Justin says he shut down his website and quit using drugs. For the next six months he became Kurt's guide into the webcam pornography business. His research led to the December 19, 2005, publication of Kurt's front-page The New York Times exposé on the dark underworld of child webcam pornography. "I was introduced to a world that I didn't know existed," Kurt says. "I saw a pornographic website that had hundreds and hundreds of webcam videos of children. I have never worked on anything that has made me so upset. I have seen things that nobody should ever see."

Kurt says that Justin's detailed records—five years' worth of saved online chats and financial transactions—will help prosecute Justin's predators, but reading back through such abusive conversations was an emotionally difficult task. "They said things to this child that you would not say to a dead prostitute," Kurt says.

Kurt and Justin were shocked to discover the customers' identities. »