Pete Townshend Defends Against Sex Offender Criticism

huffingtonpost.com: Pete Townshend Defends Himself Against Sex Offender Criticism.

Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. — The Who gave an energetic, acoustic preview of Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime show Thursday_ but things turned serious when Pete Townshend defended himself against some children’s advocates who say he should not be performing.

Townshend was arrested in 2003 in Britain as part of a child pornography sting but later cleared. He accessed a Web site containing child pornography but said it was for research for his own campaign against child porn. He was required to register as a sex offender, despite being cleared.

Because of that, groups like Protect Our Children have protested the choice of The Who, the legendary group featuring Townshend and Roger Daltrey.

But Townshend said he has been a children’s advocate for decades and alluded to his own confession of being abused as a child. “For a family that has suffered the issue of childhood abuse or anything of that sort, vigilance, common sense vigilance is the most important thing, not vigilantism,” he said. “Anybody that has any doubts about whether I should be here or not should investigate a little bit further.”