Officials involved with the investigation said the shutdown is most likely a result of the Times December article featuring Justin Berry, a California native who is now helping the federal government target sites and portals that encourage minors to operate webcams. As a teenager, Berry said he hosted a webcam featuring himself in pornographic situations, lured by the online gifts sent to him by various people.
The article described the emergence of for-pay webcam sites, as well as the infrastructure that supported the teenagers' businesses, including the portals needed to help customers locate the illegal sites.
It is unclear whether the recent portal shutdowns are permanent or simply the result of sudden scrutiny. Child safety experts who work closely with law enforcement attributed the development to the recent public attention the business has received.
"The fact that portals are going down is evidence that the heightened attention being paid to this problem is forcing offenders who exploit children with webcams to hide their activity," Michelle Collins said, head of the exploited child unit at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Officials said the shutdown impedes the ability of the illegal businesses to attract new customers and could disrupt the illicit businesses far more than what could be achieved by any single law enforcement action. As a result, minors who open new sites will have a more difficult time marketing and teenagers with sites already in existence will have difficulty expanding their membership lists.
"From a law enforcement perspective, those portals are the kind of enabling structures that need to be strategically taken out to make the business more difficult," attorney Stephen Ryan said, who represents Berry.
In addition to the portal closings, a criminal investigation of illegal webcam sites has progressed. Knute Berry, who was identified in the Times article as someone who the government believes helped his son Justin operate an illegal site for a share of the money, has approached American officials in Mexico through his lawyer with an offer to turn himself in, officials involved in the case said.
