End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography & Trafficking in Children

Media Release Tuesday 20 September2005

Information Leads To Conviction

An internet café owner, Soon O Jeong, has just been convicted of copying and selling movies containing objectionable images including sexual abuse of girls aged from 5 to 14 years.

The Department of Internal Affairs successfully charged Jeong under the Films, Videos and Publications Classification Act resulting in a fine of over $5,000 and the forfeiture and destruction of his computer hard drive.

ECPAT Director, Alan Bell, notes that the illegal activity of Jeong was drawn to the authorities notice by someone who bought the movies from the store with the intent of passing them on to the Department of Internal Affairs. “The scale of illegal possession and trading of objectionable material is of such proportion that all members of the public need to be alert to those who peddle these images and must feel comfortable about reporting these activities to the appropriate authorities” says Bell. “We should always remember that the abuse of children depicted in these images are in fact real people that have been violated and that their images remain in the public domain throughout the rest of their childhood and continue to haunt them in adulthood.”

Vince Cholewa from the Department of Internal Affairs encourages “Some people have been incorrectly concerned that the Privacy Act might prevent them reporting information about possible crime. Reporting a possible crime to the appropriate authorities is not a breach of the Privacy Act.”

ECPAT NZ is part of a global network committed to end sexual exploitation of children.

ENDS

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