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On any given night, Bill fires up his Pentium III-450 megahertz computer, and with a few clicks of his mouse, the hunt is on. Navigating cyberspace's seamy back alleys and secret chat rooms, he prowls the Internet for child molesters.
The 26-year-old Brigham Young University psychology student's crusade against child sexual abuse grew out of research on how it affects victims and their lives.
He is one of 120 volunteers enlisted by the child-safety advocacy group Better A Millstone Inc. (BAM) to find, identify and bring to justice cyberspace pedophiles and eliminate their hidden Internet child pornography archives and clandestine chatrooms.
"Bill" is just one of many online pseudonyms he uses because ferreting out distributors of the illicit images and their companion child-sex predators can be a dangerous game. The Provo-based digital sleuth, who is studying to be a family therapist, says he risks retribution if identified.
It is a fear that is well-founded, said Better A Millstone founder Mike Echols, author of the 1999 nonfiction best seller on child abduction, I Know My Name Is Steven. He launched BAM and its Web site (www.shadow-net.com) two years ago.
"I'm constantly being threatened by these predators," said Echols, who not only has become a public face for groups battling kiddie porn and sexual predators but has worked undercover for law enforcement to infiltrate and unmask pedophile groups.
The 56-year-old Monterey, Calif.-based writer credits both his Episcopalian faith and work with foster children recovering from molestation for inspiring his mission to expose "America's dirty little secret" -- the explosion of pornography in general, and kiddie porn in particular, since the Internet has come into its unregulated heyday.
"It's incredible, but [online] they see themselves as perfectly normal. The rest of the world is screwed up,...