GenQ - For the not so straight individual

Disclaimer: Please note that queerplanet and the author of this article in no way supports or condones individuals or groups who exploit or manipulate minors for sexual gratification. We are not supporting pedophilia or boy-love. It is part of our charter to protect young people and we have a duty of care to protect anyone we feel is being harmed. The purpose of this article is to raise issues and questions that have been made apparent by this case and hopefully to bring balance to the reporting of this story.

This is the tale of child molestation, sexual abuse of a minor and internet child pornography and it was all started by a 13 yo boy with a webcam. In Justin's own words he wanted some attention and to make some friends and this lead to him setting up his own internet porn site of himself and various other teens. An investigation last year by a New York Time reporter has lead to Justin, now 19, filing suits against all of the members of his website for child abuse and under age pornography. I do not condone child pornography in any way and take very seriously my duty of care with minors and am very protective of them, but how much responsibility does Justin Berry wear in a case such as this. He set up the site, he procured the men to visit it and pay either by 3 months, 6 months or a year to join, he willingly accepted gifts, invitations and the money. If this was a big as concern to him as he says, where is the money now? Is he using it to help other child abuse victims? Justin Berry is hiding behind Oprah, religion (he is born-again) and the media and crying child abuse and taking no responsibility for his own part in this. These men didn't groom Justin for months or years to meet him, yes these men joined a website knowing they were seeing a teenage (supposedly over 18 according to Justin's own site) boy, but Justin wasn't exactly saying no.
In his own words "It's me Justin again, and I've created the masterpiece you've all been waiting for. This site is a compilation of me and my real friends who are excited to test the waters of the webcam and online modeling world! High quality digital photos, movies, and crystal clear high speed webcam shows directly to you! All you have to do is donate 24.95 the first month, then only 19.95 every month after! There will be lots of new content, and lots of new friends of mine!"

Justin made alot of money from his websites, enough in fact to buy him a car at age 16. He then set up another website to show it off. "At the time a lot of his money went into this "HackerCar". This included his custom 1337HaX license plate." said a friend. Justin's mother, Karen Page, said she sensed nothing out of the ordinary. Her son seemed to be just a boy talented with computers who enjoyed speaking to friends online. The Webcam, as she saw it, was just another device that would improve her son's computer skills, and maybe even help him on his Web site development business.

At age 18, he started procuring other young people to be filmed on his site. He knew exactly what he was doing. His motivation all along is to get attention, he said that himself. Now he has world attention and people everywhere feeling sorry for him. The internet business never gave him anywhere near the kind of attention he is getting now. In researching this story I have interviewed people that actually knew Justin and also viewed cached versions of his sites and there are quite a few. He knew exactly what he was doing and he had even set himself up with numerous email accounts and a 'cover' business for paypal- massage.

"I want everybody to know that Justin was as much of a predators to young girls as his aggressors were with him." said one of Justin's friends "The sole purpose of Justin to get on a webcam for the first time was to get girls to take their clothes off. Instead guys went after them and he was such a pervert he liked it. He even did stuff with Steve. Now Steve, was a buddy of Justin's and he participated in movies with Justin. They knew exactly what they were doing. Now are you a victim if your doing it with another guy and your both 16 and know how to work a DV camera? I don't think so, your a gay porn producer/director/actor."

Justin started a second site jfwy.com, an online acronym that means "just fucking with you." He charged subscribers $45 a month. In addition, he would ask for large individual payments for private shows, sometimes $300 for an hour long performance. As his obsession with the business grew, Justin became a ferocious competitor. When another under-age site operator called Strider ranked higher on a popular portal, Justin sent him anonymous e-mail messages, threatening to pass along images from Strider's site to the boy's father. The site disappeared.

He became an aggressive negotiator of prices for his performances. Growing more arrogant by a growing contempt for his audience, he would sometimes leave their questions unanswered for hours, just to prove to himself that they would wait for him. "These people had no lives," Justin said in an interview. "They would never get mad."

After PayPal decided to stop servicing adult-oriented websites, the teenaged Justin switched his transactions to credit card merchant accounts, taking monthly subscriptions. At one point during technical problems, he offered a free webcam temporarily while his customers waited for the issues to be cleared up. Soon after, he continued his ventures, having sex with prostitutes, both male and female as well as various other things like hanging out at the beach with his friends. He offered a live technical support feature which he himself manned. He offered a free welcome video describing what's included with membership.

In July of 2004, at age 18, he agreed to a paid trip to Las Vegas and continued (in his own words) "having a bunch of fun"staying at Luxor Hotel under the bill and presence of Gregory J. Mitchel, the man who provided the webhosting space and advertising for Justin. Justin claimed in the New York Times article that he was sexually molested during these trips by Mitchel. He later developed DVDs for purchase called "justin on your big screen" and began development on a new website.

While most view Justin's change of heart as an act of rebirth, some have criticized his compliance with law enforcement as done under duress otherwise face criminal charges himself. While Justin was working his sites in Mexico with his father, he was employing under age teens. As Eichenwald himself stated in the New York Times article: "Justin was now 18, a legal adult. He had crossed the line from under-age victim to adult perpetrator." This crossover of social role may have played a part in his decision to switch sides.

So what's the moral to this story? I don't know if there is one. Justin in my opinion has been a master manipulator from the start. He lied and deceived his parents for years, he lied to people signing up for his websites by stating that all models where over the age of 18. He is now giving evidence against all the people that signed up for his sites in exchange for immunity from prosecution. He has been on Oprah and countless other shows, giving him more exposure than you can shake a stick at and will end up running all the way to the bank again and get himself an even bigger car. He has exploited and manipulated the law and the media. He's certainly the winner here.

Do I believe that Justin has been redeemed? Based on his past behaviour of swinging from porn to christianity and back again, No I don't think he has. Do I think that the NY Times reporter has helped him? No I don't. It has dug Justin into an even bigger hole than he was in before. Now he is stuck as the christian anti-porn poster boy. He has not had the time to assimilate everything that has happened to him and the lessons he has learnt in a balanced manner. He has swung from one extreme to the other and back again and has not found the healthy medium. He denies one and then the other and now he is stuck, thanks to all the media exposure he is getting, at the other extreme. This is a very bad place for Justin to be and he really does need alot of help now. It would have been better for the reporter, yes, to help Justin out of the old life, but not to throw him straight into the spotlight at the other extreme point of view. I wonder who's best interest he had in mind, think of all the media attention mr reporter has been getting now. What sort of chance does he have now of leading a normal life? Once upon a time Justin Berry was known to only 1500 people, now he is known to millions. Wouldn't it have been prudent to preserve his identity? I agree the need to expose how easy it is to do this is important, but at what cost to an individual? How is healing done this way? The best course of action for Justin Berry would have been to tell his story, have it published and preserve his anonymity, now everyone knows him as the porn boy.

The part of this story that bothers me the most now though is what about all those young boys with webcams who have now been given a wonderful idea, thanks to Justin Berry.

Addendum

Since this article first went online we have received an enormous amount of emails regarding Justin Berry and his websites. The majority of this has been in support of our article and has even provided us with some new evidence and hitherto unknown facts in this case. Here is some food for thought:

1. Justin's Amazon wishlist was created in December 2002, which would have made him 16 and not 13 as he claims. None of the items have been purchased for him, again contradicting what he claims and the list was last updated on March 13, 2006. What does he need gifts for now? You can see the wishlist for yourself here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/registry.html/ref=cm_pdp_profile_reg/002-4889345-8779216?%5Fencoding=UTF8&id=2B4B57V4L0Q8A

2. Justin Berry is now living in Dallas, Texas with the New York Times reporter and has his own new website http://www.xpertcreations.com/ on it he has a website he built for Kurt Eichenwald. Since we discovered this site with Justin's new address and phone numbers, the site has been taken down.

3. Justin is advertising himself on an escorting website in 2004, so much for people preying on him:

Nick: Justin

Country: USA
City: Las Vegas

Age: 18
Height: 6'
Weight: 115
Stats: LARGE ;)
ID: 2770

Sex: Male
Language spoken:
English, Spanish

Content of announcement:

Hey guys, I'm new to this ;) I've been an internet model/porn star for a while now, http://www.mexicofriends.com my work.

Will Travel - Yes, almost ANYWHERE

Chat with me live via email or AIM: ComputerNERDMI

Prices are negociable. Come chat with me :)

4. Justin met Kurt Eichenwald, for the first time in person in June of 2005. Justin hired and filmed himself having sex with a 14 year old boy called ?Taylor? in early June of 2005 and it was posted on his website on June 19.This is the only known underage participant ever to be filmed on Justin's website. He then met with the FBI on July 25 and the site was taken down. Why did it happen after Justin had started talking to Kurt?

5. Justin was still asking his credit card processor for money even after he had taken his websites down. Here is a documented conversation we have been given and verified, between Justin (he is now born again Christian) (mobilejb) and his credit card processor (sonic staRliTe) dated 11/27/2004, after Justin had taken his websites down for the first time:

m0bilejb: hey
soniK staRliTe: howdy
m0bilejb: whats going on?
soniK staRliTe: friday payouts, the day i become super accountant
m0bilejb: so, id like to shut down the sites, and obviously recieve
Gods money today
soniK staRliTe: you're shutting down the sites???
m0bilejb: God led me to do it.
m0bilejb signed off at 19.20.55.
m0bilejb signed on at 19.20.56.
soniK staRliTe: well at least turn off the rebills and let everyone's
billing cycle run through. otherwise his holyness is going to lose a
lot of money in chargebacks from angry paid customers.
m0bilejb: its not what I want to do, nor is it what God wants, but if
you suggest it, maybe you will help me shut it down.
m0bilejb: if you can take care of it within a month thats fine

6. Justin Berry has been out of the porn business for six months until he meet Kurt Eichenwald, it is after that meeting he starts his sites up again for 2 months and films himself with a 14 year old boy.

This story makes The Da Vinci Code look like Dr Seuss.

July 10, 2006
On June 14, we learn that Justin Berry was admitted to a psychiatric hospital at UCLA for an unknown condtion and cannot appear at the trial of Ken Gourlay. Gourlay was accused of molesting and having sexual relations with Berry from age 14. No evidence has been presented and it is up to Berry to prove his allegations. We have heard unofficially that Berry is allegedly suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. The trial was adjourned until July 14. Gourlay's lawyers do not expect Berry to show. "I don't know that we'll ever see Mr. Berry,'' said Gourlay attorney James Howarth after the hearing. "I have considerable doubts.'' This absence at a crucial trial and Eichenwald's silence has thrown even more doubt on Berry's verasity and honesty in telling his story. This is the first time he would have to answer the hard questions.

The Justin Berry story run by Eichenwald is nominated for a New Media Emmy Award. I wonder if Berry will be out of hospital in time for the ceremony.
Thanks to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/04/AR2006070401063.html

Justin never got time to heal and now is in hospital and Eichenwald got his nomination...Looks like the winner takes it all.

We'll keep you updated as to what happens.