Internet Terror
Is No Joke

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t was billed as a Night of Comedy, but when sixth-
grader Bradley Gonik spoke at the Michigan Anti-
Defamation Leave/Michigan Region dinner, no
one laughed.
The ADL encouraged Bradley and his mother, Andrea,
to tell their story in person to emphasize the shocking
effects of hate on the Internet. Here is what they said:

'

Bradley Gonik:

I was on my computer in a chat room. Out of th
blue, someone asked if my grand arents were one of e
the Six Million. I responded, "No, P they survived."
The next statement that appeared on my computer
screen was, "Oh — that's too ba d' "
I then asked what was meant
That remark pur/led
by that statement. The person
me' wrote, "Any Jew that sur-
vived was a mistake and now — you're here. "
I got very scared and shut down my computer. About
one hour later, I turned it back on. There was a message.
corn.
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Intern
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The Gonik family's

chat room nightmare

reinforces

the need

for vigilance.

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The ADL advises children
to stay away from
Internet chat rooms.

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DIANA LIEBERMAN
Staff Writer

nti-Semitism exploded onto
a computer screen in West
Bloomfield last year, destroy-
ing one family's peace of
mind and testing the power of interna-
tional law enforcement agencies.
Eleven-year-old Bradley Gonik of
West Bloomfield stunned the audience
at the Anti-Defamation
League/Michigan Region's Nov. 3
Night of Comedy with his story of ter-
ror on the Internet. Above on this page
you can read Bradley's exact words, and
those of his mother, Andrea, as they
describe their experience.
Although the anti-Semitic death
threats have ceased for Bradley, there
is no guarantee others will not receive
similar messages, said Donald Cohen,
director of the ADL's Michigan office.
The ADL provides a software prod-

uct called Hate Filter (www.adl.org)
that protects children by blocking
access to objectionable sites on the
World Wide Web, sites that advocate
hatred, bigotry or violence toward Jews
or other groups. Users of the filter also
have access to similar filters blocking
access to pornographic and other
offensive Web sites.
But Web sites are only part of the
story of hate on the Internet, Cohen
said. The message that Bradley Gonik
received was not from a Web site, or
even from a hate group's chat room.
Instead, it came from an anonymous
participant in an e-mail chat room
accessible through a program known
as ICQ Mirabilis.
"You download it onto your corn-
puter and you can send instant mes-
sages," Cohen explained. "But it also
gets you an anonymous chat partner.
That's what happened to Bradley."
You can't pre-censor someone in a