Three former Scientologists have launched a website, ExScientologyKids, in which they allege, among other things, that the church fosters a culture of physical abuse of children, alienates members from their families through its "Disconnection" policy, and even denies some children proper education.

All three women know from experience. One of the founders, Jenna Miscavige Hill, is the niece of David Miscavige, who started off as L. Ron Hubbard's assistant and now runs the church. Another, Kendra Wiseman, is the daughter of Bruce Wiseman, president of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, a Scientology-sponsored anti-psychiatry organization. The third, Astra Woodcraft, spent her entire youth as a Scientologist before leaving after the church tried to force her into having an abortion.

While the site isn't technically affiliated with the loose collective of anti-Scientology rabble-rousers known as Anonymous, the founders are supportive of the movement, noting that the group has been "instrumental in assisting those who have never spoken out feel that they may now do so without fear of reprisal."

The website, according to a story in today's Los Angeles Times, is part of a larger trend: that the Internet is making it increasingly difficult for the church to police its reputation and intimidate critics through litigation. (The day before ExScientologyKids launched, a story on BoingBoing alleging that Hubbard cribbed the idea for Scientology from a 1934 German book of psychobabble, which may have previously prompted legal threats, ran without incident.) "What's different is that more people can see the stuff faster than Scientology can go around and get it taken down," an intellectual property attorney tells the Times. So long as you don't call Tom Cruise a homo.