Portable Porn

Kids are using a gaming device to access porn out of thin air, even at school Kids like to keep secrets from adults, there's a kind of power that comes from knowing the adults are clueless.
You know the electronic games, the ones that seem to be in the hands of just about every kid. Those devices do more than play hockey or race cars.

Jeff Harris brought his new portable gaming device to school and then he pulled a stunt that got him grounded for a month, as well as an in-school suspension.

What mom thought was just a game is actually a very sophisticated piece of electronics that a clever kid can use to capture pornographic images out of thin air. In the school's library, Jeff was eager to show his friends his new Sony Play Station Portable, or PSP. On a dare, Jeff showed his pals how the PSP could magically display images of naked women.

Jeff had used his PSP to tap into the school's wireless internet connection. And once he was on the net it was just a few seconds before he ended up on a pornographic web site. He says he learned how to do it from other kids who use their PSP's do the same thing at school.

There are lots of places besides a school, where a kid can go to get free wireless access to the internet. Jeff showed us, and his mom, how his PSP was able to hook up to a wireless connection outside a public library. once connected he could surf to his hearts content.

Some parents might be clueless, but lots of other adults are finding ways to cash in on the technology. We found numerous web sites that cater specifically to the PSP.

The FOX 9 Investigators tracked down the owners of one of these sites. Its run by two,19-year old brothers. Reporter: "Are you trying to target kids with this?"
Website Operator: "Not at all, because its really hard to get money, or advertising if you have only kids coming to your site."
His target audience, he says, is the over 30 crowd that owns PSP's.
Reporter: "How do you know you don't have some kid who's 10, 12, 14 years old going on to your website?"
Website Operator: "We really don't know their ages, or their gender."

There's no doubting the popularity of loading porn onto a PSP. Its even been nicknamed the play station "pornable". The owners of this one site claim they get 90 thousand visitors a month.

David Walsh/National Institute on Media and the Family: "I talk to parents everyday who are discovering that some of their teenagers are not just curious about messing around with porn, but are deeply into pornography."

Last month a 14-year old boy in Bismark, North Dakota got caught bringing porn into school on his PSP. The local authorities decided to make an example of the boy and charged him with a felony.

David Walsh/National Institute on Media and the Family: "This is at the time when we want our kids to be developing healthy attitudes toward sex, healthy attitudes towards relationships."

Dr. David Walsh is president of the National Institute on Media and the Family. He says parent's need to get hip about the technology their kids are using.

David Walsh/National Institute on Media and the Family: "We need to know how it works. We need to know the capability. We need to be clear with our kids ahead of time about what the ground rules are."

At Jeff school, they're rethinking the policy that allows students to bring portable games for use outside of class time.

Jana Hennen-Burr/Elk River Schools: "We need to put some structures in place to keep things honest."

For starters, they want to make the school's wireless internet connection a lot more secure.

Sony, the maker of the PSP, told us that parents should be responsible for monitoring the content their children are viewing. But David Walsh of the National Institute on Media and the Family, says game makers have a responsibility too. They should let parents know that their product could give a kid easy access to pornography.