After arresting Ralph, the police learned that he was on

five-year's probation for sexually molesting children in another city. Ralph had also been convicted and served time for sexually molesting children 20 years earlier in another state.

Ralph

Less than

lied about this conviction on several job applications. one month before his most recent discovery and arrest, Ralph's psychiatrist wrote a letter to his probation officer stating that "there is no indication that there has been recurrence of symptoms. I feel, therefore, that his problem remains in remission."

STATEMENT OF HON. JEREMIAH DENTON

CHAIRMAN OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE

I have some concern about placing explicit material into

the record; however, because of the nature of the problem, I believe it is necessary for the public to be aware of the extent of the problem. It is for this reason that the following exhibits are included.

ATTACHMENT A
[From the Genesis magazine]

X-RATED COMPUTERS

YOU CAN USE YOUR COMPUTER AS AN INFORMATION SOURCE OR AS A DIRECT LINE TO SOME REALLY KINKY FOLKS

(By Michael Bane)

It is dark in Florida, and a cool breeze rustles the palm trees outside my window. Inside, it is quiet and dark, no light to disturb me. I sit down in front of the keyboard and feel the breeze through the open window. I flex my fingers, reach around back of the gray machine, and flick a switch.

The darkness is suddenly eased by the glow from my video screen-amber, not green, giving the whole computer a science-fiction aura. I slip a small disk into the computer, press a few buttons, and am rewarded by the amber screen's message: "Enter digits, or dial directly from phone."

I smile. Tonight, I'm going hunting, all around the world. The machine clicks steadily, and I know that somewhere, far away, a telephone is ringing. There is another click, and I know that the two machines, my own small one and another giant, are talking in R2D2 language, beeps and whirs. "Connect,” the amber screen says.

"Read Conferences," I type. A long list of "conferences" appear on the screenjokes, recipes, Create-A-Religion, Dodge Dart parts for sale .

"Read Adult. Conf," I type. "OPINIONS AS TO THE VALIDITY OR MORALITY OF OTHERS' SEXUAL PREFERENCES AND PRACTICES WILL NOT BE TOLERATED!" the amber screen reads. "*IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY EXPLICIT SEXUAL MATERIAL, *DO NOT READ THESE MESSAGES.*

Read Submessages," I type.

66

+++SUBMESSAGES+++; Fantasies; Get/Your/Rocks/Off; Gay.Men; Womenof-the-World; Ebony.And.Ivory; Brown.Sugar.”

"Read Brown.Sugar," I type.

"I'M A 28 YEAR OLD BLACK WOMAN WHO WOULD LIKE TO EXPERIENCE THE FEEL OF A HOT TONGUE ON MY CLIT. . . I'VE NEVER MADE LOVE TO A WHITE MAN. BUT AM WILLING TO TRY IF I CAN MEET SOMEONE WHO CAN TAKE CHARGE AND TEACH ME HOW TO BE A LOVING OBEDIENT SLAVE TO HIS POWERFUL PENIS. . .

This is the part of the computer revolution you didn't read about in Time magazine.

Every night around the country and the world, thousands of screens light up, and thousands of people go hunting through the net of telephone lines that surround the world like a spider's web.

The hunters can be looking for something as simple as the afternoon's stock quotes, or, like the hero of the movie WarGames, they can be looking for the number of the Defense Department's master war machine. They can be looking for love in electronic places, or maybe they're just looking to talk.

While word processing and financial juggling remain the best known and most used aspects of the personal computer, how the computer got to be a star, the real giant, the earthshaker, is still lurking just around the corner.

Telecommunications, the act of one computer "talking" to another may well prove to be the pot of gold at the end of the computer rainbow-and, perhaps totally unexpectedly, the new way of reaching out and touching someone.

Telecommunications will allow you to check electronic "bulletin boards" and comb swap shops or tap into sophisticated data bases that allow you to search through millions of bits of information in a few seconds.

In fact, the information available via telecommunicating is expanding so quickly that it's impossible to list it. There are over 750 different services available on one system alone, The Source. This monster "information utility" includes business and financial analysis; financial market reports; stock, bonds, and metals news; air schedules and an online travel agency; discount shopping services; electronic mail and teleconferencing; movie reviews; computer games; the United Press International news wire; even the weather report.

In addition to the "department store" operations of many services like The Source or CompuServe, there are smaller, more specialized electronic bulletin boards. These bulletin boards range from classified ads to chatting with people having similar interests. Not surprisingly, the first bulletin boards were devoted to computer hobbyists, the guys in high school and college who wore slide rules on their belts and now drive chocolate-brown Mercedes-Benz cars and date Bianca Jagger look-alikes. Predictably, it didn't take long for more prosaic interests to make their way into the computer underworld.

PEOPLE GO HUNTING THROUGH THE NET OF PHONE LINES THAT SURROUNDS THE WORLD

"Read Silk.Shorts," I type.

"REMEMBER WHEN LADIES USED TO WEAR THOSE TIGHT, TIGHT, TIGHT SHINY SILK JOGGING SHORTS? HOT STUFF, HUH? . . . I'D REALLY LIKE TO GRAB A GIRL WEARING SOME OF THOSE SHORT AND TIGHT THINGS AND FUCK THE SHIT OUT OF HER!

I have a vision of some guy hunched over his Atari, typing gooey thoughts out along the line. I break connect, type in new digits, and the machine and I go hunting again.

The advantage of telecommunicating is that it allows you to check vast amounts of information for the answers to fit your specific needs in ways that would have been impossible just a few years ago. If you're only interested in football stories about your favorite team, you could search the United Press international sports wire, collect all the stories on your favorite team, print them out, and read them at your leisure. Or you could tap into one of the data-base services and search for every magazine article written on the team, then arrange to receive copies through

your computer. You can also arrange airline tickets, send mail, shop, play games, or write an electronic novel.

If the only thing you can think about is business, there's a staggering array of business news, from current stock prices to detailed data on many companies to the complete text of the Wall Street Journal. With a computer, you have more information at your fingertips than whole governments did just a few years ago.

There's so much information that it's hard to figure out what's really happening. The confusion comes from the fact that the new services are growing so quickly that it's hard to keep up with what's going on, and in computers, as in life, misinformation is the name of the game. Let's take it one step at a time.

The basic necessity for connecting to an information service or one of the specialized bulleting boards is either a computer or a terminal. Just because you purchased a computer doesn't necessarily mean that the computer is ready to communicate. Computer manufacturers seem dead set against providing a unit that just plugs in and runs. In fact, the reason that the home computer you bought for Christmas was so cheap was that without accessories, it's mainly a paperweight that plays games. Most personal computers require some type of interface to tie into telephone lines. A good rule of thumb is: the cheaper the computer, the more expensive the interface. Ask your dealer.

Typically, the interface to the modem that your phone connects to is referred to only in computerese, not English. When your dealer asks if you want "the asynchronous communications board with the serial port" for your personal computer, he means, "Do you want to give your computer the ability to talk to the rest of the electronic world?"

Assuming your computer is ready to go, your next purchase must be a modem, short for "modulator-demodulator." A modem is the device between your computer and the telephone system that translates information from one and converts it into information usuable by the other. A modem can be a separate device that sits alongside your computer, or it can be an electronic board built inside the machine. You may have noticed that this is starting to add up, dollarwise. You can always justify it by claiming you're trying to join the computer revolution. You'll also need a program for your computer to tell it what to do once the modem is connected.

Information sources usually charge an initiation fee, plus so much per hour for the amount of time you are connected to their service. For most personal computer services, the sign-up fee is $35 to $100 with use charges running from $5 to $25 an hour. The use charges can be billed to your major credit card. Bulletin boards, conference "trees" and the strange things you usually meet on the midnight ether are usually free, but first you've got to find them. This is harder than it sounds. Your dealer might have a list, but probably not of the "good" stuff. For that, try logging onto a bulletin board and asking. Even in the computer age, word of mouth is still the main way of relaying hot stuff. If that doesn't work, try calling (305) 686-4862, log on, and ask to purchase the guide to bulletin boards by one Ric Manning. In addition to adult and specialized listings, he also claims to have listings for "pirates," software bootleggers and people interested in interesting phone numbers. Things like this are against the law. If you do them, someone will come and put you in jail. You might want to keep that in mind.

As far as the information services go, the hardest decision for the new user is which ones to sign up for. Because telecommunication is still in its infancy, there are still opportunities for you to let the services know what you want. Some information services, such as Delphi, constantly ask their subscribers about new services. Local bulletin boards are especially sensitive to users' needs.

If your needs are strictly personal, look into The Source, CompuServe, or Delphi. They offer the broadest range of personal services to their subscribers, and their variety is, at times, staggering.

Once you're on-line, you'll find more and more uses for your computer's telephone linkup. Electronic banking is beginning to be available in some areas. This system allows you to pay bills by touching a few keys on the computer keyboard instead of writing a check and mailing the bill in. Computer owners will be able to monitor their cash more closely than ever before, keeping an up-to-the-minute, accurate tally on their finances from their computer keyboards.

Shopping by computer is available now through some of the large services and through Comp-U-Store in Stamford, Connecticut. Comp-U-Store subscribers can use their computers to search the company's data base for specific items and for the best prices. The item can then be ordered through the computer.

Electronic mail and teleconferencing are two aspects of telecommunicating that are becoming more popular for personal as well as business use. Electronic mail is exactly what the name implies—you send a letter on the computer rather than

through the U.S. Postal Service. Information services provide you with a “mailbox," an electronic address for your mail. You then connect to the service to receive and send mail. Teleconferencing allows a number of users with small computers to have a conference over the telephone. All the conference participants can have a permanent record of what went on (if they choose to save it on a disk or a printout), and the connect charges are typically less than a long-distance telephone charge.

I log onto one of the big information services, thinking that at least it's not a long-distance call. My phone bill may resemble the national debt. I flip through the menus, past wire services and newspapers and tax information, to games. For a while, I roam through the games-space games, war games, and even "ordinary" pre-electronic games like chess. Planets are being blasted, kings are castling, and I am bored.

I drift to the citizens band simulator—yes, kiddies, CB on the telephone! I go to Channel One, the adult channel, and assume my "handle" or identity, Continental Op, and "lurk," which means that I just listen, don't talk. The line is buzzing-Loo Loo, Handy Andy, peach, GOAT RIDER, . . . Dr. WHO . . ., BI-LADY . . . Juggs *-Dr. Detroit-*, Future Phreak. The conversation is just like CB (thousands of thousands of dollars, tons of sophisticated machinery, all to get an exact replica of a Saturday-night truckers' ball). Ten-four, y'all.

I am restless, and the list of bulletin boards is endless. The palms rustle outside my window. The world is at my fingertips.

ATTACHMENT B

[From the NAMBLA Bulletin, December 1983, vol. 4, No. 10]

A PROPOSAL FOR A COMPUTER BULLETIN BOARD

(By a member from Michigan)

The foregoing proposal seems like an appropriate project for a NAMBLA member with background and/or interest in computers. If any such member, including the author, wishes to take leadership of such an endeavor, we will be very happy to hear from him. Such an individual should be willing to take charge and come up with a definite plan for a) funding and b) implementation.

As an educational and information disseminating organization, NAMBLA needs to communicate. One avenue of communication that has not been used is the computer bulletin board service (CBBS). Given the fact that many of the positions we take are at or near the borderline of the law, we need a forum which is rapid, flexible, and facilitates the interchange of ideas. A CBBS is well suited to these needs. This article is meant as an introduction to the concept of a NAMBLA CBBS. I sincerely hope it sparks many creative responses which will help determine the course of the project.

While there are doubtlessly many members already familiar with the bulletin board concept, making regular use of systems such as Lambda, South-of-Market, and the rest, an explanation of what a CBBS is and does is in order. A CBBS is a program that runs on a computer which allows people using their own computers to read or leave messages. In practice, most CBBS systems are a cross between the traditional cork and thumbtack bulletin boards and CB radios. It is possible to have long running discussions between a few or many people. To converse with a CBBS a person must have either a terminal (glass typewriter) or a computer with software that emulates a terminal. In either case he will need a modem-the device that allows two computers to talk over the phone. At current prices a minimal system that can act as a terminal costs about $300.

One of the chief uses of the CBBS will be as a complement to (not a supplement of) the NAMBLA bulletins. Currently, articles in the ÑAMBLA Bulletins and Journals can be divided into three categories: facts, feelings, and fiction. All of these would have a place in the CBBS which would also function as a conduit of articles for the NAMBLA Bulletins. The advantage the CBBS has over the paper Bulletins is that it allows people who do not belong to NAMBLA exposure to our ideas and goals. It does this in a totally safe and legal manner which can raise the outside world's level of understanding without raising its ire.

Three categories were mentioned above. These three seem to be natural divisions for the material that would appear on our CBBS. The facts section would contain short items about current and proposed laws, people arrested for sex crimes', NAMBLA members and activities in the press, addresses of federal congressmen,

etc. All callers will be welcome to read these messages (arranged in the traditional CBBS format) and submit items for possible inclusion.

The feelings section would be organized somewhat differently. Here, there will be user-specified topics with messages that anyone can read and add to. These topics will accumulate a great deal of text in time so they will be periodically condensed down. Topics might include things such as pornography or the age of consent. The closest analogy we have now is the Feedback section in the NAMBLA Bulletin. All callers would be welcome here as well.

The third section, fiction, would contain works of fiction and poetry such as are now found in the paper Bulletins, and the accretion stories like those on the Lambda CBBS. Restriction access to this section to members only is justified for two reasons. This portion of the board will require the most storage and therefore be the most costly so those that want to use it should pay for it. Restriction access will also remove the question of the propriety of such material being in the CBBS. This question of propriety is a very hot topic of debate in the NAMBLA Bulletins right now but this way lets us have our buns and eat them too.

To operate such a board will require three things: hardware, software, and a human operator. The hardware should be a computer with a hard-disk and a modem (the device that enables computers to talk via the phone) and a separate phone line. The software consists of the CBBS program itself and any support programs needed. The human system operator will be in charge of maintaining the system in good working order, organizing and editing the messages and discussions (eliminating fag-baiting messages, fixing spelling, making suggestions, 'chat'ting with users who need help), and doing whatever else is needed to keep the system going strong. Given the vast reserves of free time the above activities leave him, he might also prepare an occasional column for the NAMBLA Bulletin.

Obviously a CBBS is not going to be free. A good, reliable system will cost about $4,000. Since the author of this article is willing to match the first $200 in donations, this breaks down to a per member cost of about $6. After the first year the cost drops to about $2 per member needed to cover maintenance, insurance, and phone bills. A system in this price range will give us ample text storage for the forseeable future. In addition to the purchase of the system we will need the CBBS program and an operator. The author will either assume these responsibilities or aid those who do.

So there you have the basic proposal. Please take the time to consider it and respond, even with criticism. If you would like to explore some current bulletin boards mentioned above, call Lambda at (415) 658-2919 or South-Of-Market at (415) 4698111 or the Midwest CBBS at (313) 455-4227. Most bulletin boards contain the phone numbers for many others.