobbies, his profile read “training young female slaves to serve me in all ways. If being treated as property to be used [and] abused for your owner’s pleasure and amusement [suits you], then you may be worthy to serve me.” Tyree had a basement full of bondage, torture and sadomasochistic sex devices, according to authorities, many of which were pictured on his Web site. Tyree was also listed as belonging to 19 Yahoo! Internet clubs including “young virgin slave market.” In a January 7 press release, Trueman said, “On this club today a man is offering his 13-year-old stepdaughter for sex. He provides a description of the girl, the kind of sex she will perform, indicates that he will deliver her to a home or hotel, and urges those interested to e-mail him at his Yahoo! e-mail address to discuss price.” Trueman told C&F Report that Yahoo! took down the “young virgin slave market” club soon after the distribution of the AFA release. Yahoo! has taken a lot of heat from conservative groups which point to numerous Internet clubs dedicated to incest, rape, and adult-child sex. Yet, a Yahoo! spokesman says its company policy is not to host illegal content. The unnamed spokesman told The National Journal reporter Drew Clark, “We have a very good track record of looking into it and taking appropriate action.” Still, if Trueman can easily find clubs such as “young virgin slave market,” why doesn’t the U.S. Justice Department investigate them? “The Justice Department has been totally inactive in pursuing such crimes, even though Attorney General John Ashcroft told us in May that it would be a top priority,” said Trueman. “Granted, the Attorney General has had his hands full with terrorism issues, but when the head of an organization sets priorities, you would expect the staff to follow through, but the Justice Department’s Criminal Division has not.” Trueman added that before the January 7 press release was made public, he reported the information on the man selling his stepdaughter for sex to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTipLine. He added that currently the center is the leading organization fighting child sexual exploitation. Previously, information sent to the CyberTipLine first went to the FBI’s Innocent Images office for investigation. That office held the information for a week until it decided whether or not it would investigate. Once the FBI declined to investigate, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children could act. “Now, with that FBI office losing personnel to the war on terrorism, tips go almost directly to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which contacts local law enforcement,” said Trueman. “As a result, the center has been highly successful in tracking and catching Internet predators.” Still, it’s important that the Justice Department act, and that Yahoo! eliminates all pornography clubs. To both ends the AFA has called for a boycott of Yahoo! by concerned families, and has begun a petition drive aimed at the Justice Department. |
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