The $20 billion figure has already been well debunked, but I heard a guy from NCMEC touting it again last night on NPR.

I have to ask - why the hell does no one in the news business have even a smidgeon of math ability, or knowledge of the world, or curiosity, or in short any sign of intelligence? Why did no one do this simple calculation:

Figure that there are about 1 billion people worldwide with both internet access and enough money to pay for these fictitious child porn web sites.

Use the figure often provided, that pedophiles make up less than 1% of the population - call it 1% for simplicity.

Assume the extremely unlikely case that every single pedophile, worldwide, with internet access and some cash, is subscribing to these web sites.

Now, throw in the $20 billion figure.

1,000,000,000 divided by 100: 10,000,000 (10 million) peds.

20,000,000,000 divided by 10,000,000: $2,000 per ped, per year, for cp.

Does anybody really believe that the average ped could afford $2,000 per year for child pornography? Keep in mind that many of these would still be in middle income countries, and would drive the average down.

There can only be a few reasonable conclusions:

(1) Peds tend to be rich.
(2) Peds are more than 1% of the population.
(3) NCMEC and their ilk are lying their heads off.

I'm guessing 2 and 3. Well, I'm guessing 2. 3 is dead certain.