Report of the Ipce Meeting 2010

The meeting was held in a small city just on the Dutch coast, on June 25 & 27 2010. 

- First round
- In memoriam: Michael Jackson 
- Ipce decides about Ipce 
- Discussion about aims and strategy 
- Looking back on the meeting 

First round

From the Netherlands ...

... it was reported that the Martijn Association has several problems, which began with a court case in 2007. The Association was sued because one of its forum members  posted an official photograph of a Dutch princesses on their internet forum, without permission from the royal family.   The Association received a conditional sentence and was required to pay the costs of the lawsuit. 

In 2010, a man accused of child molestation claimed - as part of a bizarre legal defence - that the Martijn Association provided assistance with finding a victim. The man is not a member of the Association and was apparently not known to the organisation's members, yet the Association is (as of July 2010) still under investigation. A lawyer involved with the case has even called for the organisation to be 'forbidden', even though the only 'evidence' originates from the dubious defence of a desperate defendant. 

A woman named Yvonne maintains a small vigilant organisation which is dedicated to posting sensationalist articles about 'pedophiles'. She obsessively follows the Martijn Forum and frequently posts screenshots to her website. Some of the information is misrepresented, possibly with the intention of causing legal trouble for the Association. Another vigilante, Ireen, is avoiding the spotlight. She continues to stalk specific people and has even contacted employers with the intention of causing unemployment for people who are attracted to children. 

A long-running forum, boylover.net, has been closed by authorities, without evidence that the website was used for illegal purposes. Shortly thereafter, twelve people in the Netherlands and in Belgium had police raids, including people who live completely in accordance with the laws. The raids against boylover.net were brought about by questionable claims made by a co-opted former member, which has led to the embarassing situation of raids against a completely legal website, followed by the arrests of numerous innocent people.  

Koinos Magazine, a magazine focused on adolescent boys, still exists. In the future, the magazine will be published as a PDF document, due to the decreasing interest in print publications. The editors are also considering a modernised design.

The forum pedofilie.nl is doing well. Parents and teenagers drop their questions and there is no abusive language at all. 

Recent national elections in the Netherlands resulted in a great gain for the intolerant and authoritarian PVV. The leader (and only member) of the PVV once called for the PNVD, at the time an official political party known unofficially as the 'pedopartij' (paedophile party), to be banned. The PNVD recently disbanded, as they were unable to gain the public declarations of support which are required for a party to participate in the Dutch national elections.  

B4U-Act

B4U-Act - Living in Trust and Dignity is a A Maryland, USA based, non-profit organization with funding from Baltimore Mental Health Services. The group tries to build bridges between mental health workers and minor attracted people. Members of the group participated in the discussions during an APA Congress held to discuss the new version of the DSM. 

The trend in the APA is to also see hebephilia, attraction to pubescent and adolescent youth, as a mental distortion. 

The group has observed that discussion in mental health circles is quite one-sided, because much of the information about minor-attracted people is derived from studies of convicted sex offenders. B4U-Act encourages professionals to listen to minor-attracted people and organizes meetings between those people and mental health professionals. 

The USA is harsh for nearly every minority group; sting operations are a normal procedure. 

Newgon.com 

Newgon.com is a relatively new group and website. It hosts a collection of activist and informational resources for the acceptance of intergenerational and youthful love. This site is also home to a community of bloggers and cyber activists who share such aims. 

From Finland

Finland is a small country with only 5 million inhabitants. The state has a quite severe Ministry of Justice, and a population that is usually loyal to the laws and with a strong common sense.

A small group manages a forum about attraction to minors, not in order to convert people, but to inform and build bridges.

A film

A guest of the meeting told about his intention to produce a film; a love story about a 'forbidden love'. The script is ready; a producer is found; a main actor is also found; and a financial advisor has been hired. The progress of this project is encouraging. 

Discussion

What constitutes wise activism? Centralized or decentralized? The latter seems the better form. Accept disagreement. Small groups work best. Do not try to convince people, but give information in qualitative good media. Work step by step. Cooperate; know who does what; divide the work to do.

In memoriam: Michael Jackson 

Just one year ago, Michael Jackson died, so we had a short in memoriam. A presentation about the book "Michael Jackson's Dangerous Liaisons" by Carl Thoms is presented here as an article in this Newsletter. 

In the meantime, shortly after the book was published, frenzied discussions began on Amazone and on internet forums about MJ. The book argued that MJ's and his liaisons had a pedophilic character, which led to online protests by his fans and even his relatives. Those fans perceive Michael as a saint or an angel; sleeping with boys, but surely without any erotic feelings. The same fans campaign against 'pedophiles', some blogs even forbid that word and kick people with another view from their forum. 

Supposedly, the publisher will withdraw the book from publication, or will stop reprinting it. Prices rose sharply as a result of that announcement. 

In the course of these discussions, bloggers, thus the public, discovered and advertised the fact that 'Carl Toms' actually is a pen name for Tom O'Carroll. The bloggers portrayed him as a pervert, a distorted and dangerous man who, that is clear, isn't it, never can tell any truth. 

Maybe someone will find a way to maintain the distribution of the book. The more the fans react, the more readers it will attract. The book is unique because of its unique approach. 

Ipce decides about Ipce

1. The meeting accepts the reports of the secretary, the webmaster and the treasurer, and thus the policy behind it.

2. The meeting re-installs the 'New-Members Committee' and appoints a new 'Conflict & Emergency Committee'.

3. The meeting appoints a 'Steering Committee' for Ipce.

4. The meeting installs an 'Editorial Team' with the task to provide new files for the website. In this team, there is one technician, two moderators (who accept or reject the proposed files), and several posters of files. Guidelines for the editorial team will be written, discussed and laid down.

5. The meeting appoints for the IMO Forum: an owner, three admins/moderators, a technician and a standby admin./moderator.

6. The meeting accepts the testing of a new version of its website, including the former website with its Statements, Newsletters, Documentation, Magazine and three libraries - and a 'Library 4', which works separately and is more automated, and which can be managed by a team. A new home page is still needed. The meeting asks the technician to start the new website as soon as this is possible. 

7. The meeting decides to stop Ipce's Newsletter after # 30, and to immediately stop the Documentation Service by now. There are still a few subscribers to the paper version of the Newsletter. There will be a new way to announce new files. The Documentation Service is stopped because nowadays its is quite easy to find documents on the Internet. An archive of the documents will be saved.

8. The meeting re-appoints Frans as the Secretary, the  Treasurer and the Webmaster/moderator for the next - and last - year.

9. The members of Ipce's internal forum IMO are asked to discuss

10. A decision about the dates and the place of the next Ipce Meeting has not yet been made. 

Discussion about aims and strategy 

Questions

Introduction - by Frans

Some groups have had great problems, or have even disappeared, due to irresponsible behaviour by leaders - or even just members. Thus, moderation is always needed. 

Other groups have suffered or failed due to internal discord, usually between 'the radicals' and 'the moderates'. 

Groups that survived do have moderators, a 'core of wise men/women', not just youngest members. They practiced leadership; they were bridges.

Groups that have survived have perseverance, sometimes practiced by a small core committee or a single person.

Groups which have survived have not provoked the public; they give counterbalance, but in a balanced way. They have informed the public in a broad way, or have not chosen 'the public' as their target group; they have chosen only specific people as scientists or mental health workers.

'Surviving' is not the same as 'having influence', which in turn not is the same as 'having good influence'.

Ipce has chosen to inform the public on a scholarly level with balanced texts only.

During the many years in which I was the secretary of Ipce, I always have tried to be a moderator, a wise man, a bridge, and to carry on. Actually, there was and is a 'Conflict & Emergency Team', but there have been neither conflicts nor emergencies. Within the IMO Forum, and during the meetings, I have met several 'wise (old) man/women' as the core of Ipce. Thus, let's try to continue this.

Discussion

Survival was also possible thanks to meetings in person, just as we have now. People participating in internet forums usually give only nick names; some web forums have grown greatly, but are yet not working as an organization, only as a meeting point. Great and small organizations have their own dynamics, power and weakness. 

Remarked is that the great forums give many complaints but few inspiration; small groups give more inspiration. It is just the way Ipce works. Ipce aims to reach a scholarly level. 

This sparkled a discussion. One member argued that by only communicating on an academic level, we do not reach the general public, as the general public does not understand us. "No problem", said another, "the witch hunters do not read the long Ipce articles, so the do not hunt us. For me, it is not a problem that we do nit reach the public. Real influence does not come from the public, but from the philosophers, scientists - and some journalists who are able to 'translate'."

The media reports only negative stories, however. They often ignore research with findings which contradict the hysteria about pedophilia. That leaves the public with a quite one-sided view. But converting them to accept more nuances will not work even. 

Possible means to reach the public include films (see here above), songs, paintings, arts, videos, TV shows, playwrights (see next article). Unfortunately, we lack experience and ability to produce such media.  We have also observed that sites as YouTube and the Amazone Forum refuse pro-pedophilia contributions. Thus, one should not choose this angle and should not use the 'p' word. Better angles are the civil rights of parents and children, freedom to express oneself, combating hysterical fear for friendly adults. Use arguments, not slogans.

Looking back on the meeting

Attendants were content with the meeting. The location and the accommodation was nice, be it a bit too small for us.

The combination with the IBLD was good. Members expressed a desire to invite more guests, to broaden the meeting and the themes. Internal matters can be discussed on the internal forum. An extra day will be fruitful for the meeting.

Members are content that Ipce now has a Steering Committee that can lead the discussions on the internal forum and that can take decisions. If decisions are well prepared in small groups or on the internal forum, the meeting will be able to decide more quickly and to work more effectively. By doing so, there is less time needed for decisions, and so more time left for exchange ideas and  meeting each other in person.