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E-mail StoryTeen victim of online predators shares tale
| Thursday, May 24 2007 10:10 PM
Last Updated: Thursday, May 24 2007 10:20 PM
The profile of a 14-year-old girl listed on a Bakersfield Web site got the attention of several local adult men. They wanted to know if she was up for a good time and if they could meet.
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Justin Berry is an Internet safety consultant with the Bakersfield Police Department, who himself had been a victim of online predators.
This was a live demonstration, actual correspondence, of Internet predators by the Bakersfield Police Department and its Internet safety consultant, who himself had been a victim of online predators.
They spoke to a handful of parents at a community meeting Thursday about Internet safety.
"Your kids are in danger," said consultant Justin Berry, 20, of Bakersfield. That's why he recounted "embarrassing" details of his life.
They include the naive attempts of a lonely 13-year-old to make friends online, the pedophiles who found and took advantage of him, the molestations and the years he spent running an Internet porn site featuring images of himself in sexual acts, at times helped by his own father.
"I'm not proud of the things I've done," Berry said.
"Nor will I personally attempt to avoid any responsibility for those decisions."
But he realized, through support of family and therapy, that the destructive choices he made stemmed from the abuse he endured at the hands of adults he met online.
Predators know how to manipulate kids, he said. They start slow, become a friend and keep pushing for more. Kids hardly notice the progression.
Berry trusted his "friends."
"And that's where everything changed," he said.
One man said he'd give Berry $50 to take off his shirt in front of his webcam. What harm could there be, he said, I do it at the pool?
"I took off my shirt," he said. "And by doing that I signaled that I could be manipulated."
Little by little this exploit snowballed into interactions with men who molested him, took advantage of him and guided him through the underground industry of Internet pornography.
By 18, Berry turned a new leaf. He met with authorities, risking arrest, and became a federal witness. His efforts helped lock up several offenders, including men who molested him as a teen.
His story was the subject of a New York Times series.
Now he travels the country telling his story and he has a message for his hometown.
"This is a global epidemic," Berry said. "This is an epidemic in our own backyard here in Bakersfield."
Berry and BPD spokeswoman Carina Ortiz presented tips for parents such as changing computer settings and monitoring popular social networking sites.
But parents can't always keep kids safe. Berry's mom even hid his keyboard. But Berry found a way around everything.
Kids "have such a misconception about the Internet because they're at home," Ortiz said.
"There's no simple solution to this problem," Berry said. "It's all about communication. Whether the communication is going to lay between a pedophile and your child or yourself and that child."
Internet safety tips
Thursday’s speakers offered these tips to keep kids safe from Internet predators:
• Set Web browsers to eliminate illicit words and pictures.
• Avoid chat rooms.
• Know with whom your kids are instant messaging.
For more information
• www.justinberry.tv
• www.i-safe.org
• www.netsmartzkids.org