July-September, 2001 Inductees Into Twisted Unicorn's Website Hall of Infamy

There are plenty more photos of Jessi wearing all kinds of tight and/or skimpy outfits and that's just in the free areas of the site. This site also has a members-only area where if you pay $20 the first month then $15 a month after that, you can see what kind of Jessi photos are reserved for members. If that's not enough, the site also sells videos where you can see Jessi cook, pratice yoga, work on various craft projects, and model fashions. (Three of the videos cost $33 each while the video where Jessi models fashions cost $50 each. If you order all four videos, you'll receive a discount by paying only $120.) The promo photos for each video show Jessi wearing skin-revealing clothes. The proceeds from membership and video sales supposively goes towards Jessi's college fund.

One has to wonder who is the target audience for such a site. Most children would find this site boring (after all, Jessi isn't a major celebrity like Britney Spears) and most of them wouldn't be able to afford the videos or members-only area. Most teenage boys wouldn't find her body that appealing while most adult men would be repulsed at the thought of ogling her photos.

There is only one group of people who would find this site appealing—pedophiles. The evidence of this can be found at the Jessi The Kid Fan Club where where fans have posted adoring messages about Jessi using names like olsenlover69, luvyunggirls2010, longslug, siemens2052, cum_ta_poppa, and Captain_Wookie.

I'm not the only one who's wondering about this site. A few months ago Wired News featured a story about this site that asked the same questions as I am. One interesting thing about this article is that Jessi's mother claims that the site is an innocent site that's geared towards children. The mother refused to give her name and she identified herself only as "Jessi's mommy." I find it ironic that this woman is determined to maintain her own privacy while she has no hesitation to trash her own daughter's privacy by posting very revealing photos, including the one where Jessi's legs are spread apart (even though she is wearing skin-tight pants).

I do wonder what kind of future that poor child will have. Will Jessi really be allowed to use the proceeds that her site generates to attend the college of her choice when she reaches adulthood? Or will she be pressured into doing her first nude shots when she turns 18 and her site will hype her as another barely legal teen who's exposing herself for the first time? Will Jessi's mommy (or some other adult in Jessi's life) pressure Jessi into losing her virginity before a webcam as yet another money-making venture?

The Wired News story mentioned that the FBI and other groups are currently monitoring this site and other sites featuring scantilly-dressed children in provacative poses to see if it is really a site that was set up for pedophiles. I'm glad to see that there are other groups who are watching out for Jessi since her parents are obviously too money-driven to do so themselves.

UPDATE (April 1, 2002): This site has not only gone through a redesign but there is now a link to a long and rambling letter, signed "Webe Web corp." (the company that is responsible for Jessi the Kid), that refutes all the criticism that has been directed in the media towards this site.

UPDATE (January 7, 2003): Jessi the Kid's site is largely gone. There is simply a links page to other sites (which takes a while to load with a dial-up modem since they are all banner ads) featuring young girls wearing skimpy clothes. Click here to see an enlarged screenshot of what this site used to look like.

UPDATE (July 13, 2004): The site is baaaaaack! It's been redesigned but it still offers the same videos and photos of Jessi as before. Will this site ever go away and give Jessi her privacy back? Only time will tell.

I'll admit that I was intially amused by the webcam phenomenon when it first sprung up a few years ago. I thought it was strange that people would want to have live webcams take pictures of them doing dull and mudane things like sitting in front of the computer. (Some of these people even claimed that they are making an artistic statement by living their lives in front of a webcam. I guess they have a point if you define headshots of people sitting in front of their computers as "art.") I thought it was even stranger that there are people out there who are willing to spend time viewing constantly uploaded webcam shots of other people sitting in front of their computers. In fact I made two Unicorn With An Attitude QuickTime parodies on the subject (Voyeur Eyes Only and The Wrath of the Web Cam Women) as well as a parody website called The Unicam. I even wrote a couple of LiveJournal rants on the subject (see The World Series and the Web Cam Women and Follow-Up to "Internet Rage" and "Web Cam Women").

Now that so many people live their lives in front of a webcam (with the vast majority of these sites consisting of dull head shots of people sitting in front of their computers), it's gotten to the point where some of them resort to extreme drama as a sick and twisted way of attracting attention from the ever-growing Internet audience. As a result, I think that these sites should all just disappear from the World Wide Web.

Even though some early webcam sites took pictures of mudane things like aquariums and coffeepots, this trend really began in 1996 when a Washington, DC-area web designer named Jenni started her own JenniCam site where a webcam constantly took new photos to upload every few minutes. Even though the vast majority of photos showed Jenni either sitting in front of her computer or sleeping in her bed, the occasional flashes of nudity were enough to make her site become an instant sensation—complete with local media coverage in both The Washington City Paper and The Washington Post that eventually spreaded to national publications (such as Time and Newsweek) and the overseas media. Jenni began to charge subscription fees (generally members get a new pic every minute while non-members get a new pic every 15 minutes) and for awhile, she actually made money off her camsite. Jenni also began posting her journal online where she wrote about mudane things like her favorite shampoo and her pets.

Then Jenni became the star of a web-only series on The Sync website called the JenniSHOW where Jenni talked about—taa daa!—herself. Jenni eventually reached the nadir of her popularity when she guest-starred on an episode of the television series Diagnosis: Murder. (She portrayed a webcam star—which isn't a big stretch here—who gets murdered before her cam.)

Jenni's initial success had inspired others to live their lives in front of a webcam. In fact there are so many people who are living in front of the cam that it has led to the creation of the new terms "camgirl" and "camguy" to denote such people. One example comes from The Sync (the same site that hosts the JenniSHOW), which houses CarlaZone, a webcam site that documents the life of one of The Sync's co-founders. Her webcam photo, which is frequently refreshed and one can view without paying any membership fees, is located next to the latest entries of her online journal. While her entries get poignant when she describes her ongoing battle with gastroparensis (a disease that affects the stomach's ability to digest food), many of them are also punctuated with completely off-the-wall questions. One such example comes from her July 11, 2001 entry where she writes, "You know how they keep on showing the same pictures of Chandra Levy on the news? Do you ever wonder which picture of you would be selected if you were ever missing or murdered?" (Uh, no, Carla, I don't. In fact, I doubt that most normal, sane people do.) Or consider her July 17, 2001 entry, where she actually conducted an interactive poll on this so-called "important" issue: "Can you lick your own nipple?" (I have two answers to that one: "I don't know" and "I don't care.")

A more extreme example of webcam living is Ana of AnaCam. Ana initially started out as a singer with talent (click here to hear song samples from her first and only CD) but her music career has seemed to stall since she started her camsite. Like Jenni, Ana also has a paid subscription area and every now and then she'll post nude pictures of herself in one of her own LiveJournal entries as a way of enticing others to join her cam membership. She has also written extensively in her LiveJournal about how she suffers from anxiety and depression so badly that she takes prescription drugs like Xanax and Neurontin and it has gotten to the point where she has recently started to experience weight gain as a side effect of her meds. Then there are the LiveJournal entries where she totally wallows in self-pity so much that she makes Eeyore seem very cheerful and optimistic by comparison.

There is also the time that Ana actually posted pictures of her pussy during her menstrual period—complete with a used tampon in her own LiveJournal. (Click here only if you have a strong stomach to view them.) That entry received the attention of the LiveJournal Abuse Team, which resulted in Ana ranting over how dare the site's webmasters try to censor her "art." Ultimately the pics stayed and she won the dubious right of other women to post pictures of their menstruating pussies in their future LiveJournal entries.

But the antics of Jenni, Carla, Julie, and Ana are nothing compared to the recent drama surrounding Stacy of Atomcam. When her boyfriend broke up with her, Stacy wrote in her LiveJournal about her despair over the breakup. But then she moved her webcam to the bathroom where it took a picture of her head in the toilet while she was surrounded by opened pill bottles. A few of her fans who witnessed this decided to call the police because it looked like a suicide attempt. Stacy was subsequently rushed to the hospital, where she was treated and then released.

Daign.com wrote a scathing review of the suicide attempt. Wired News also wrote about it but in that article Stacy denied that she had attempted suicide before her cam, even though the webcam photo that both sites posted suggested otherwise.

Stacy has since written in her LiveJournal denouncing the media attention that she has received for her actions that she did in front of her own webcam. Well I hate to sound cruel since I, too, have battled problems of my own in the past and still continue to battle some of them as of this writing, but if you don't want the media calling you about your problems, then don't have a webcam taking pictures of you with your head in the toilet being surrounded by opened pill bottles on the floor.

As time went by, this genre of webcam sites have sprouted an even more revolting sub-genre: parents who put their young children before the webcam so they can grow up in front of an audience. For example, there's Steven Live, which documents the life of a young toddler. And there is the Marrero Family KiddyCam, which shows live cam pictures of Matthew and Samantha as they romp around in the children's room of their Newark, New Jersey home.

It's one thing to have Jenni, Ana, Courtney, Stacy, Carla, Julie, and other people like them live their lives before the cam because at least they are consenting adults. But children lack the maturity to realize the full implication of living their lives before a cam, such as the loss of privacy. Plus the younger the child, the less likely that they actually have a say in whether they really want a webcam to document their lives in front of an Internet audience. In a way, it's just like a real-life version of The Truman Show and it's truly revolting.

In addition, I wonder if the parents behind these kiddiecams realize the possibility that those cute webcam photos of their kids may arouse the interest of some demented pedophiles?

There are some signs that having people living out their dull lives in front of a cam isn't such a hot idea for a website. In 1999 a man legally changed his name to DotComGuy and lived all of 2000 in front of a streaming webcam site where he tried to order everything off the Internet. The timing was lousy because as more sites went under in the Great Dotcom Crash of 2000 which resulted in less companies taking out Internet ads, DotComGuy had to forgo whatever money he stood to make from this endeavor just so he could finish out the rest of the year living his entire life online. Late last year Josh Harris, the founder of the now-defunct Pseudo.com, decided to live 100 days with his girlfriend, Tanya Corrin, in front of streaming cams that broadcasted their every movement on a site called We Live in Public—which now exist only as screenshots in the Museum of E-Failures site (click here, here, or here to view them)—but their relationship ended up imploding when Corrin moved out before the 100 days ended and Harris spent the rest of the time alone puttering around in his expensive New York City apartment as the streaming cams recorded it all.

In recent months there have been a few camsites (such as CharityCam, Sean Patrick Live, XanCam, and GabGabCamCam) that abruptly went dark simply because the people behind them grew tired of living their lives in front of a cam. Even Stacy decided to shut down her Atomcam site in the wake of her recent problems writing "After almost two years, I need to make some other art and have a personal life for a while."

I will admit that as much I would love to see all camsites disappear from the World Wide Web, there is only one camsite I would hate to see go—JonniCam, which is a hilarious parody site that features a toilet living its life before a webcam. Otherwide, I hope that there will come a time when most people will decide that living their lives before a webcam is a lousy idea for a site. As for me, I promise to do my part in eliminating camsites from the World Wide Web by vowing to do no more new parodies of them nor will I write new entries in my LiveJournal about them.

UPDATE (September 1, 2001): On August 13, 2001 (just a few weeks after I originally posted the above rant), Salon.com posted an article about teenage camgirls who actively ask for presents through their own wish lists posted at Amazon.com and they actually have fans give them what they've wanted (which includes DVD movies, books, and other things). Yes, Julie of qtkat did the same thing but at least Julie is an adult while some of the camgirls profiled in the Salon.com article as posting such wish lists are as young as 15.

Had I known about this creepy phenomenon sooner, I definitely would've added that to my above rant as yet another reason why I'd love to see all webcam sites just disappear.

And speaking of qtkat.com, that site was replaced by a new site (called Juliecam) with a new URL. Underneath the new name, new URL, new logo, spiffier layout and fancier graphics lies the same old lame webcam site documenting the day-to-day life of a woman named Julie as she mostly sits in front of her computer.

UPDATE (November 4, 2001): Latitude 11 has announced that its cams will only be on sporadically and there will be no set schedule. But, as the site puts it, "you just might want to check the page every once in awhile."

UPDATE (December 5, 2001): I found a hilarious ad parody of all those webcam sites called Goth Chick's Camgirl Training School. I'll only say that the parody is extremely accurate when describing some of the more notorious webcam sites (such as JenniCam and AnaCam).

UPDATE (April 1, 2002): It looks like Latitude 11 has been taken offline completely. The URL now directs to a purple page that says "Nothing today. Maybe tomorrow." It's unclear whether that means that the site is offline temporarily or permanently.

Atomcam.com has been totally resurrected. After taking a leave of absence from her site, Stacy has resumed letting a webcam document her life.

The Marrero Family KiddyCam no longer exists anywhere in cyberspace. Click here to see an enlarged screenshot of what this site used to look like.

UPDATE (July 12, 2002): For the past several months the entire Latitude 11 site has been replaced by a page that says "Nothing today. Maybe tomorrow." It's possible that this site may be resurrected one day in the future, but it looks like the site is now dead. Click here and here to see enlarged screenshots of what this site used to look like.

UPDATE (January 7, 2003): A few more cam sites have joined the ranks of the now-defunct cam sites. After making a return appearance on the web, Stacy decided to remove her Atomcam site again. (Maybe it'll stay off for good.) Juliecam (formerly known as qtkat) has recently put up a good-bye page. (Click here to see a large screenshot of this site in its prime.) Sadly, the funny JenniCam parody site JonniCam has gone off-line as well. (Click here to see how amusing it was.)

UPDATE (June 3, 2003): The URL for Steven Live (www.nannie.com) now redirects to a web design firm Intuitive Designs. (Click here to see a screen shot of Steven Live.) Atomcam now redirects to a web directory that have nothing to do with web cams.

UPDATE (December 2, 2003): JenniCAM has just announced that her site will be closing on December 31, 2003. She hasn't written anything else other than that she won't be accepting any new paid memberships. Courtney, former webmistress of the now-defunct Latitude 11 webcam site, has created a new personal site called Glitter Goblin that details with her struggles to lose weight. Glitter Goblin is a far more interesting site than her own cam site ever was and it could serve as an inspiration to others who are also struggling with obesity. As for the now-defunct Juliecam (formerly known as qtkat), there is now a placeholder at her URL saying "JULIECAM.NET VERSION 2.0 COMING SOON!"

UPDATE (January 3, 2004): Jenni has made good on her announcement that she was shutting her JenniCAM site down because it is now completely off-line. Click here, here, here, here, and here to see screenshots of JenniCAM in its prime.

UPDATE (January 5, 2004): Just days after JenniCAM went off-line, the CarlaZone also followed JenniCAM into oblivion. (Carla and Jenni used to be friends when Jenni lived in DC and Jenni used to do The JenniSHOW for Carla's The Sync site—which has since been taken off-line.) Click here to see an enlarged screenshot of The CarlaZone in its prime.

UPDATE (July 13, 2004): Juliecam is now back on line. Here an excerpt from what she wrote on her site: "Do you think I could honestly stay absent so long? I’m back by popular demand from voyeurs and friends; family and foes; and the additional never-ending desire to be watched."

As a volunteer webmaster for my Unitarian Universalist congregation's website I tend to get religious-oriented spam every now and then urging me to sign up on various mailing lists so I can receive free religious goodies (like a new Bible verse in my e-mailbox every day), which I generally tend to delete immediately. Recently I got this e-mail from someone associated with The Afterlife Risk Report site that contained this insulting question:

From: "Dave Schneider" <dschneider3@kscable.com>
Date: Sat, 30 Jun 2001 15:28:59 -0700
To: Kim Stark
Subject: Question for you....

Greetings! I'm writing to solicit your answer to our upcoming July 2001 Question of the Month:

"Since Unitarian-Universalism does not believe in the possibility of eternal punishment, wouldn't it make sense for persons who are trying to manage their afterlife risk to bet against Unitarian-Universalism and take a long hard look at those religions or worldviews which do entertain that possibility?"

We'll be glad to publish your response on our Inquiries and Responses page.

Yours,

Dave Schneider
Editor, The Afterlife Risk Report
http://www.afterliferisk.com

What you would think of me if I was to e-mail an Orthodox Jewish rabbi out of the blue asking him "Do you honestly believe that not mixing meat dishes with dairy dishes will enable you to get into Heaven faster than a Christian who observes no Kosher dietary laws at all but has accepted Jesus Christ as his True Lord and Personal Savior?" You would probably conclude that I was not being respectful of that rabbi's ways and beliefs and that it was rude of me to send such an e-mail, especially if I'm trying to get people to visit my site. The rabbi would even be justified if he decided to turn me in to my ISP for sending him such an e-mail.

I decided against answering the e-mail but I did visit The Afterlife Risk Report and boy is it a bad site! There is the gaudy space background that suggests that it may be one of those New Age sites. But the text is so sterile that it reads like it was lifted from a life insurance policy handbook explaining your risks and benefits of following one religious path or another. Here is an example of the scintillating text as lifted from the site's What's the Basic Idea? section:

If we buy a stock today, we can always sell it tomorrow. But what do we do after the croupier at the table cries, "No more bets!" or after a poker bet is doubled? There is no going back. Should we refrain from acting in the hope that the passage of time will make luck or the probabilities turn in our favor?...Since so much is at stake....wouldn't it be nice to at least have a way to begin managing this risk? After all, we manage our risks in everyday life. What if it's possible to manage them for the possibility of a life to come?

The site's How To section then lists most of the major world religions according to where they stand on what happens to you when you die. It's supposed to be laying out the facts in a non-biased way until you get to the bottom of the page where you see just two faiths who fully believe in Eternal Punishment: Christianity and Islam. The site concludes that you can't trust most of the major world religions to help you with your own afterlife—except for Christianity and Islam—because they don't believe (or only partially believe) in Eternal Punishment.

But then the site goes on to eliminate Islam—despite its favorable stand on Eternal Punishment—saying that "Now The Afterlife Risk Report is persuaded that Christianity corresponds with reality" then provides a bunch of Christian-related links to other sites. If you scroll down that list, you get to see this paragraph:

If at some point you become persuaded Christianity is plausible enough that it's worth your time to take a serious look, you might give some thought to what a serious look might entail. Besides weighing and examining evidence and probabilities, you might also give some thought to the relational side of things. Christianity says that God is personal and you can have a relationship with him. Now if that's true, then it means a serious search ought to be conducted at that level also.

Actually that site is so banal and uninteresting that it would probably turn off most non-believers from even considering converting to Christianity. At least the site does provide a Responses page that lets people write their own opinions, including ones that disagree with the site's conclusions. This one, written by David Angl, says it all about this site:

Your site is the most ridiculous I have ever seen on the Web. You're still trying to rationalize your own beliefs using some reverse logic - concentrate on those religions that have the biggest consequnces for their detractors. I don't believe that fear and guilt are good motives for functional adults to base their lives on. It seems that you have already created your own eternal punishment for yourself, unable to break away from your own ego-thoughts, unable to leave fear and insecurity behind. What a shame.

What a shame, indeed! Especially since there are far better religious-oriented sites out there than the Afterlife Risk Report that provide a more unbiased explanation of the world religions in a non-insulting, non-patronizing way. (My two personal favorite interfaith religious sites are Beliefnet and the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance.)

UPDATE (January 7, 2003): This site has gone off-line. It won't be missed. (Click here to see how lame it was.)

Website Hall of Infamy

September, 2001 Winner: Jessi The Kid

August, 2001 Winner: All Webcam Sites

July, 2001 Winner: The Afterlife Risk Report

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Steven Live	Marrero Family KiddyCam

Website Hall of Infamy

September, 2001 Winner: Jessi The Kid

August, 2001 Winner: All Webcam Sites

July, 2001 Winner: The Afterlife Risk Report

Back to The Website Hall of Infamy Back to Twisted Unicorn's Home Page

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