Julie_Hayden's Blog

The most disturbing stories I cover are the ones that involve children who are victims.  Recently, one of our investigations discovered a child pornogrpahy web site.  We reported it to Mike Harris, with the Jeffco DA's Office.  He does amazing work in this area, and he immediately alerted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

We expected the site to be shut down right away, and were surprised to find that it is still up and growing.

We're told the FBI is conducting what appears to be a pretty significant investigation and is still gathering informaton from the site.

One investigator explains it's like the lesser of two evils. No one like to see this kind of site continue, but sometimes it's the only way to track the pedophiles and find the children and get them help.

This is disturbing stuff.  The children in the pictures range in age from preteen, to toddlers to infants.  The pictures show the children in sexual poses and in sex acts.  You can see the childrens' face, but not the faces of the men abusing them.  These sites are peer-to-peer file sharing sites.  The pedophiles can trade and exchange photos and it can be almost impossible to track them down.  And it breaks your heart to look at the faces of the children, who are out there, somewhere, with these perverts. 

Harris says especially alarming is the fact that most pedophiles use child pornography as part of a cycle that results in actually victimizing a child.  So it's not just the children in the pictures who are at risk, it's any other child these pedophiles have access to.

We'll keep you posted on the investigation.