Kids battle sex abuse

Show gets word out, peer to peer, about dangers strangers can pose

When a group of Tucson-area young people focuses cameras on the issue of child sexual abuse, the potential threat becomes all too clear.

"I use the Internet a lot and get into chat rooms a lot and it's got me thinking," 17-year-old Karina Parades said. "You can't trust the person on the other side."

Parades and 15 other kids between the ages of 11 and 18 have produced two one-hour programs on pedophiles, the second of which is being broadcast on public access TV channels through March.

The young TV crew from different schools and different parts of town come together in Reel Kids Productions Inc. to learn their craft and make a dozen programs a year on subjects as serious as pedophiles and drug abuse and as lighthearted as a variety show.

Sherry Harrison, the mother of one of the TV crew members and Reel Kids' executive director, said that she and Sara Stalkfleet, 15, decided to do a show about the threat of child sexual abuse after seeing news stories about priests molesting young people and after receiving e-mails asking about how to handle abusive situations.

Stalkfleet said she knows someone who was sexually abused and that the shows will give victims "a lot of information about where to go and who to talk to, in general."

"I think there's a lot of things about it people need to know," Stalkfleet said.

In Part One of the series, Stalkfleet interviewed FBI Special Agent Robin Andrews, Pima County Sheriff's Department Detective Jefford Englander and Pima County Attorney's Office Criminal Investigator John Taylor, all members of the Southern Arizona Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement Team.

The team finds people who go online to lure minors for sexual activities or who receive, distribute or produce child pornography. The team has made 28 arrests and executed 46 search warrants in Pima County since 1999, Andrews said.

In the show, Taylor demonstrates how a pedophile can go into a chat room and find young people's names, ages, addresses and other personal information if they have filled out online profiles.

"People 24 hours a day try to sexually exploit children through online services," he said. "Cyberspace is just as dangerous as the real world."

For Part Two, Stalkfleet interviewed forensic psychologist Cheryl L. Karp about how to spot potential offenders, how pedophiles manipulate children, signs that someone has been abused and treatments available for victims.

A pedophile "could be your next-door neighbor, your best friend," Karp said. "It can be anyone from any station of life, adolescent to 70" or beyond.

"Mostly the person has an inner strong desire or attraction for a younger child. It's a real compulsion."

Some of the kids in Reel Kids have taken television production classes at their schools or at Access Tucson, 124 E. Broadway, which manages Tucson's public access channels and provides television production training. Most of the Reel Kids' productions are filmed there, Harrison said.

She said she began brainstorming with Stalkfleet about the pedophile shows in August, and the group spent about four hours in the Access Tucson studio Nov. 23 filming Part One and about 2 1/2 hours taping Part Two on Jan. 11.

The kids learn the technical aspects of television production, but they also learn how to handle themselves in front of a camera.

Stalkfleet said that about halfway through the taping of Part Two, she had gone through all the questions she and Harrison had planned to ask Karp, and she had to come up with her own questions on the spot. "I just kind of worked with what she said," Stalkfleet said.

Karp said that she was impressed with the Reel Kids' effort.

"I think it's so tremendous," she said. "They're really tackling a difficult subject and bringing it home to all the other kids out there. An adolescent interviewing me probably brings it home to them."

Detective Englander, of the sexual assault enforcement team, said he liked being a guest on the show.

"What was really neat was the questions came from our target audience," he said. "I hope there are a couple of administrators out there who saw it and will show it at their schools."

* Contact reporter Colleen Sparks at 434-4076 or at colleens@azstarnet.com.