By JUAN CARLOS LLORCA
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Graphic charts the number of babies adopted from Russia, China and
Guatemala from 1996 to 2005. (AP Graphic)
GUATEMALA CITY -- Every 100th baby born in Guatemala grows up as an
adopted American, making the Central American country the richest source
of adoptees in the Western Hemisphere. But U.S. ratification of an
international adoption treaty is likely to choke off the supply next
summer.
Critics say Guatemala has become a baby farm where adoptions are too
easy and prone to corruption. Defenders say it offers the children a
better future, and that legal corners are cut only to spare Guatemalan
women the stigma of unwed motherhood or relieve them of another mouth to
feed.
For now, willing parents can get Guatemalan babies by paying thousands
of dollars to notaries who act as baby brokers, recruiting birth
mothers, handling all the paperwork and completing the job in less than
half the time it takes elsewhere. The process is so streamlined that
Guatemala outpaces all other countries in the percentage of its children
put up for adoption in the United States....
....It is lucrative: Notaries charge a "country fee" of up to $19,000. With
U.S. paperwork and plane trips, the typical Guatemalan adoption costs as
much as $30,000, adoption agencies say.
But in the last six months alone, the government has brought 30 criminal
cases against notaries for falsifying paperwork, allegedly providing
false birth certificates and even creating false identities to avoid
having to involve the birth father or the parents of underage birth
mothers.
Applications are surging as parents rush to take advantage of the
current process, which will apply to any request filed before the treaty
takes effect in mid-2007. Of the 4,100 cases pending in Arellano's
office, more than 3,000 were filed this year....
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Adoption reform addresses abuse
Foreigners wanting to adopt must undergo extensive testing
By Kristina Alda
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
August 16, 2006
Marie Mi?anová feeds infants at a nursery in Prague 4. Stricter measures
for international adoptions will come into effect this fall.
This fall will see the first foreign adoptions of Czech children under
strict regulations the government recently implemented to protect
children from abuse in their new homes.
The regulations, which went into affect late last month, were a response
to the death of 4-year-old Eric, a Czech Romany boy who died under
suspicious circumstances in January, only months after being adopted by
a family in Sweden....
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By Kristina Alda
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
August 16, 2006
Marie Mi?anová feeds infants at a nursery in Prague 4. Stricter measures
for international adoptions will come into effect this fall.
This fall will see the first foreign adoptions of Czech children under
strict regulations the government recently implemented to protect
children from abuse in their new homes.
The regulations, which went into affect late last month, were a response
to the death of 4-year-old Eric, a Czech Romany boy who died under
suspicious circumstances in January, only months after being adopted by
a family in Sweden....
click here for remaining article
Author clarifies criticism of US trafficking report
By Charles Snyder
STAFF REPORTER IN WASHINGTON
Friday, Aug 18, 2006, Page 2
A government critique of a US Department of State report on human trafficking in Taiwan was based on last year's version of the annual report, and not on this year's, the critique's chief author said yesterday.
A study by the US' Government Accountability Office (GAO) criticizing the State Department's methodology was detailed yesterday by the Taipei Times ("Report Puts US' Sex-Trade Rebuke of Taiwan in Doubt," page 1).
The article reported that the GAO study was based on this year's report.
However, the chief author of the GAO study, Thomas Melito, said yesterday that it was based primarily on last year's report. He said that the GAO looked at this year's report, but not in as much detail as the earlier report, after comments were made by agencies mentioned in the GAO study....
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STAFF REPORTER IN WASHINGTON
Friday, Aug 18, 2006, Page 2
A government critique of a US Department of State report on human trafficking in Taiwan was based on last year's version of the annual report, and not on this year's, the critique's chief author said yesterday.
A study by the US' Government Accountability Office (GAO) criticizing the State Department's methodology was detailed yesterday by the Taipei Times ("Report Puts US' Sex-Trade Rebuke of Taiwan in Doubt," page 1).
The article reported that the GAO study was based on this year's report.
However, the chief author of the GAO study, Thomas Melito, said yesterday that it was based primarily on last year's report. He said that the GAO looked at this year's report, but not in as much detail as the earlier report, after comments were made by agencies mentioned in the GAO study....
click here for remaining article
Truth about Transracial Adoptions (in re: NYT Article)
South End Press Announces
Transracial Adoption: It's Not Just About White Parents
Cambridge, MA - Aug 17, 2006
In today's New York Times the frontpage headline "Breaking Through Adoption's Racial Barriers" introduces an in-depth article about white Americans who have--or are looking to--adopt children of color. But in the inches devoted to the "growing number of white couples pushing past longtime cultural resistance to adopt black
children," we find a series of unasked questions: Why are the so many children of color available for adoption in the first place, both in the US and abroad? How does transracial adoption affect adopted children of color--and their communities? Here and elsewhere, the voices of transracially adopted individuals fall to the margins, voices that are essential to a genuine understanding of this complex issue.
What's missing?
Jeni Wright paints some of the missing picture with her words: "I lean over the sink so my nose is almost touching the glass and mouth to the ugly girl staring back, you look like an ugly African bush girl, over and over until my breath clouds over my face. I start to write 'jungle bunny' in the steam but I am crying too hard to finish. Why hadn't anyone told me I was so ugly? I don't even look like a real girl" (Outsiders Within, 27).
The difficulties of transracial adoption go far beyond self-esteem, far beyond cultural literacy, infinitely deeper than individual discomfort. As Kim Diehl writes in Outsiders Within, transracial adoption is inextricable from long-standing power imbalances that extend from the personal to the institutional. "I did not have any power in the decision to seal my records; I did not have any power in the decision to take federal money away from social service programs that might have prevented family breakup; I did not have any power in the decision to make it a child placement agency policy to ignore race; I did not have any power to keep from being the physical embodiment of a political process that stamped its approval on transracial adoptions in a country founded on the enslavement and oppression of people of color" (32).
Also entirely overlooked is the harm incurred before each transracial adoption ever took place. As Shannon Gibney, a biracial black adult adoptee, puts it, "Once again, the focus is all on the white adoptive parents, and their pain. Once again, adoptees are presented as objects, as children who apparently never grow up, and therefore do not have the capacity to analyze the geopolitical issues that have shaped their identities. Once again, we don't hear the voices of birth parents or adult adoptees." Gibney goes on, "As this article presents it, the only people who are really affected by adoption are white adoptive parents and agencies."...
click here for book
Transracial Adoption: It's Not Just About White Parents
Cambridge, MA - Aug 17, 2006
In today's New York Times the frontpage headline "Breaking Through Adoption's Racial Barriers" introduces an in-depth article about white Americans who have--or are looking to--adopt children of color. But in the inches devoted to the "growing number of white couples pushing past longtime cultural resistance to adopt black
children," we find a series of unasked questions: Why are the so many children of color available for adoption in the first place, both in the US and abroad? How does transracial adoption affect adopted children of color--and their communities? Here and elsewhere, the voices of transracially adopted individuals fall to the margins, voices that are essential to a genuine understanding of this complex issue.
What's missing?
Jeni Wright paints some of the missing picture with her words: "I lean over the sink so my nose is almost touching the glass and mouth to the ugly girl staring back, you look like an ugly African bush girl, over and over until my breath clouds over my face. I start to write 'jungle bunny' in the steam but I am crying too hard to finish. Why hadn't anyone told me I was so ugly? I don't even look like a real girl" (Outsiders Within, 27).
The difficulties of transracial adoption go far beyond self-esteem, far beyond cultural literacy, infinitely deeper than individual discomfort. As Kim Diehl writes in Outsiders Within, transracial adoption is inextricable from long-standing power imbalances that extend from the personal to the institutional. "I did not have any power in the decision to seal my records; I did not have any power in the decision to take federal money away from social service programs that might have prevented family breakup; I did not have any power in the decision to make it a child placement agency policy to ignore race; I did not have any power to keep from being the physical embodiment of a political process that stamped its approval on transracial adoptions in a country founded on the enslavement and oppression of people of color" (32).
Also entirely overlooked is the harm incurred before each transracial adoption ever took place. As Shannon Gibney, a biracial black adult adoptee, puts it, "Once again, the focus is all on the white adoptive parents, and their pain. Once again, adoptees are presented as objects, as children who apparently never grow up, and therefore do not have the capacity to analyze the geopolitical issues that have shaped their identities. Once again, we don't hear the voices of birth parents or adult adoptees." Gibney goes on, "As this article presents it, the only people who are really affected by adoption are white adoptive parents and agencies."...
click here for book
A Mother Adopts, and Discovers Her Own Racism
A white mother who adopts a baby from India confronts her shame that her child's skin is dark, and realizes she needs more diverse friends.
When I was trying to decide who and from where to adopt, I had a lot of questions about transracial adoptions, and most people responded to my curiosity with a subtle discomfort. I felt embarrassed voicing possible concerns to my liberal friends, because all of us were adamant that race made no difference to our choice of friends, lovers, or tiny babies up for adoption. But in looking around at these friends, they all seemed a pretty tribal bunch: when it came time to make a family, in nearly every case, like colors had stuck together.
The first photo I received of Vaishali showed her with fair skin. I was surprised, because from what my adoption agency told me, the child assigned to me would be much darker. After I got over that surprise, I had another: I felt relief. Suddenly -- guiltily -- it was a comfort to know that she would not look so different from me, and even more important, that her light skin would save her from a lifetime of prejudice.
But ah, the magic of flashbulbs. A few months later I received several more photos and gaped at them in shock. The baby was much, much darker. Worried that the child to whom I had grown unbelievably attached had been given to some other family, I sent a bewildered email to my adoption agency in Maine which then made a bewildered phone call to their trusted social worker in India, who assured us that she had seen the child on many occasions and all the photos were of the same girl. Phew, I thought, as long as this little girl is the same one I have held in my heart for three months, she is my daughter and I am going to bring her home.
I flew to Bombay and became a mother. For the first week, my new daughter Vaishali clung to me, terrified, and I sacrificed eating, sleeping and bathing in the service of comforting her. Over and over, I told her: Mama is here. You are my baby.
Back home, after a couple weeks had passed, I stared at Vaishali's naked bottom -- her darkest part -- and tried to ignore the insistent whispers of fear. Instead of brimming with pride, I felt like a trespasser, performing ablutions on this private flesh with color so foreign from my own. It was one thing to swoon over her photographs for months, but now she was in my home; she was my family. How could this be my daughter? I looked at her and tried to find similarities between us, relieved that her hair was straight, her lips not too full. Just thinking these thoughts made me feel horribly ashamed. I tried to sort emotion from fact: was it the dark color of her skin that was making me uncomfortable, or just that she did not look like me? I ached to talk to someone about it, but I was too afraid people would disapprove, would doubt my ability to be a loving mother....
click here for remaining article
When I was trying to decide who and from where to adopt, I had a lot of questions about transracial adoptions, and most people responded to my curiosity with a subtle discomfort. I felt embarrassed voicing possible concerns to my liberal friends, because all of us were adamant that race made no difference to our choice of friends, lovers, or tiny babies up for adoption. But in looking around at these friends, they all seemed a pretty tribal bunch: when it came time to make a family, in nearly every case, like colors had stuck together.
The first photo I received of Vaishali showed her with fair skin. I was surprised, because from what my adoption agency told me, the child assigned to me would be much darker. After I got over that surprise, I had another: I felt relief. Suddenly -- guiltily -- it was a comfort to know that she would not look so different from me, and even more important, that her light skin would save her from a lifetime of prejudice.
But ah, the magic of flashbulbs. A few months later I received several more photos and gaped at them in shock. The baby was much, much darker. Worried that the child to whom I had grown unbelievably attached had been given to some other family, I sent a bewildered email to my adoption agency in Maine which then made a bewildered phone call to their trusted social worker in India, who assured us that she had seen the child on many occasions and all the photos were of the same girl. Phew, I thought, as long as this little girl is the same one I have held in my heart for three months, she is my daughter and I am going to bring her home.
I flew to Bombay and became a mother. For the first week, my new daughter Vaishali clung to me, terrified, and I sacrificed eating, sleeping and bathing in the service of comforting her. Over and over, I told her: Mama is here. You are my baby.
Back home, after a couple weeks had passed, I stared at Vaishali's naked bottom -- her darkest part -- and tried to ignore the insistent whispers of fear. Instead of brimming with pride, I felt like a trespasser, performing ablutions on this private flesh with color so foreign from my own. It was one thing to swoon over her photographs for months, but now she was in my home; she was my family. How could this be my daughter? I looked at her and tried to find similarities between us, relieved that her hair was straight, her lips not too full. Just thinking these thoughts made me feel horribly ashamed. I tried to sort emotion from fact: was it the dark color of her skin that was making me uncomfortable, or just that she did not look like me? I ached to talk to someone about it, but I was too afraid people would disapprove, would doubt my ability to be a loving mother....
click here for remaining article
Kitsap Woman Arrested In Death Of Adopted Boy
By Akiko Fujita
PORT ORCHARD, WASH. - A Kitsap County mother pled innocent to charges of homicide by abuse and manslaughter in the first degree Monday.
Kimberly Forder is accused of killing her 8-year-old son Christopher Michael four years ago and abusing her other children. Bail has been set at $1 million.
"As the investigation progressed, it became readily apparent that something was not normal about this child's demise," said Kitsap County Sheriff Steve Boyer. "Reasonable suspicions started to elevate in the investigated sense."
Detectives were first called to the Forders' home in Seabeck the night of Nov. 24, 2002. Inside, they found Forder's adopted son Christopher dead.
"I saw a lifeless young boy who had been battered," said Detective Lori Blackenship. "Appeared to be battered; bruises, multiple bruises throughout his body."
The Forders told detectives the bruises were the result of a disorder, though the two never sought medical help. An autopsy revealed Christopher died from pneumonia but the county coroner never determined the manner in which he died and kept the case open....
click here for remaining article
PORT ORCHARD, WASH. - A Kitsap County mother pled innocent to charges of homicide by abuse and manslaughter in the first degree Monday.
Kimberly Forder is accused of killing her 8-year-old son Christopher Michael four years ago and abusing her other children. Bail has been set at $1 million.
"As the investigation progressed, it became readily apparent that something was not normal about this child's demise," said Kitsap County Sheriff Steve Boyer. "Reasonable suspicions started to elevate in the investigated sense."
Detectives were first called to the Forders' home in Seabeck the night of Nov. 24, 2002. Inside, they found Forder's adopted son Christopher dead.
"I saw a lifeless young boy who had been battered," said Detective Lori Blackenship. "Appeared to be battered; bruises, multiple bruises throughout his body."
The Forders told detectives the bruises were the result of a disorder, though the two never sought medical help. An autopsy revealed Christopher died from pneumonia but the county coroner never determined the manner in which he died and kept the case open....
click here for remaining article
Madonna and Ritchie to adopt, says report
Sunday, September 3 2006, 7:04pm EDT
By Dave West, Media Correspondent
Madonna and Guy Ritchie are planning to adopt an African baby, according to reports.
The couple hope an addition to the family will strengthen their marriage, which has been the subject of speculation for some time, according to The People.
A source told the paper that they took the decision after trying unsuccessfully to have their own child for some time. Now they plan to visit an orphanage in Malawi next month and bring back a child.
click here for remaining article
By Dave West, Media Correspondent
Madonna and Guy Ritchie are planning to adopt an African baby, according to reports.
The couple hope an addition to the family will strengthen their marriage, which has been the subject of speculation for some time, according to The People.
A source told the paper that they took the decision after trying unsuccessfully to have their own child for some time. Now they plan to visit an orphanage in Malawi next month and bring back a child.
click here for remaining article
Korean adoption cut hits Aussie families
September 16, 2006 - 11:06PM
South Korea has suspended adoptions, creating uncertainty for Australian families waiting for a child.
The NSW Department of Community Services (DOCS) confirmed the suspension but said it was only temporary, Fairfax reports.
All applications already received by Korean authorities would be processed, a DOCS spokeswoman said.
"The Korean program has been a very smooth process but the birth rate has been down and they've been placing babies locally," she said.
"At this stage it hasn't been closed and we see ups and downs in other countries all the time.
"But Korea has never hidden the fact that they planned to become a country that has no inter-country [adoptions] because they are aiming to provide for their own people."
click here for article
South Korea has suspended adoptions, creating uncertainty for Australian families waiting for a child.
The NSW Department of Community Services (DOCS) confirmed the suspension but said it was only temporary, Fairfax reports.
All applications already received by Korean authorities would be processed, a DOCS spokeswoman said.
"The Korean program has been a very smooth process but the birth rate has been down and they've been placing babies locally," she said.
"At this stage it hasn't been closed and we see ups and downs in other countries all the time.
"But Korea has never hidden the fact that they planned to become a country that has no inter-country [adoptions] because they are aiming to provide for their own people."
click here for article
German 'Superpapa' Busted After Adopting Over 300 Kids
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
ASUNCION, Paraguay — A man known as "Superpapa" who says he took advantage of a quirk in German laws to adopt more than 300 children worldwide has been arrested on suspicion of violating laws on child rearing in Paraguay, authorities said Tuesday.
Jurgen Ernst Hass, a German citizen whose claims were widely published in the European media, was picked up Monday at a hotel in the city of Caaguazu and taken to a jail in the capital of Asuncion, about 140 miles east, according to a police statement.
Police said Hass, 56, was turned over to the courts for investigation of reported attempts to adopt dozens of Paraguayan children and would be called for initial questioning in coming days.
Hass, dubbed "Superpapa" by the local press, drew attention with public boasts of numerous adoptions around the world.
Police said Hass acknowledged taking steps to adopt some 30 Paraguayan children with the intent of taking them to Germany to collect a government subsidy of $260 a month for each under Germany's child protection laws....
click here for remaining article
ASUNCION, Paraguay — A man known as "Superpapa" who says he took advantage of a quirk in German laws to adopt more than 300 children worldwide has been arrested on suspicion of violating laws on child rearing in Paraguay, authorities said Tuesday.
Jurgen Ernst Hass, a German citizen whose claims were widely published in the European media, was picked up Monday at a hotel in the city of Caaguazu and taken to a jail in the capital of Asuncion, about 140 miles east, according to a police statement.
Police said Hass, 56, was turned over to the courts for investigation of reported attempts to adopt dozens of Paraguayan children and would be called for initial questioning in coming days.
Hass, dubbed "Superpapa" by the local press, drew attention with public boasts of numerous adoptions around the world.
Police said Hass acknowledged taking steps to adopt some 30 Paraguayan children with the intent of taking them to Germany to collect a government subsidy of $260 a month for each under Germany's child protection laws....
click here for remaining article
On the trail of a trafficked child
By Louisa Lim
BBC correspondent in Kunming
In a poor district in the southern city of Kunming, children play beside heaps of gravel left by construction crews.
The scene brings back painful memories for Li Qifang and his wife, Pu Caiju.
More than two years ago their four-year-old son was playing outside their house when he was abducted. They have not seen him since.
"He disappeared on 15 March 2002. His father took him outside to play with his spinning top, and popped upstairs for two minutes. Suddenly the child wasn't there any more," said Pu Caiju.
"That day we couldn't imagine such a thing could happen. We were crazy with fear, searching the little alleys, big roads and bus stations. We searched for days, but didn't find anything," she said.
The couple now fear their son was abducted by a baby trafficking ring....
click here for remaining article
BBC correspondent in Kunming
In a poor district in the southern city of Kunming, children play beside heaps of gravel left by construction crews.
The scene brings back painful memories for Li Qifang and his wife, Pu Caiju.
More than two years ago their four-year-old son was playing outside their house when he was abducted. They have not seen him since.
"He disappeared on 15 March 2002. His father took him outside to play with his spinning top, and popped upstairs for two minutes. Suddenly the child wasn't there any more," said Pu Caiju.
"That day we couldn't imagine such a thing could happen. We were crazy with fear, searching the little alleys, big roads and bus stations. We searched for days, but didn't find anything," she said.
The couple now fear their son was abducted by a baby trafficking ring....
click here for remaining article
Govt to rein in adoption profiteers
The Yomiuri Shimbun
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has drawn up guidelines to
prevent financial exploitation of the adoption system in response to an
increasing number of profit-driven private adoption agencies.
The ministry notified prefectural and ordinance-designate d city
governments of the guidelines Monday. Local governments are responsible
for ensuring that private adoption agencies implement the new measures.
The majority of adoptions arranged by private agencies, are newborn
babies, adopted both domestically and overseas.
According to a survey conducted by the ministry in 2004, there were 76
instances in which children were adopted by overseas parents between
April 2001 and March 2004.
click here for remaining article
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has drawn up guidelines to
prevent financial exploitation of the adoption system in response to an
increasing number of profit-driven private adoption agencies.
The ministry notified prefectural and ordinance-designate d city
governments of the guidelines Monday. Local governments are responsible
for ensuring that private adoption agencies implement the new measures.
The majority of adoptions arranged by private agencies, are newborn
babies, adopted both domestically and overseas.
According to a survey conducted by the ministry in 2004, there were 76
instances in which children were adopted by overseas parents between
April 2001 and March 2004.
click here for remaining article
Awayday perverts 'abusing orphans'
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Paedophiles are setting up orphanages overseas so fellow perverts can molest children during 'awayday' trips.
Registered offenders are exploiting a legal loophole to travel abroad for three days without telling the police, leaving them free to carry out attacks.
They are taking advantage of cheap air travel to visit countries such as the Czech Republic, Romania and Bulgaria, where they have easy access to vulnerable children.
There have also been similar cases of abuse reported in Spain and France.
The fears are highlighted in a report today by an umbrella group of children's charities. They say paedophiles who have not yet been convicted are setting up orphanages in countries, such as Albania, then abusing those they claim to help.
They then act as 'a hub and a magnet' to registered sex offenders who are allowed three days' unsupervised travel under rules introduced in 2003.
The law, intended to stop sex tourists targeting children in Thailand and the Philippines, still allows them ample time to take short breaks in Eastern Europe....
click here for remaining article
Paedophiles are setting up orphanages overseas so fellow perverts can molest children during 'awayday' trips.
Registered offenders are exploiting a legal loophole to travel abroad for three days without telling the police, leaving them free to carry out attacks.
They are taking advantage of cheap air travel to visit countries such as the Czech Republic, Romania and Bulgaria, where they have easy access to vulnerable children.
There have also been similar cases of abuse reported in Spain and France.
The fears are highlighted in a report today by an umbrella group of children's charities. They say paedophiles who have not yet been convicted are setting up orphanages in countries, such as Albania, then abusing those they claim to help.
They then act as 'a hub and a magnet' to registered sex offenders who are allowed three days' unsupervised travel under rules introduced in 2003.
The law, intended to stop sex tourists targeting children in Thailand and the Philippines, still allows them ample time to take short breaks in Eastern Europe....
click here for remaining article
Child-Porn Victim Brings Her Story to Washington
Teen Shares Her Horrific Experiences at Congressional Hearing Targeting Online Porn
Aug. 31, 2006
There are approximately 3 million images of child pornography on the Internet.
As large as that number may seem, it can be a sad, abstract and faceless statistic.
In May, Masha Allen, a Russian-born 13-year-old, put a face on child pornography and its victims when she testified before Congress.
She revealed the horrific pain behind those numbers in written testimony that described her experiences as a victim of online child molestation and pornography.
Masha thought she was heading for a better life in America when she was adopted in 1998 by Matthew Mancuso, who brought the 8-year-old to his home in Pittsburgh.
Instead, she became a victim of child pornography as Mancuso adopted her with the purpose of molesting her and using her to produce pornographic photos, which he would then share with others.
She appeared in more than 200 explicit photos that circulated on the Internet....
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Primetime/International/story?id=1919036&page=1">click here for remaining article
Aug. 31, 2006
There are approximately 3 million images of child pornography on the Internet.
As large as that number may seem, it can be a sad, abstract and faceless statistic.
In May, Masha Allen, a Russian-born 13-year-old, put a face on child pornography and its victims when she testified before Congress.
She revealed the horrific pain behind those numbers in written testimony that described her experiences as a victim of online child molestation and pornography.
Masha thought she was heading for a better life in America when she was adopted in 1998 by Matthew Mancuso, who brought the 8-year-old to his home in Pittsburgh.
Instead, she became a victim of child pornography as Mancuso adopted her with the purpose of molesting her and using her to produce pornographic photos, which he would then share with others.
She appeared in more than 200 explicit photos that circulated on the Internet....
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Primetime/International/story?id=1919036&page=1">click here for remaining article
Child-Porn Victim Brings Her Story to Washington
Masha's Law
Masha's courage may now assist lawmakers as they look for ways to combat the growing child-porn industry.
Authorities say one in five children is now approached by online predators in what Congress calls a multibillion-dollar industry.
Nine other people have been convicted in federal court for downloading Masha's pictures.
There are dozens of notices of other pending cases, a number that does not begin to reflect the actual number of potential defendants in criminal and civil cases.
In July, President Bush signed Masha's Law, which dramatically increases the fines and penalties for downloading kiddie porn.
It's part of a larger law called the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, which requires convicted child molesters to be listed on a national Internet database and face a felony charge for failing to update their whereabouts....
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Primetime/International/story?id=1919036&page=2">click here for remaining article
Masha's courage may now assist lawmakers as they look for ways to combat the growing child-porn industry.
Authorities say one in five children is now approached by online predators in what Congress calls a multibillion-dollar industry.
Nine other people have been convicted in federal court for downloading Masha's pictures.
There are dozens of notices of other pending cases, a number that does not begin to reflect the actual number of potential defendants in criminal and civil cases.
In July, President Bush signed Masha's Law, which dramatically increases the fines and penalties for downloading kiddie porn.
It's part of a larger law called the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, which requires convicted child molesters to be listed on a national Internet database and face a felony charge for failing to update their whereabouts....
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Primetime/International/story?id=1919036&page=2">click here for remaining article
Stone to adopt again
By AskMen.com Editors
Sharon Stone wants to adopt a fourth child, it has been reported.
The 'Basic Instinct' actress already has three adopted sons - Roan, six, 14-month-old Laird and baby Quinn, who she welcomed into her family last month - but wants to extend her family even further.
A source told Australia's New Weekly magazine: "Sharon loves being a mother and being able to give these children the love they deserve. She may not even stop at four."
It seems Stone, 48, plans to follow in Angelina Jolie's footsteps and give a home to an underprivileged child from overseas.
The source added: "She doesn't want to sound like Angelina but she likes the idea of adopting kids from all different nationalities."
Stone is just one of a host of Hollywood stars to adopt children.
click here for remaining article
Sharon Stone wants to adopt a fourth child, it has been reported.
The 'Basic Instinct' actress already has three adopted sons - Roan, six, 14-month-old Laird and baby Quinn, who she welcomed into her family last month - but wants to extend her family even further.
A source told Australia's New Weekly magazine: "Sharon loves being a mother and being able to give these children the love they deserve. She may not even stop at four."
It seems Stone, 48, plans to follow in Angelina Jolie's footsteps and give a home to an underprivileged child from overseas.
The source added: "She doesn't want to sound like Angelina but she likes the idea of adopting kids from all different nationalities."
Stone is just one of a host of Hollywood stars to adopt children.
click here for remaining article
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