Ryan's Comments
Hello there. I'm Ryan. The Kids Against Child Pornography website is growing faster than I thought it would. I'm amazed at the teamwork, loyalty, friendship, and stubborn refusal to quit among this group I've met from around the world.
I've learned HTML, FTP and graphics programs.
I've learned a lot about politics working on this site, and I've learned how petty and small-minded some people can be. But I'm learning to be political myself. Sometimes it's scary, taking a stand. Sometimes I have to tell someone, "that's nice but it's not enough." Sometimes I have to tell people to take breaks. Sometimes I have to talk people out of quitting. And sometimes I have to realize their political squabbles mean it's time to let them go.
I've watched friendships grow and I've seen abused kids encouraged to get the real help they need. I've learned some people have tireless energy (Hi Jay!), and I watch them demonstrate initiative all over. I've seen people dedicate endless hours translating (Hi Frank!) and still come back and ask for more. I've seen people grow up in the past 2 months, and I've been honoured to be adopted as a big brother by some very special people (Hi Nicky!).
There really isn't much I want to say about myself in a public place. Others have personal homepages, and that's cool, but this cause is enough for me. I'm happy this site is available to kids like my friends who want to raise their voices against child pornography.
I'm 13 years old and I'm an abuse survivor and so is my brother and many kids I know on the Internet. I was very lucky that pictures taken by my natural father (who is rotting for the rest of his life in a jail cell) were never given out, they were confiscated when he was arrested. Others weren't so lucky. There are hundreds of pictures of them floating around, and it breaks my heart when kids in chat ask for pornography, as if they were asking for a cherry coke.
It's wonderful to know people care and want to help. It's not that adults can't help, it's that we want kids to stand together and fight this with what we have. Let the cops close the newsgroups and nail the perverts who make the crap.
