Online Exec Is Accused of Using Net to Solicit Sex

An executive responsible for Walt Disney Co.’s major online operations was arrested late Thursday and accused of using the Internet to solicit sex with a minor.

Patrick J. Naughton, 34, who oversees Disney’s vast Go Network of Web sites, was arrested by FBI agents Thursday night after showing up at the Santa Monica Pier for what authorities said he expected to be a sexual encounter with a 13-year-old girl.

Using the screen name “hotseattle,” Naughton, a Seattle resident, had sent a series of lewd messages to a male FBI agent posing as a teenage girl, according to an affidavit filed in federal court in Los Angeles.

The arrest culminated a six-month investigation during which Naughton bragged via e-mail that he “ran a company” and sent messages saying that he wanted to come to Los Angeles to have sex with his underage correspondent, according to documents. Naughton also said he had already “been with a 16-year-old girl” and directed investigators to a Web site that he said contained a picture of his genitals, authorities said.

Naughton is an employee of Infoseek Corp., which is being acquired by Disney and is already controlled by the Burbank-based company.

“We are deeply shocked and disturbed by this,” said Terrie Prosper, a spokeswoman for Infoseek. “We are looking into the matter.”

The allegations could threaten the career of a Silicon Valley star. Before his role at Disney, Naughton was part of the team that developed the Java programming language at Sun Microsystems Inc. He was also president and chief technology officer at Starwave Corp., an influential Web design company.

The charges are sure to be an embarrassment to Disney, which has positioned itself as the leading provider of family-friendly content on the Net. In fact, its search engine is among the few that filters out pornography and other content considered objectionable.

Naughton did not enter a plea and was ordered to post a $100,000 bond at a hearing in federal court Friday afternoon. His arraignment was set for Oct. 12. His public defender declined to comment.

A Disney spokeswoman also declined to comment, saying only that “we don’t have any facts about this and aren’t in a position to make any judgment at this time.”

The investigation began in March, when FBI Special Agent Bruce Applin entered a sex chat room on the Internet known to be a place where adult men solicit underage girls. Posing as a teenage girl, Applin said he soon began exchanging messages with Naughton’s “hotseattle” identity.

Applin said he repeatedly identified himself as a 13-year-old girl, to which Naughton allegedly replied on one occasion, “Kewl.”

In some online messages sent to the undercover agent, Naughton said he was chatting from his office, according to the affidavit. In later communications, according to the FBI, Naughton directed agents to a Web site that he said had a picture of his genitals.

Thursday about 9 p.m., Naughton appeared on the pier and approached a female undercover sheriff’s deputy standing near the roller coaster and wearing a green backpack as agreed upon, the affidavit states. After asking the deputy to meet him on the beach, he was taken into custody, it said.

When agents seized his portable computer Thursday night, Naughton told them that “there were sexually explicit images of children on the laptop,” according to the affidavit.

Naughton has been a key player in Disney’s efforts to extend its media empire to cyberspace. He has overall responsibility for the Go Network, one of the top portal sites on the Internet and the hub of all of Disney’s online properties.

Disney has taken great care to uphold its family-friendly image online. Company Chairman Michael Eisner has repeatedly stressed the importance of protecting children from harmful material on the Net.

Last January, Naughton was named executive vice president of products, responsible for all of the content and technology used in the Go Network, which encompasses the Go.com portal site as well as Disney.com, ABCNews.com and others.

Naughton’s high-tech career began at Sun Microsystems in the early 1990s, when he was part of a now-legendary team that developed the Internet programming language Java.

After leaving Sun, Naughton took a top position at Starwave, a Seattle-based Web site development company founded by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft Corp. Naughton was president, and led the development of software and other tools used to create some of the Web’s most popular sites.

Starwave was later folded into Infoseek, a Sunnyvale-based search engine company controlled by Disney. Naughton was Infoseek’s chief technology officer before his promotion to executive vice president.