Kurt Eichenwald
Reporter
The New York Times

Citation
A six-month investigation by New York Times reporter Kurt Eichenwald into online child pornography triggered a federal criminal investigation, the rescue of countless children from exploitation, and the gratitude of parents from around the world. Eichenwald told the stories of children who were encouraged by adults to perform sexually for Internet audiences by using inexpensive Webcams in the privacy of their bedrooms. In the process of reporting the story, Eichenwald convinced a teenager who had been performing online for five years to shut down his Web site, kick drugs, and turn over information on other children involved in online pornography to federal prosecutors. After the story was published, one tearful father told Eichenwald that the article had prompted him to check his son's computer, where he found sexual communications through a "chat" feature in an online game his son played. The boy was 8 years old.

Excerpt
Excerpt Through His Webcam, a Boy Joins a Sordid Online World
December 19, 2005
The 13-year-old boy sat in his California home, eyes fixed on a computer screen. He had never run with the popular crowd and long ago had turned to the Internet for the friends he craved. But on this day, Justin Berry's fascination with cyberspace would change his life.
Weeks before, Justin had hooked up a Web camera to his computer, hoping to use it to meet other teenagers online. Instead, he heard only from men who chatted with him by instant message as they watched his image on the Internet. To Justin, they seemed just like friends, ready with compliments and always offering gifts.
Now, on an afternoon in 2000, one member of his audience sent a proposal: he would pay Justin $50 to sit bare-chested in front of his Webcam for three minutes. The man explained that Justin could receive the money instantly and helped him open an account on PayPal.com, an online payment system.
"I figured, I took off my shirt at the pool for nothing," he said recently. "So, I was kind of like, what's the difference?"
Justin removed his T-shirt. The men watching him oozed compliments.
So began the secret life of a teenager who was lured into selling images of his body on the Internet over the course of five years. From the seduction that began that day, this soccer-playing honor roll student was drawn into performing in front of the Webcam-undressing, showering, masturbating and even having sex—for an audience of more than 1,500 people who paid him, over the years, hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Justin's dark coming-of-age story is a collateral effect of recent technological advances. Minors, often under the online tutelage of adults, are opening for-pay pornography sites featuring their own images sent onto the Internet by inexpensive Webcams. And they perform from the privacy of home, while parents are nearby, beyond their children's closed bedroom doors.
The business has created youthful Internet pornography stars—with nicknames like Riotboyy, Miss Honey and Gigglez—whose images are traded online long after their sites have vanished. In this world, adolescents announce schedules of their next masturbation for customers who pay fees for the performance or monthly subscription charges. Eager customers can even buy "private shows," in which teenagers sexually perform while following real-time instructions.

Biography
Kurt Eichenwald, a senior writer and investigative reporter at The New York Times, has written about corporate corruption and related topics for more than a decade. He began reporting for the paper's business section in 1988. Earlier in his career he was a writer-researcher for CBS News in the election and survey unit, an associate editor at National Journal, and a news clerk for The New York Times in Washington and New York. Eichenwald, 44, was a winner of the George Polk Award in 1996 for his articles about deficiencies in the American system of kidney dialysis care. In 1998, he won another Polk Award for a series of articles about allegations of corruption at the nation's largest private hospital chain, the Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. His most recent book, Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story, is about the Enron scandal. Born in New York City, Eichenwald graduated from Swarthmore College. He is married and has three children.

Articles
"Through His Webcam, a Boy Joins a Sordid Online World"

"Making a Connection With Justin"