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Sexual Abuse Victim's Capitol Hill Testimony Draws Attention to Child Porn Rings; France Braces for More Protests

Aired April 04, 2006 - 14:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Once again, live pictures out of Paris right now as French police continue to work to contain demonstrations for a fifth day in the Paris area and other parts of the country as well. Again, this is all reaction to a new law that was passed and signed into law by French President Jacques Chirac last week that gives employers wide discretion in firing young workers under the age of 26 inside of the first two years of employment.

Now, that law will be changed. It will be modified upon the orders of the French president, but as nightfall descends upon Paris right now, it looks like police are getting the upper hand on this situation. Strategically they have moved all these protesters into this square area and then moved in to brake the larger group into smaller groups. Then they have systemically plucked the trouble makers out of the group.

As you can see, there's still quite a number of protesters and demonstrators described as the trouble makers, the real protesters who were in a more celebratory mood an hour or two hours ago have given way to these people who are thought of in large measure as being the trouble makers and something of a sit-in going on right now. We will continue to keep an eye on this situation and bring you the latest developments.

A congressional panel heard today about the risk America's children face from online predators. One victim, teenager Justin Berry testified that shortly after he got a camera hooked up to his computer, predators began using money and other gifts to lure him into sexual acts. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTIN BERRY, SEX PREDATOR VICTIM: They were kind. They complimented me. They wanted to know about my day, and they were endlessly patient and listening to me. They were generous. In no time one of these men told me he wanted to send me a gift. He showed me how to set up a wish list on amazon.com which allowed anyone who knew my code name to send me a present without requiring me to disclose my address.

Soon I was swamped with videos, CDs and computer equipment including better Webcams all free from my new friends. I always rushed back from school to scoop up the packages that were on my doorstep before my mother got home from work. My new friends were kinder and more generous to me than anyone I'd ever known. I trusted them, and that's when everything had changed. One afternoon a few weeks after setting up my Webcam, one of these men approached me online with a proposal. He would pay me $50 if I took off my shirt for a few minutes while sitting in front of my Webcam. He explained to me how to set up an account on PayPal.com, an instant online money payment system.

I was excited about the $50, an amount that struck me at the time as a huge sum of money. Taking off my shirt seemed harmless. I did it at the pool. The money arrived, and I took off my shirt. My viewers complimented me, and it felt good. The weeks that followed are a blur, but I now understand that by removing my shirt I signaled I could be manipulated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Man. The in-person risk is just as serious. Predators will travel long distances and pay big money to molest children, but it's not necessarily international travel. Atlanta is considered a major stop for predators. Cathey Steinberg, executive director of the Juvenile Justice Fund, is here to talk about this problem. Kathy, thank you. Thank you for being here today.

CATHEY STEINBERG: Glad to be here. Appreciate your interest.

HARRIS: What's your reaction to hearing what you just heard from Justin?

STEINBERG: It breaks my heart, but its not shocking to those of us that work with sexually exploited children. This is what we do, and probably one of the leading agencies in Atlanta. The Internet is an increasing culprit for this, because even young boys and girls, of course, get into communication, and the next thing you know, he didn't sound like he left the house, but they're meeting them on the street. That's it. The Internet -- families really, really need to pay attention.

HARRIS: Cathey, do we have any idea, any idea of how widespread -- people watching right now with kids, small kids. Do we have any idea of how widespread a problem this is?

STEINBERG: There was a recent study by the University of Pennsylvania. There are about 200,000 to 300,000 girls, these are not adults. These are prostituted girls that are victims of sexual exploitation that they know of. That's without the ones that they don't know of. And it's increasing all the time.

HARRIS: Is most of this activity happening on the Web? a tool at its onset that we thought was going to be just a great piece of technology -- and it is in large measure -- but we also see how we can be used to hurt people.

STEINBERG: It's not just the Internet. It's -- you have a lot of children these days...

HARRIS: But do you know why it's so scary? Because that comes into your home. It comes into your home.

STEINBERG: Absolutely. And it's -- right. And as this young man testified, it's so easy to be deceived. People are nice. You have a lot of children are looking for children, maybe families are working two jobs and all this. And I'm not criticizing, but it becomes a communication mode.

HARRIS: And you don't want to do that, because you don't want to criticize the parents, because you can be a good parent...

STEINBERG: Absolutely.

HARRIS: ... and then -- and still have this -- this malevolent, intrusive force creep into your home.

STEINBERG: Right, right.

HARRIS: ... and you may or may not learn about it until -- well, until it's too late.

STEINBERG: Right. And it is not -- our kids that we see in the Atlanta region are what we call domestic kids. They're our children from Atlanta. People tend to disregard it, partly because they think these are children from, you know, other countries.

HARRIS: Yes, yes.

STEINBERG: And once they're on the street 48 hours, they're caught. And it's just a very, very serious problem.

HARRIS: Well, who is catching them? Is there just this predatory network of -- who are these people?

STEINBERG: Well, we call them pimps, and they're a wide variety. But what happens, if a young girl or boy is out on the streets for 48 hours, they start to get hungry. And a guy, just like on the Internet, will come over and say, oh, you're so pretty, let me buy you dinner.

HARRIS: Is it the classic station of the bus stations and the airports where kids are arriving?

STEINBERG: Well, the airport's a major problem. That's one reason Atlanta is such a hotbed, because we're the busiest airport in the world. But it can just be down in Atlanta somewhere. There are certain areas. And the kids get hungry after two days. And they don't have any idea, somebody says let me buy you dinner and they say OK. And then they by the way, I want you to sleep with. And then they can never get out of the problem.

HARRIS: Cathey, are we talking about trafficking? I mean, are we talking about young girls who are -- young boys, young girls who are being recruited? Arrangements are being made for them by these pimps, traffickers to get them to particular areas? Are they following, I don't know, truck routes? Are they following -- are they putting them on planes to have these rendezvous? STEINBERG: It's a lot of different factors, and usually the predator, the John, will to the city. They don't put them on planes. But you can just have...

HARRIS: So the pimp will arrange somehow for the girls to come here or the boys to come here, or they will scoop them off the streets?

STEINBERG: They're from here. Right.

HARRIS: Or they're from here.

STEINBERG: Right, or they're from there.

HARRIS: And then what is the business arrangement? Is this all done online, where the arrangements are made for the Johns to meet?

STEINBERG: Well, you know, all you have to do is go down some of our streets, like Cheshire (ph) Bridge in the massage parlors. A lot of these kids are underage. They're put in there by the pimps. The John may or may not know they're underage. But then they become prostituted girls. So it's not all this, you know, international trafficking. It's our local problem.

HARRIS: We thought of it as an international issue.

STEINBERG: Right, no. It is a domestic problem. It's international, too. But our children from our city and our region are terribly victimized.

HARRIS: Cathey, a final question. Let me ask you why there isn't hollering, screaming, outrage? And you wonder if even this testimony from Justin -- baby faced kid, baby faced kid -- what he's gone through, you wonder if that will sound the bell that gets everyone in this country up in arms and outraged and doing something?

STEINBERG: That's a very, very good question. And one of the goals of ours is to -- in Atlanta is to increase the awareness and the lack of tolerance for it. It just needs -- we need more CNN coverage.

HARRIS: Well, we'll do it.

STEINBERG: That would help us.

HARRIS: We'll do it if you'll help us.

STEINBERG: My pleasure.

HARRIS: Cathey, we appreciate it. Thanks for your time.

STEINBERG: Thank you. Thank you very much.

HARRIS: We're going to take a break. But right now, let's take you back to Paris for look at live pictures there as the demonstrations and protests seem to be winding down. Don't know for sure. Every so often, we'll see some kind of a flare-up. But we will keep an eye on this situation. And these are pictures from just a few moments ago, coming up now, of the scene as police in riot gear moved in. Let's listen in.

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HARRIS: The news keeps coming. We'll keep bringing it to you. More LIVE FROM after this.

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HARRIS: Continuing to watch the situation as it unfolds in Paris, France. As you see, police in riot gear, on the streets in Paris now, beginning to get the upper hand. And clearly now from this wide shot, you can see, getting the upper hand on breaking up the demonstrations, the fifth day of protests and demonstrations. At one time at the height of all of this, hundreds of thousands, we're told, on the streets of Paris now.

CNN's Paula Hancocks is on the line with us. And Paula, I am reminded that as we watch this, we are seeing essentially one vantage point. But from that vantage point, I think it has to be said that the police have really sort of managed to control this situation and have kept things under control and exercised a great deal of restraint, it seems to me.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, it's definitely calmed down from what it was earlier. It does appear as though the police do have the upper hand now. They used a tactic that they've certainly practiced over the past couple of weeks, to cordon off particular areas of (INAUDIBLE) and to make sure that the areas can not too be big, so that there's smaller bits that they can deal with. Quite a few of the protesters have gone home, as well. And I'm just standing next to someone who is singing and dancing. So it's certainly calmed down from what it was a little earlier -- Tony.

HARRIS: Paula, any plans that you are aware of for more protests like this, more scenes like this tomorrow?

HANCOCKS: Well, this is a particularly a big protest, because it had been planned for almost a week and it was told across the nation, nationwide, that they were going to have a big strike and big protests. So this is why we're seeing the sheer numbers on the streets. It depends who you believe, really, but the unions are saying close to three million. Authorities are saying it's difficult to tell just yet.

Probably I'd say a few thousand are still left in this particular square. We don't know if they're going to continue protesting. It's really hard to tell. But with all protests like this, (INAUDIBLE).

HARRIS: OK, CNN's Paula Hancocks for us. Paula, thank you.

Our Kyra Phillips has this "Fact Check" on a law that has sent protesters into the streets in France.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): France's new youth labor law was prompted by the country's chronic high unemployment rates and stagnant labor market. More than 20 percent of the 18 to 25-year-olds are unemployed. That's double the national average.

The government argues the new law will boost chances for young people to find jobs, many of whom can only find short-term work. Some employers say they are reluctant to hire young workers because tough job security laws make it hard to fire them if they do poorly or are no longer needed.

Under the new law, companies would be able to hire people under 26 for a two-year trial period. During that time, they can be dismissed without cause or warning. The government has proposed steps aimed at easing the impact of the new law.

Young workers would be assigned to a mentor, a review after six months to assess their progress, and free training if they are fired. It may be too late. A recent poll found 68 percent of French people oppose the new law.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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HARRIS: Let's talk about entertainment. A new movie about some of the events of 9/11 hasn't even been released, but has some people pretty upset.

A screen star moves her million dollar smile to the great white way, and a talk show host goes on cable to say live and let live. What?

The latest entertainment and a look ahead to "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT," from its host, A.J. Hammer. A.J., always good to see you.

A.J. HAMMER, "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT": All right, Tony. Nice to see you as well.

There is controversy over the trailer you mentioned. It's a preview for the upcoming film "United 93." Now, this is a film that deals with the passenger revolt on one of the planes hijacked on September 11th.

Well, last weekend, a New York City movie theater actually stopped showing the trailer after some patrons complained about it being too upsetting, and there have been concerns raised by 9/11 families as well. But Universal, the studio that made the film, says it is not going to pull the trailer from theaters or change it in any way.

They feel it gives the film an unflinching account of what actually happened that day. The trailer needs to prepare audiences for that. However, Universal says from now on, the trailer will only be shown before R and PG-13 rated movies. And, Tony, I should point that the film was made with the complete approval of all of the families of victims of Flight 93. The only problem is here, as far as this trailer is concerned, imagine being captive in the theater and this very disturbing footage comes on. You've got nowhere to turn. We've shown it twice on "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT." I've had to look away each time.

HARRIS: I'm with you. I've seen it, and it is disturbing. And it just feels too soon, but we'll see. We'll talk to a mother of one of the victims next hour and get her take on this as well.

A.J., I have to ask you, another star is trying something a little different we understand?

HAMMER: That is true. I guess we're moving on to talk about Julia Roberts and how the numbers have spoken. For the first full week of her performance, she's on Broadway now. Julia's play is called "Three Days of Rain," and the play has been playing to packed houses, nearly a million bucks in its first week, which is pretty impressive for the "Pretty Woman."

And, Tony, definitely New York's hottest ticket. The entire run 12 weeks, almost entirely sold out. Front row seats are up on eBay and they're going for as much as 1,000 bucks. The play officially debuts on April 19th, but if you're in there in the front row getting those $1,000 seats, you know, it cricks the neck.

But let's talk about the star who's trying something new. Rosie O'Donnell, she's now made a documentary for HBO. It's called "All Aboard! Rosie's Family Cruise." It begins airing on Thursday.

Now, Rosie and per partner Kelly launched -- so to speak -- the documentary at a special screening in L.A. last night. The film looks at the first-ever cruise designed for nontraditional family. And Rosie says ultimately the documentary is about having a live and let live attitude.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROSIE O'DONNELL, ACTRESS/COMEDIAN: Well, you know, it's about family, and I think that, you know, the word gay is scary to some people, and it's very divisive. And, you know, gay marriage is very, very polarizing in the country and gay families. And, you know, what you come away from this movie with is that we're all very similar and, you know, what makes a good parent has nothing to do with what happens in the bedroom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAMMER: This project has been a labor of love for Rosie O'Donnell for some time, so good to see it finally hitting air this week, Tony.

HARRIS: OK, and A.J., give us a little preview of what's coming up on "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT." HAMMER: Well, we're going to be delving into the issue of pornography on the Internet tonight. It's big business, it's huge business, but is it harmless entertainment or is it just plain dangerous? That's what we'll be talking about when "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" investigates. You'll find us at 7:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN HEADLINE PRIME.

HARRIS: OK, A.J., good to see you. Thank you, sir.

HAMMER: Thank you, Tony.

HARRIS: Still ahead, as night falls in France, we'll check in one last time with our Jim Bittermann on the scene where police are breaking up the last of the protesters, perhaps, on the streets of Paris. The news keeps coming. We'll keep bringing it to you. More LIVE FROM right after this.

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