"They're quite diverse in background," says Monika Bickert, assistant attorney general in the Northern District of Illinois. She is prosecuting four of the Americans, including Winebrenner, who she says is unemployed. She says two others, from the Chicago suburbs, held jobs: Gregory Sweezer, 48, a mailman, and David Holst, 27, software instructor.

Bickert is also prosecuting Brian Annoreno, who a court indictment says transmitted his molestation of an infant live via the chat room.

"I haven't seen any evidence he did this," says Annoreno's Chicago attorney, Michael Falconer. He says Annoreno, 29, is an unemployed computer whiz with psychiatric problems and an IQ in the 70s. "He's had mental health treatment in the past," Falconer says.

Fourteen people were arrested abroad - nine from Canada, two from England and three from Australia.

"The frightening thing about this is the only commonality they share is this interest in child sex abuse," says Jane Wilcox, chief of the Toronto police sex crimes unit that began the investigation. "They run the gamut. You can't develop a profile of this type of person, because it could be anybody," she says.

"Overwhelmingly, they're male, and overwhelmingly, they're white," says Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, of people who traffic in child pornography. "But they cross the societal spectrum."

Those participating in the porn ring had considerable knowledge of the Internet, says Jim Plitt, director of the Cyber Crimes Center at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which led the U.S. part of the investigation. He says the chat room ran on a software program allowing peer-to-peer file sharing.

One of the men charged is Donald Forbes, 40, a software engineer from Glendale, Ariz., and father of an 11-year-old son. He admitted this week in court to downloading 30,000 pornographic images and has been released without bail to his wife's custody says Sandy Raynor, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney in the District of Arizona.

Also charged is David Perozzi, 51, a retired businessman from Oakfield, N.Y. He teaches Sunday school at an Episcopal church, says Marie Grisanti, an assistant U.S. attorney in the Western District of New York.

Giovanni Canapino, 19, of Kapolei, Hawaii, a referee at youth soccer games, admitted he participated in the chat room and had "sexual contact" with two boys, ages 10 and 12, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Larry Tong.

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