Prosecutor: Child porn trends disturbing

DETROIT, D.C., Jan. 31 (UPI) -- The trend in child pornography is getting worse -- the victims are younger and the violence against them more intense, a federal prosecutor in Detroit said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Mulcahy said idea that a child pornographer is "the creepy neighbor" has expanded and half of the child porn traded in the United states is made in the United States, the Detroit Free Press reported Monday.

"There's a misconception in the public arena that these are mainly still images of children without clothes on," Mulcahy said. "Well, the truth is that the majority of the pictures that are traded among these guys almost inevitably involve a child being either raped, or being forced to perform some type of sexual act on an adult or child."

Images of bestiality also are being distributed, he said.

"It's really horrific," said Mulcahy, chief of the general crimes unit in the U.S. attorney's office in Detroit.

Brigham Young University Women's Services reports there are at least 100,000 known child pornography Web sites. The center said child porn generates about $3 billion of the U.S. porn industry, estimated $12 billion annually.