This is an important story and should be read by all parents and teachers. In the story Detective Mike Sullivan is quoted as saying, "Our workload is getting heavier and not lighter." He points to chatrooms on his computer screen and says, "These are all rooms that are revolving around nothing but victimizing children." Detective Sullivan is considered to be an expert in the area of Internet Crimes Agaisnt Children.
Watch Right Internet Crimes Against Children Syndicated News Feed
You can view the video version of this story at CBS2 Chicago
Over the last decade, the FBI tells us, there has been more than a 2,000 percent increase in cases of predators using the Internet to target children for explicit sexual purposes. In response to this growing trend, the City of Naperville has launched one of the most aggressive computer crimes units in the country, and their success rate is impressive.
CBS 2's Antonio Mora finds that while cybersex crime against children is rampant, it is also affecting adults.
Two years ago, Kim's email and phone lines suddenly got swamped. “The phone would ring with men and obscenities on the phone,” she says. Kim and her husband Jeff had become targets of an Internet sex crime.
“We would get emails with naked photos of men soliciting sex,” Kim says.
Unbeknownst to the Naperville couple, someone had listed them on an Internet bulletin board as a couple looking for sex partners.
Cybersex crime between adults is on the rise, but the much bigger problem is that of adult Internet predators victimizing children. The online playground those sexual predators are lurking in: the chatroom.
Naperville Computer Crimes Detective Mike Sullivan says, “Our workload is getting heavier and not lighter.” He points to chatrooms on his computer screen and says, “These are all rooms that are revolving around nothing but victimizing children.”
Thousands of chat rooms such as “Child Sex Slave" and "Young Girl Sex" are legal and can be freely visited by our children and those who prey on them.
FBI Supervisor Joshua Skule says, “Sexual predators are just using a different tool. They don't have to go to the playground because they can get the same satisfaction off of using the Internet.”
The FBI's Innocent Images task force showed us how undercover agents infiltrate chatrooms and pose as fourteen-year-old girls.
“Several of the people that I am chatting with right now want me to come live with them and be their sex slaves,” one agent tells us.
“Sometimes they like to be your first -- your first older man, the first person that you lose your virginity to,” another agent tells us.
Incredibly, these agents have as many as six chats going on simultaneously.
"Only bring what you can put in your backpack, I'll buy you new sexy clothes," the second agent reads aloud. “This is also very common: that they insist they get you pregnant.”
In 2004, the local FBI task force arrested more than 54 cybersex predators. Naperville has apprehended 150 since 1997.
“There's a huge misconception online right now, and that is as an offender you are anonymous. That's not true,” Detective Sullivan says. “You leave a huge footprint while you’re in cyberspace.”
Kim was unnerved when the trail of the sexually explicit e-mails she received led across her backyard fence.
“We were able to track that email back to the offender, back to his computer. A search warrant was served,” Detective Sullivan says.
Kim’s neighbor was arrested and convicted of harassment. “Unless you don't use your Internet, I just can't see how you can stop something like this from happening,” she says.
The FBI and the Naperville police each recommend:
• Computers not be placed in a child's room where he or she can shut the door
• Users turn on their service provider's parental control filters
• Use secondary controls to filter content such as "cyber signal" software, which prevents selected information such as addresses, names and credit card numbers from ever leaving the computer
Additionally, the City of Naperville conducts monthly classes on Internet safety for parents. Find out more about that program and others below.
Naperville Police Department/District 203
Free classes on Internet safety for parents at NTWLink iCafe
22 E. Chicago Avenue, suite #111
(630) 718-1399
www.ntwlink.com/announcement_Internet_Safety.pdf
Naperville Police Department
www.naperville.il.us/dynamic_template.cfm?doc_id=308
1350 Aurora Avenue
Naperville, Il 60540
(630) 420-6666
Info@naperville.il.us
Detective Michael Sullivan's book Safety Monitor: How to Protect Your Kids Online is a hands-on, step-by-step, practical instruction for parents to protect their children from exploitation, sexual predators, adult-only content, pornography, and other harmful content that comes with computer and Internet access.
Available on www.amazon.com
FBI Innocent Images task force
www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/cac/innocent.htm
http://chicago.fbi.gov/
To report child pornography and/or sexual exploitation of children, please contact your Crimes Against Children coordinator at your local FBI field office or link to the National Center For Missing And Exploited Children's cybertipline at www.cybertipline.com the cybertipline allows parents and children to file a report by submitting an online form. This form is then reviewed by analysts and forwarded to law enforcement including the FBI, the US Customs Service, the US Postal Inspection Service, and state and local police agencies.
National Center For Missing And Exploited Children
www.missingkids.com/cybertip/
1-800/843-5678
Illinois Attorney General's Office
www.ag.state.il.us/children/internet.html
Software Resources:
www.cyber-sentinel.net
www.securitysoft.com
Internet Crimes Against Children
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