Selling videos featuring young girls means hot water for the former president of a nudist group which ran a summer camp for teens, even though he insists the videos have nothing to do with sexuality. And it began when another nudist tipped off a politician with Senate ambitions to his Website.
Former American Sunbathing Association president Walt Zadanoff told the St. Petersburg Times the videos - which include frontal shots of grade-school girls in European beauty pageants - are "information and entertainment for a legitimate nudist. I sell it in good faith as a genuine nudist product."
That's not what at least one politician thinks. "These videos are nothing more than a fix for pedophiles," said an e-mail to the Times from U.S. Rep. Mark Foley (R-West Palm Beach), who is challenging for the U.S. Senate seat now occupied by Bob Graham and has a reputation for child protection issues in Congress. "They serve young children on a platter for America's most depraved."
Pasco-Pinellas State Attorney Bernie McCabe told the Times the video sales don't look like they break the law, but he's still concerned about who ultimately buys them. "There's no question it's probably getting into the hands of folks who aren't just enamored of being a naturist," McCabe told the paper. "So is it feeding some other desire that we find not appropriate?"
The videos are said to originate from Russian, Czech, and French producers, with prices varying based on the ages of the girls shown.
Foley told the paper a local nudist sent him information about Zadanoff's Website. And the group Zadanoff formerly led, now called the American Association for Nude Recreation, not only disavows the videos in question but asked Zadanoff to pull the link to their Website off his site, the Times said.
"While the video content may be fine, the focus on the child element to sell it was not appropriate," spokeswoman Debra Peterson told the paper.
Zadanoff and Foley traded barbs through the Times, with Zadanoff calling the Congressman a publicity-hungry laughing stock with a mind in the gutter, and Foley saying his goal is more to shame than to punish Zadanoff. Foley added that the video issue highlighted the need for nudist parents to be more watchful, the paper said.
