FTA: "A 25-year-old Sydney man from Eastwood was sentenced to eight years in 2010 on multiple charges including three counts of having sex with a child, while Victorian Bryan Cooper is serving seven years for procuring boys for sex," said the paper's report. "Sydney man David Anthony Hudson, 40, from Russell Lea, was jailed for his role in an international child sex tourism ring and is spending a minimum five years and seven months in jail for offenses against a Thai teenager… George Iliakis, a former teacher from exclusive Brighton Grammar in Melbourne, sent videos and pictures of young boys to other members of the ring, which at its height had 70,000 members. Iliakis, who is serving a minimum two-year sentence, handcuffed and gagged boys before photographing them for his sexual gratification."
I was like, "Only eight years for actually having sex w/ three kids? Really?!?" In the US, people merely convicted of possession of child porn can get way more than that.
I personally don't buy into the "demand" argument which drives possession-only legislation. I'm all for throwing the book at folks who abuse real kids, but I think locking people up for collections of bits on their hard drives is pretty lame and a waste of resources.
On the one hand, I'm thrilled that real predators were sentenced to jail time. However, part of me cringes at the notion that boylover.net was shut down, if only for free speech reasons (which I know is handled differently in other countries). As hideous at the topics likely discussed on the site may be, I'm guessing the majority of the site users were rather benign and society was better off with them having a place to gather online.