Bloggers, media ethicists respond to NYT's camwhore story

Xeni Jardin 7:45 am Tue Dec 20, 2005

Snip from a sexerati post critiquing the epic-length New York Times feature on teen webcam site operators, Through His Webcam, a Boy Joins a Sordid Online World:

Why is this news now? Salon tread here first ("Candy from strangers"), long ago, back in 2001. What's new now is that a former teen webcam site operator and owner, the subject of the lengthy and multiply sidebar-ed feature, after being approached by the Times journalist — who was, at the time, posing as a customer and fan — was urged by the journalist to end his involvement with his and related sites, and to pursue criminal charges against those he still knew in the online circles in which he profited, with legal assistance supported by the journalist.

All of which begs the question — how can one even report thoroughly on this issue without becoming a part of it, and how does that fundamentally compromise that reporting — which Slate's Jack Shafer ("The New York Times Legal Aid Society: The newspaper helps a very young pornographer find a lawyer") candidly asks. Because we know the Times is having hard enough time lately with such issues. Adding teenagers and porn to the pot hardly clarifies things.

Link to full post.

Update: Boing Boing founder Mark Frauenfelder covered the teen webcam porn subculture for Yahoo! Internet Life magazine way, way back in 2002: Link.

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