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The Pedophile's Secret Code

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Posted Monday, Dec. 3, 2007, at 4:07 PM ET

Every subculture speaks its own dialect, and pedophiles are no exception. Hence the FBI's January 2007 "intelligence bulletin" on "symbols and logos used by pedophiles to identify sexual preferences." The document (see Pages 2-4), was prepared and distributed to FBI divisions and field offices earlier this year by the Cyber Division's Innocent Images National Initiative. These are the G-men and -women who work on cases involving child exploitation and sexual abuse.

Did you know that "boylovers" make their presence known with a "small blue spiral-shaped triangle surrounded by a larger triangle"? The larger triangle signifies an adult male; the smaller triangle, a boy. If the boylover wishes to emphasize the smallness of the boys he covets, then he uses the "little boy lover" logo, which is more rounded and thinner than the boylover logo, apparently to "resemble a scribbling by a young child." Males or females whose taste runs to young girls identify themselves with a logo showing one heart inside a larger heart, while "non-preferential gender child abusers" indicate their enthusiasms with a butterfly logo made up of two large hearts and two smaller hearts. These logos are sometimes incorporated into jewelry or even stamped onto coins. (See Pages 2 and 3.)

Included with the intelligence bulletin is a customer-satisfaction survey aimed at measuring how helpful the report was—not to pedophiles but to law enforcement professionals (see below). Recipients (Page 5) are asked to "[p]lease take a moment to complete this survey and help evaluate the quality and value of FBI products." Was the report "delivered within established deadlines"? Did it identify "new information associated with pending matters"? Respondents are asked to indicate their opinion by circling a number (1 = Strongly Disagree; 5 = Strongly Agree). The inapplicability of Total Quality Management to this particular topic is underlined when respondents are asked whether the report "is reliable (i.e., sources well documented and reputable)." Well-documented, yes. But reputable? As a general rule, you can't find information of this nature in a reputable source. The report's footnotes to online sources (see Page 6) bear this out.

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Posted Monday, Dec. 3, 2007, at 4:07 PM ET
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Bonnie Goldstein is a former special investigator to the U.S. Senate and investigative producer for ABC News.
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