Dr. Frank Kardasz (Ed.D)

Dr. Frank Kardasz, February 7, 2009

Most law enforcement agencies have standardized policies and written directives guiding their many areas of operation.  Directives and policies govern everything from mundane administrative matters to grave threats to public safety.  Polices develop after years of experience and in most cases, continue to evolve as new trends emerge.  A troubling exception to the continuous modernization of police directives is in the area of Internet crimes against children.  Most law enforcement organizations still fail to recognize the growing problem and do not have written directives that require any response to these grim threats to children and teens.

Internet Crimes Against Children

The luring and enticement of minors via cyberspace is alarming and continues to increase.  The Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates that 50,000 child predators are online at any time searching for potential victims (1).

Growing exponentially in the past 15 years, the numbers of Internet crimes against children has reached disturbing heights. According to a Congressional report in 2007:

Crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children over the Internet are a growing problem in the U.S. and around the world, due to the ease with which pedophiles and child predators can trade, sell, view, and download images of child pornography from the Internet (ibid).

Arizona, like many other states, is experiencing significant increases in the number of unlawful images being trafficked via the Internet (2).  The increase in Internet crimes begs a dedicated and permanent law enforcement response.  Most Arizona law enforcement agencies have no written directives mandating any response to Internet crimes against children.

Invisible Victims - Except in Cyberspace

Unlike spectacular crimes and incidents involving crashes, explosions, shootings and widespread newsworthy bloodletting, the evil offenses against children are committed in mostly dark and private places by offenders who often psychologically control for humiliate their victims into lifelong silence.  Although the criminal evidence is visible in cyberspace, the crimes are seldom reported to law enforcement officials.

Deceptive Statistics Ignore the Problem

Internet crimes involving child victims are under-reported and official statistics do not properly collect the numbers of crimes.  The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) is ineffective in capturing statistics specifically related to such crimes.  NIBRS does not have specific categories that capture the numbers of Internet crimes against children (4).  The tragic failure to collect data permits statistics-driven administrators to deny and ignore the existence of the problem.

 Liability

Failure to investigate Internet crimes against children can result in significant liability for an organization.  Several agencies in the state of Washington suffered a substantial financial judgment when a failure to protect children was uncovered (3).

Purposeful Ignorance Driven by Repugnance

Crimes against children are particularly repugnant.  Most people, including police, wish to disassociate themselves mentally from thoughts of dreadful abuse involving helpless children.  According to former FBI agent Ken Lanning, "Law-enforcement investigators must deal with the fact that the identification, investigation, and prosecution of child molesters may not be welcomed by their communities—especially if the molester is a prominent person.  Individuals may protest, and community organizations may rally to the support of the offender and even attack the victims.  City officials may apply pressure to halt or cover up the investigation.  Many law-enforcement supervisors, prosecutors, judges, and juries cannot or do not want to deal with the details of deviant sexual behavior.  They will do almost anything to avoid these cases (5)."

Sex crimes against children are the most reviled types of investigations for law enforcement officers.  While respectful of the need to bring sex offenders to justice, many officers say, “I could never work those kinds of crimes.”  The true facts about the sexual victimization of minors can be so psychologically distressing that few can emotionally tolerate being deeply involved in the investigations.  Little wonder that crimes against children in cyberspace are widely ignored by policy makers.

CALEA

At the forefront of modern policy oversight is the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA).  The Commission began in 1979 as a professional consortium of law enforcement professionals who, among other duties, require that their member-agencies maintain model policies that are common to responsible departments nationwide.  Member-agencies of CALEA must adopt and comply with standardized written directives.  Agencies are periodically audited by CALEA assessors to insure compliance with the required rules. Some examples of a few simple CALEA standards include the following directives:

• 43.1.1 The agency has a written directive for investigating vice, drug, and organized crime activities...

• 61.3.1 A written directive governs performance of agency activities related to traffic engineering...

• 42.2.8 The agency has a written directive concerning identity crime and procedures...

• 61.2.2 A written directive defines agency response to the scene of any collision...

CALEA standards are applicable to member agencies based on the size of the organization.  Small agencies are not required to provide as many services as large agencies.  Sadly, CALEA has not yet recognized Internet crimes against children as subject worthy of policy attention.

Recommendation

Law enforcement policies and written directives must recognize Internet crimes against children.  If traffic enforcement and identity theft are crimes worthy of written directives aren’t children also worthy?  As a leadership organization whose guidelines are followed by many member-agencies, CALEA should include written directives that mandate a law enforcement response to the growing problem of Internet crimes against children.

References

(1) U. S. House of Representatives, Committee on Energy and Commerce. (January 2007). Sexual exploitation of children on the Internet: Bipartisan staff report for the use of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. 109th. Congress. Retrieved February 12, 2009 from http://republicans.energycommerce.house.gov/108/News/01032007_Report.pdf

(2) Kardasz, F. (January 3, 2009). Contraband Images in Arizona: Eight days in December 2008. Retrieved February 11, 2009 from http://kardasz.org/blog/2009/01/contraband_images_in_arizona_e.html

(3) Kardasz, F. (September 15, 2008). Liability for Deliberate Indifference and Failure to Investigate = $ 10.5 Million. Retrieved February 12, 2009 from http://kardasz.org/blog/2008/09/liability_for_deliberate_indif.html

(4) Finkelhor D., and Ormrod, R. (December 2004). Child pornography: Patterns from NIBRS. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Retrieved February 12, 2009 from http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/204911.pdf

(5) Lanning, K.V. (September, 2001). Child molesters: A behavioral analysis. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. 4th Ed. p. 86. Retrieved February 12, 2009 from http://www.missingkids.com/en_US/publications/NC70.pdf

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 06:55 AM | Permalink

• Mapping markers might also be used to identify locations where unrestricted wireless Internet access "hotspots" are provided.

How can wireless hotspots be identified?

• A Google search for free wireless hotspots in Phoenix Arizona revealed several hyperlinks including the following: http://ilovefreewifi.com/phoenix/. The site lists dozens of locations that would be attractive places for sex offenders to visit and take advantage of unrestricted wireless Internet access. First on the list was the Phoenix Public Library.
• Net Stumbler is a popular freeware program that can be used to identify wireless hotspots. It detects wireless LANs that use the 802.11b, 802.11a and 802.11g WLAN standards. Other products perform similar duties. Alternatives to Net Stumbler include: MacStumbler, iStumbler, KisMAC, Kismet, Windows Vista netsh, Vistumbler, Inssider, and DISA Wireless Discovery Device (Flying Squirrel).

Perhaps the integration of mapping technology with GPS monitoring could identify wireless Internet hotspots and assist those who must monitor the offenders who have computer restrictions. The mapping software that shows the locations of schools might also be used to show the locations of wireless hotspots.

Beyond the mapping of wireless hotspots, what else might be done to monitor cyber sex offenders?

• Further future advancements in technology might include ankle bracelets that incorporate radio frequency identifiers that sense those radio frequencies common to wireless Internet channels and report those frequencies to the monitoring system.
  

Although it may be too restrictive to prohibit an offender from ever entering any area where a free unrestricted wireless radio frequency signal is available, simply collecting and preserving the data may be enough to assist investigators who are tasked with later follow up of ongoing offenses. For example, an investigator who is tracing the source of unlawful Internet trafficked images might be led to a particular Internet protocol address at a particular location. If the location is found to be a free wireless hotspot, it would be nice to know whether or not an ankle-bracelet monitored offender was also at the location during the offense.

Arizona law now includes a section requiring registered sex offenders to provide their e-mail and Internet protocol (IP) addresses to the state. While this is a positive step towards monitoring offenders, registering e-mail and IP addresses is not a foolproof way to track offenders. Further work is needed in the area of tracking and monitoring Internet sex offenders.

Conclusion

Monitoring the offenders who use cyberspace is a challenging task for probation and parole officers. GPS monitoring through ankle bracelets is becoming a popular technology for those who must track offenders.

Businesses that produce and market GPS monitoring systems should consider adding a mapping feature that pinpoints Internet wireless hotspots in order to assist officers who must monitor the activities of cyber offenders. Mapping wireless hotspots might help probation and parole officers  know when cyber offenders are near locations where they might reoffend.

Future advancements in technology might include ankle bracelets that incorporate radio frequency identifiers that recognize those frequencies common to wireless Internet channels and report those frequencies to the monitoring system.

.

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 11:13 PM | Permalink

Dr. Frank Kardasz, January 3, 2009

During the eight day period from December 23 – 30, 2008, Internet traffic was reviewed to determine the characteristics of some of the unlawful images depicting the sexual exploitation of minors that were trafficked in Arizona during the time-period.

The data collection is limited by the fact that the Internet traffic reviewed represents only a very small portion of the Internet and likely under-represents the total amount of unlawful images being trafficked.

Data was collected from a proactive data source and examined. The examination indicated that approximately 8,170 “hits” were traced to sources in Arizona. Each hit represents a single felony incident of sexual exploitation of a minor (child pornography) in probable violation of Arizona Revised Statute 13-3553.

Of the approximately 8,170 hits, 2,252 unique data source locations throughout Arizona were identified representing 77 different cities and towns.

The hits and locations were associated with 1,054 unique unlawful contraband felony images or videos that have been previously identified as depicting the sexual exploitation of minors in violation of ARS 13-3553.

Breakdown of the hits by source city for eight day period from December 23-30, 2008:

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 07:37 PM | Permalink

Additional resources should be assigned on both the federal and state level to investigate and prosecute these cases. These resources include federal and state law enforcement agents and prosecutors, forensic laboratories and law enforcement and prosecutorial training (3).

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 10:59 PM | Permalink

By Dr. Frank Kardasz

The tragic story of a 19 year old Miami man who committed suicide while others watched via Internet web cameras was not an isolated incident. A nearly identical situation occurred in Phoenix, Arizona several years ago.

Occasionally the police receive information that someone in cyberspace is threatening suicide. Often the information is provided anonymously and with no follow-up information other than the screen name or email address of the suicidal person. Fortunately, while many people on the Internet contemplate suicide as a cry for help, only a few actually complete the sad act.  

Law enforcement is unable to investigate all of the many cyberspace suicide threats. Police are hampered not only by the shortage of investigators but also by the lack of a law that gives them jurisdiction.  Some states laws require that a criminal act must be under investigation before a subpoena can be issued to trace through the Internet service provider to the computer connected to the Internet. Suicide is not a crime in many places and many people believe that suicide by an adult is a personal choice that should not be legislated. In the case of adults it is difficult for law enforcement officers to prevent a determined person from suicide. Many suicidal persons are convinced by authorities to voluntarily surrender themselves to mental health counseling for treatment.

The situation is different when the person threatening suicide is a minor. Because of immaturity a minor is legally incapable of making an informed decision to end his or her life. For minors, law enforcement has a legitimate interest in preventing the suicide but still sometimes lacks the legal ability to investigate.

Suicide-prevention cyberspace emergency law is needed

In threatened cyber-assisted suicide cases investigators are caught between the mandate to preserve human life and the lack of legislation allowing them to effectively investigate. I recommend the creation of a law that would help the police locate and assist suicidal minors by mandating cooperation from Internet service providers.

Here is some draft language for legislators to consider:

Electronic Communications Emergency Exception Regarding Threatened Suicide Involving Minors

If,  while using electronic communications a person identifying himself as a minor threatens suicide, law enforcement may request subscriber information about the person from electronic communications service providers (also known as Internet service providers). The electronic communications service providers will provide subscriber information about the person threatening suicide when law enforcement states that there is reasonable suspicion to believe that the suicidal person is a minor. Internet service providers and electronics communications providers doing business in (name your jurisdiction) are required to comply.

Although the law probably would not have helped in the Miami nor Phoenix cases it may help law enforcement officers in the future when they are confronted with calls from citizens informing them of minors threatening suicide on the Internet.

-----------------------------------------------------

Kin outraged, distraught over teen's cyber suicide

By Rasha Madkour, Associated Press, 11/2/09

Miami, Florida – The family of a college student who killed himself live on the Internet say they're horrified his life ended before a virtual audience, and infuriated that viewers of the live webcam or operators of the Web site that hosted it didn't act sooner to save him.

Only after police arrived to find Abraham Biggs dead in his father's bed did the Web feed stop Wednesday — 12 hours after the 19-year-old Broward College student first declared on a Web site that he hated himself and planned to die.

"It didn't have to be," said the victim's sister, Rosalind Bigg. "They got hits, they got viewers, nothing happened for hours." Biggs announced his plans to kill himself over a Web site for bodybuilders, authorities said. He posted a link from there to Justin.tv, a site that allows users to broadcast live videos from their webcams.

A computer user who claimed to have watched said that after swallowing some pills, Biggs went to sleep and appeared to be breathing for a few hours while others cracked jokes.

Some members of his virtual audience encouraged him to do it, others tried to talk him out of it, and some discussed whether he was taking a dose big enough to kill himself, said Wendy Crane, an investigator with the Broward County medical examiner's office.

Some users told investigators they did not take him seriously because he had threatened suicide on the site before. Eventually, someone notified the moderator of the bodybuilding site, who traced Biggs' location and called police, Crane said. The drama unfolded live on Justin.tv, which allows viewers to post comments alongside the video images.

As police entered the room, the audience's reaction was filled with Internet shorthand: "OMFG," one wrote, meaning "Oh, my God." Others, either not knowing what they were seeing, or not caring, wrote "lol," which means "laughing out loud," and "hahahah."

His father, Abraham Biggs Sr., told The Miami Herald he didn't want to watch the video. "We were very good friends," he said. "It's wrong that it was allowed to happen."

An autopsy concluded Biggs died from a combination of opiates and benzodiazepine, which his family said was prescribed for his bipolar disorder.

"Abe, i still wish this was all a joke," a friend wrote on the teenager's MySpace page, which he described himself as a goodhearted guy who would always be available for his pals, no matter what time of day.

In a statement, Justin.tv CEO Michael Seibel said: "We regret that this has occurred and want to respect the privacy of the broadcaster and his family during this time."

It is unclear how many people watched it happen. The Web site would not say how many people were watching the broadcast. The site as a whole had 672,000 unique visitors in October, according to Nielsen.

Biggs was not the first person to commit suicide with a webcam rolling. But the drawn-out drama — and the reaction of those watching — was seen as an extreme example of young people's penchant for sharing intimate details about themselves over the Internet.

Montana Miller, an assistant professor of popular culture at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, said Biggs' very public suicide was not shocking, given the way teenagers chronicle every facet of their lives on sites like Facebook and MySpace.

"If it's not recorded or documented then it doesn't even seem worthwhile," she said. "For today's generation it might seem, `What's the point of doing it if everyone isn't going to see it?'"

She likened Biggs' death to other public ways of committing suicide, like jumping off a bridge.
Crane said she knows of a case in which a Florida man shot himself in the head in front of an online audience, though she didn't know how much viewers saw.

In Britain last year, a man hanged himself while chatting online.

Miami lawyer William Hill said there is probably nothing that could be done legally to those who watched and did not act. As for whether the Web site could be held liable, Hill said there doesn't seem to be much of a case for negligence.

"There could conceivably be some liability if they knew this was happening and they had some ability to intervene and didn't take action," said Hill, who does business litigation and has represented a number of Internet-based clients. But "I think it would be a stretch."

Condolences poured into Biggs' MySpace page, where the mostly unsmiling teen is seen posing in a series of pictures with various young women. On the bodybuilding Web site, Biggs used the screen name CandyJunkie. His Justin.tv alias was "feels_like_ecstacy."

Bigg described her brother as an outgoing person who struck up conversations with Starbucks baristas and enjoyed taking his young nieces to Chuck E. Cheese. He was health-conscious and exercised but was not a bodybuilder, she said.

"This is very, very sudden and unexpected for us," the sister said. "It boggles the mind. We don't understand."

Associated Press Writers Jessica Gresko and Lisa Orkin Emmanuel and the AP News Research Center in New York contributed to this report.

Retrieved November 22, 2008 from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081122/ap_on_re_us/webcam_suicide

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 11:18 PM | Permalink

Dr. Frank Kardasz, November 5, 2008, updated January 16, 2009

Modern cell phones often come equipped with cameras that can be used to capture images. Young people use their cell phone cameras to snap pictures of friends, families and special occasions. Images taken with cell phone cameras can be easily shared between users who can quickly send images to one another or to wider groups of friends.

Unfortunately, cameras are also sometimes used to snap images of nudism or sexual exploitation. Often the images are part of the "sexting" process. Sexting is the act of sending sexual text or sexual images from one electronic device to another for the purpose of grooming another person towards a sex act. Sexual predators often groom intended victims by sexting.

An increasing number of complaints are being received by law enforcement involving improper or illegal images taken and trafficked via cell phone. What can be done?

• Parents, please monitor your child's use of a cell phone camera.

• Young people, please think about the consequences of taking and sharing pictures taken with a cell phone camera.

Remember that once an image is released to others or into cyberspace, it is irretrievable. Pictures can be shared and duplicated across cyberspace and the image might not ever be erased.

Please think before you snap-a-pic.

------------------------------------------------------

The following story by Mike Brunker describes an incident in Pennsylvania.

'Sexting’ surprise: Teens face child porn charges
6 Pa. high school students busted after sharing nude photos via cell phones

By Mike Brunker, msnbc.com, 01/15/09

In an unusual case arising from the popular practice known as “sexting,” six Pennsylvania high school students are facing child pornography charges after three teenage girls allegedly took nude or semi-nude photos of themselves and shared them with male classmates via their cell phones.

The female students at Greensburg Salem High School in Greensburg, Pa., all 14- or 15-years-old, face charges of manufacturing, disseminating or possessing child pornography while the boys, who are 16 and 17, face charges of possession, according to WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh, which published the story on its Web site on Tuesday.

Police told the station that the photos were discovered in October, after school officials seized a cell phone from a male student who was using it in violation of school rules and found a nude photo of a classmate on it. Police were called in and their investigation led them to other phones containing more photos, it said.

Police Capt. George Seranko was quoted as saying that the first photograph was “a self portrait taken of a juvenile female taking pictures of her body, nude."

The school district issued a statement Tuesday saying that the investigation turned up “no evidence of inappropriate activity on school grounds … other than the violation of the electronic devices policy.” The statement also said that school officials didn’t learn of the charges against the students until Monday.

In the WPXI story, which included contributions from the Associated Press, Saranko indicated that authorities decided to file the child pornography charges to send a strong message to other minors who might consider sending such photos to friends.

"It's very dangerous," he said. "Once it's on a cell phone, that cell phone can be put on the Internet where everyone in the world can get access to that juvenile picture. You don't realize what you are doing until it's already done." (Seranko could not be reached for comment on Thursday, and a woman who answered the phone at the Greensburg Police Department said, “Our department is not doing any more interviews on the case.”)

But Patrick Artur, a Philadelphia defense attorney who by his reckoning has handled at least 80 child pornography cases, said the prosecution of minors for photos they took themselves runs counter to the purpose of both state and federal child pornography laws: Preventing the sexual abuse of children by “dirty old men in raincoats.”

“It’s clearly overkill,” he said. “… The letter of the law seems to have been violated, but this is not the type of defendant that the legislature envisioned” in passing the statute. Artur said that because there is no mandatory minimum sentence under Pennsylvania’s child pornography law, unlike the federal statute, the students would not necessarily be incarcerated if they are found guilty. But he noted that convictions would have "serious, serious implications," including forcing them having to register as sexual offenders for at least 10 years. While Artur said the prosecution of a juvenile for allegedly creating and distributing child porn was new to him, a quick review of federal and state statistics showed there have been a handful of similar cases, and several convictions.

While few minors have found themselves in court for e-mailing or posting sexy photos of themselves, there is little doubt that ubiquitous cell phones and easy access to computers have tempted many to push the erotic envelope.

The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy reported last month that a survey of 1,280 teens and young adults found that 20 percent of the teens said they had sent or posted nude or semi nude photos or videos of themselves. That number was slightly higher for teenage girls — 22 percent — vs. boys — 18 percent.

Retrieved January 16, 2009 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28679588/from/ET/

------------------------------------------------------

The following story by Laura Legre also discusses the situation nationwide.

Students trading nude photos not isolated incident

By Laura Legere. The Times-Tribune.com. 11/12/08

Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania area students caught trading sexually explicit pictures of classmates are part of a growing trend. But unlike many teenage fads, what may have seemed like a harmless act could leave them facing life-altering legal consequences.

Incidents of similar trading of nude images by high school students — either by cell phone, e-mail or social networking Web sites — have been reported in at least 12 other states, including New Jersey, Ohio, Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Utah and Georgia.

John Shehan, director of the exploited children division of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said this year alone his organization has received more than 100 reports of child exploitation involving a cell phone. That number includes cases of exploitation by both adults and minors.

In Tunkhannock, police confiscated five cell phones from students between the ages of 11 and 17. One of the phones contained about 100 pictures, according to Wyoming County District Attorney George Skumanick Jr. He said “some of the girls” in the pictures were also taking the photos, which likely showed females between the ages of 14 and 16.

The punishment for teens taking, sending or receiving such photos can often be very adult. In Texas in October, a 13-year-old boy was arrested on child pornography charges after he received a nude picture of an eighth-grade student on his cell phone.

In Utah, a 16-year-old boy was charged with a felony for sending nude photos of himself over a cell phone to female classmates.

In May, a Wisconsin teen who posted nude pictures of a 16-year-old girl on his MySpace page was charged with possession of child pornography, sexual exploitation of a child and defamation.

Pennsylvania students who trade nude images could be charged with sexual abuse of children, unlawful contact with a minor, or criminal use of a communication facility, all of which are felonies punishable by up to seven years in jail.

That point was made repeatedly to the ninth- and 10th-graders gathered in the Abington Heights High School gym Wednesday to hear about the dangers of such behavior. Although there have not been any reported incidents of students trading nude photos in the district, assistant superintendent Thomas Quinn, Ph.D. said, “It certainly would be naive to think it couldn’t happen here.”

Lackawanna County Deputy District Attorney Frank Castellano told the teens that taking, possessing or distributing pictures of people under the age of 18 constitutes child pornography in Pennsylvania, whether or not the person taking the photos or sharing them is a minor. “Please don’t think that you are immune from this type of prosecution or this type of arrest simply because of your age,” he said. “It makes no difference.”

Assistant District Attorney Robert Klein said students who receive nude images should immediately delete them. He emphasized images conveyed by cell phone often end up on the Internet and are spread widely. The legal and social ramifications of such an act can limit a person’s ability to get into college, join the military or get a job for the rest of his or her life, he said.

High School Assistant Principal Michael Beamish put the possible repercussions in even more personal terms, referring to the “tarnish” a pornography charge would have “on your family name.” “Everybody, take a minute and think about what your grandparents would feel if you were in court being prosecuted as a sex offender,” he said.

Nils Frederiksen, spokesman for the state Attorney General’s Office said law enforcement and prosecutors determine the charges to file when teens trade nude photos based on the individual circumstances of each case. But, he cautioned, “If you are sending sexually explicit material to someone under the age of 18, you are facing a potential felony charge.”

Mr. Shehan, of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said prosecutors’ dilemma whether to “prosecute or try and educate or seek counseling” is very difficult, and will become more prevalent as the issue continues to spread. “A lot of damage is done when an image like that is taken and shared and essentially becomes available to the world,” he said. “Teenagers have a different mentality than adults do. A momentary lapse of judgment can have a lifetime of repercussions.”

But Daniel Macallair, executive director of the California-based Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, a nonprofit that advocates alternatives to juvenile incarceration, said the focus on the strictest criminal punishments is not the best way to address the issue. “Labeling some teenager who does something stupid as a lifetime sex offender solves no problems,” he said. “It will create more problems than it will solve.” He encouraged a community-wide response to the incident that involves parents and schools, but not the criminal justice system. “Are you trying to push someone to the margins of society for the rest of their life, is that the goal here?” he said. “And have we really thought this through?”

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 09:38 PM | Permalink

Dr. Frank Kardasz. September 15, 2008

The information below pertains to an incident from the state of Washington concerning liability for failure to investigate a report of unlawful images.

Background

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) sends cybertips to the 59 nationwide ICAC Task Forces on a daily basis. Cases are also sent to the FBI, ICE, or US Postal Service depending on the perceived original jurisdiction of the case. The sad case described below was the result of tips sent to the Seattle, Washington ICAC Task Force in 2003.

Seattle Washington ICAC

In 2003, the Seattle, Washington ICAC Task Force received a NCMEC cybertip accompanied by two unidentified images of a boy being abused. The initial report indicated that the possessor of the images used the screen name, "fosterdad". The source of the images was determined to be a computer in Tacoma, Washington.

The case was first received and documented by the Seattle ICAC and then sent to their Tacoma affiliate for investigation. Seattle is the statewide recipient and clearinghouse for incoming NCMEC cybertips and has a computer virtual private network connection with NCMEC for the purpose of receiving incoming complaints.

In this case, Seattle preserved their case assignment log indicating that they sent the investigation to Tacoma. Washington state law requires that cases of child abuse must be reported to the Washington Child Protective Services agency. The NCMEC Cybertip in this case was not reported to the Washington CPS.

A conscientious and dedicated NCMEC analyst was alarmed by the images and contacted Tacoma PD to follow-up on the first report. The analyst was advised by a Tacoma detective that the images were not prosecutable. It was later leaned that the detective may have been less than truthful in this statement.

Then, a few months later, in a second cybertip, additional images from the same offender were reported to NCMEC. The second cybertip report was more thoroughly investigated by the Tacoma detective and in March, 2004 the offender, Ronald Young, a state-certified foster-parent, was arrested. It was discovered that he had molested several of his foster children over a long period of time and had photographed them and shared the images via the Internet. The same Tacoma detective who handled the original investigation also handled the subsequent arrest. He was initially lauded as a hero for his work on the case and later vilified after the initial delays were uncovered.

Washington Lawsuit

In 2006, a victim’s rights attorney filed suit on behalf of the foster children against Tacoma PD, Seattle PD, and Washington Child Protective Services. The suit alleged in part, that there was deliberate indifference in failing to investigate the original cybertip. CPS was sued for failing to investigate the background of foster-parent Young.

Washington Damages

Recognizing their difficult positions, Tacoma PD and the State of Washington CPS quickly settled with the plaintiffs. Although the Seattle ICAC had documented the fact that they sent the case to Tacoma - Seattle also paid. City of Seattle attorneys recognized that if they did not settle they would be the only defendant left in front of a jury that would likely be looking for someone to blame.

Total payout was reported as 10.5 million. The City of Seattle / Washington ICAC Task Force paid 1.9 million of the total. The Seattle ICAC Task Force now has the policy of notifying CPS on all of their investigations and an improved policy for following up on the cases they receive.

Key Points

The Washington situation is a tragic reminder to those investigative agencies who dismiss child pornography investigations as trivial that there are true victims behind the images, and that those victims may have lawyers. Child pornography is not just one picture of a baby in a bathtub that was created overseas and circulates the Internet among a few pedophiles who do not live in your city. It is a big problem, it cannot be ignored, and improved law enforcement efforts are needed.

Due to the high workloads and limited resources available for Internet crimes against children throughout the United States it is possible that a case similar to the one in Washington will occur, or has already occurred in other jurisdictions.

Recommendation

Law enforcement agencies must recognize that unlawful images depicting the sexual exploitation of minors are serious crimes worthy of significant investigative efforts and the devotion of increased resources.

Selected News Reports from the Washington Case

The following reports from various news sources begin with a story that describes the fine work of the Tacoma, Washington ICAC investigators.

Detectives Add High-Tech Tools to Law Enforcement Arsenal

05/07/04. By Jeffrey M. Barker. Seattle Post-Intelligence Reporter

Tacoma - In a Police Department office here lighted largely by computer-screen glow, two detectives chase technology. They're helping law enforcement catch up with the gadgets that now pervade our daily lives: the Internet, digital cameras, computer chips that are found in everything from cell phones to a car's engine. Just a few years ago, police ignored or fumbled with those things. In many places, they still do.

But they are the pieces of evidence detectives now need to convict criminals. Take, for an example, Ronald Harold Young, the Key Peninsula foster father charged in March with 44 counts of child rape, molestation and exploitation. He was found at the end of a cybertrail that included anonymous Internet bulletin boards, search warrants of Internet service providers and seizure of hard drives and cameras. It was a trail blazed by Detectives Richard Voce, 46, of the Tacoma Police Department and Greg Dawson, 45, of the Pierce County Sheriff's Department. The two make up the county's computer crimes unit.

"I don't have a computer science degree," said Dawson, a former Army aviator who bought his first computer - a Commodore 64 - in 1982. "I just wanted to play games -- flight simulators and things like that." Computers crowd his office. Connecting cables hang from walls. A child-pornography case brought Dawson to computer detective work. The case involved a man who took his hard drive filled with illegal pictures to a computer store for maintenance.

Same story for Voce. "I did a couple cases that just pushed me in this direction," he said, sitting in his dark office, hunting and pecking on his keyboard. Hanging on the wall behind him, a fake street sign reads "Pervert Parking Only." "He's what we call a natural," Dawson said of Voce.

Voce said that before 1999, he didn't know much more about computers than the average person who has one at home. Now, he teaches a three-hour class on computer crime at the local police academy. The class covers the rise of identity theft, fraud cases, proper seizure of a computer - all stuff that had never been discussed before during basic police training.

In most police departments across the country, the trail would have gone dead long before reaching Young, said Frank Clark, a former detective who works with the Pierce County Prosecutor's Office and started the computer crimes unit here. He also founded Computer Technology Investigators Northwest, a cooperative that helps train detectives and puts them together with private-sector computer experts.

When Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg -- then the county's prosecutor -- hired Clark away from a pioneering computer crime unit in Fresno, Calif., computer evidence here wasn't being properly investigated. "They (Pierce County detectives) were seizing a number of computers," Clark said. "They just didn't know what to do with them."

He said most departments simply don't have officers trained in computer forensics. And because of that, fraud and child pornography - the bulk of what Voce and Dawson deal with - are going unaddressed. The Seattle Police Department does not staff any full-time computer detectives.

The only full-time computer forensics lab in this state, other than Pierce County's, is run by the Washington State Patrol. Clark said departments should have at least one computer detective for every 200,000 residents. "If you gave me five people tomorrow, I could keep them busy, and more," Dawson said, adding that once detectives are trained to look for computer crimes, they find more and more.

On the flip side, just because many cities are not looking for the crimes, and therefore not prosecuting them, it doesn't mean they don't have a high-tech crime problem. "If I don't have a drug unit, I don't have a drug problem in my town. The same can be said of high-tech," Dawson said. Clark agreed, saying Pierce County doesn't have more fraud and illegal pornography cases than other region -- "we just work 'em."

The Pierce County/Tacoma lab gets about 40 tips annually like the one that led to Ronald Young, the detectives say.

And Dawson and Voce said there are more people out there who are able to commit crimes from the mostly anonymous comfort of their homes, rather than having to seek out child pornography in dark alleys and through regular mail. "The Internet is a wonderful, wonderful tool," Dawson said. "But it's got a dark side -- it's a delivery system that wasn't there just a few years ago."

Detectives investigate bomb threats, which often are made through e-mail; improper use of private companies' computers; check fraud; and identity thefts. Dawson and Voce also help other detectives on more traditional cases. In a homicide, for example, a death threat or other evidence might be found on a computer.

That's the kind of slip-up that might not be found in the course of non-computer police work. "But you can afford to be stupid right now," Dawson said, "if there are no cops out there to catch you."

Reporter Jeffrey M. Barker can be reached at 206-870-7852 or jeffreybarker@seattlepi.com

Retrieved September 3, 2008 from http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/172341_vprofile07.html

Online Postings Describe Struggle with Sexual Urges

03/31/04. Mike Carter, Michael Ko and Jonathan Martin. Seattle Times staff reporters.

Police say a Pierce County foster dad charged with molesting and photographing young boys in his care posted messages in an Internet newsgroup catering to Christian pedophiles, saying he struggled "minute by minute" with his urges and describing himself as a "boylover that has devoted my life to boys and introducing the love of Christ to them."

Tacoma Police Detective Richard Voce yesterday confirmed that 41-year-old Ronald Harold Young used the Internet identity "Homeanon" to write of his battle with his sexual urges for children, and counseled other struggling pedophiles in a "Christian" forum on religion and their pedophilia.

Young also used that identity to post dozens of pornographic photographs in another pedophile-oriented newsgroup, police said. Many of the pictures were of his foster children, and some were so graphic that they offended others in the group. Young, a licensed foster parent, was arrested last week at his house in Home, on the Key Peninsula, and has been charged with 30 counts of first-degree child rape, eight counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and six counts of first-degree child molestation. Voce said detectives believe the pseudonym Homeanon refers to Young's residence in Home, as well as his desire to remain anonymous.

According to some members of his family, Young became "super-religious" in recent years, right around the time he applied for and received a foster-parent license from the Department of Social and Health Services.

On Dec. 1, 2003, Homeanon joined a debate in a "Christian" pedophile newsgroup over whether there is biblical justification for pedophilia or homosexuality. "Married for over 20 years, I still find boys attractive in a lustful way and can only remove those thoughts with praises to our loving God," he wrote. He concluded, after a lengthy analysis, that "homosexual desire is unnatural because it causes a man to abandon the natural sexual compliment God has ordained for him — a woman."

In another posting Jan. 16, Homeanon responded to a pedophile who opined that a man who has sexual urges for children should confront his temptations. "I do not think an alcoholic should hang out in a bar, a boylover probably should not take on a Boy Scout troop without examining his true motives," Homeanon wrote.

Charging papers state that the first pornographic photos of some of the six foster children in Young's care — clearly showing a sex act — were posted to the Internet by Young under another identity, "fosterdad," on Sept. 10, 2003, more than two months before he posted his missive on the Christian forum.

On Sept. 16, 2003, Homeanon appeared in another newsgroup that caters to pedophiles. A few days later, he wondered in that newsgroup "how safe is this. to post or not to post. That is my dilema. Much to lose."

About every six weeks, Homeanon posted a series of photographs, some with a theme and many of sex acts between men and boys, or other degrading acts involving children.

In several of the postings, Homeanon wrote that he hadn't taken the pictures. "Please note that I have only posted these Beautiful pictures and that I DO NOT know these boys," he wrote Dec. 2, 2003.

The charges against Young state that police have recovered the camera that took the photographs and have identified Young and some of the foster children in the photographs. Homeanon's appearance in one group created quite a stir. While many of its members urged him to keep posting new photographs, a few took offense at some of the more graphic photographs.

In a posting in February, one group member complained about a photograph that appeared sadistic. "I posted that pic," responded Homeanon, who added that the "photographer would NEVER hurt this boy."

Voce, the Tacoma detective, said Young "may be telling the truth" about a longtime battle with sexual urges. Homeanon and the photographs appeared late last summer, Voce said. Young, he said, found solace in the pedophile newsgroups. "It's common that people like this will seek validation. And what better place to find it than among those with similar likes and dislikes?" he said.

Richard Packard, the president of the Washington state chapter of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, reviewed some of Homeanon's writings. He said the use of religious language shows an attempt to create a moral justification for behavior Young knew to be wrong. "To me, it's indicative that there is a struggle and an awareness of the wrongfulness. His use of the term 'boylover' is a frequently used term among homosexual pedophiles to pasteurize their behavior, to turn it into something that's kinda nice," he said.

Efforts to treat offenders rise or fall on their willingness to abandon the religious moralization, Packard said.

DSHS spokeswoman Kathy Spears said the agency would not comment on Young's case or release records until the conclusion of police and DSHS investigations, which could take several weeks. Spears said DSHS does not have the manpower to monitor Internet activity in its 6,300 licensed foster homes.

Meanwhile, records show that Ronald Young's stepfather was involved in a child-molestation case in 1989. Harold Young pleaded guilty to two counts of child rape in Skagit County Superior Court and was sentenced to two years and 10 months in prison.

Police and prosecutors said Harold Young raped his two step-granddaughters (the children of Ronald Young's older sister) between January 1988 and January 1989, when the girls were 11 and 7 years old. At the time, Harold Young and his wife were managing the Skagit Valley Mobile Manor, a mobile-home park.

"He used his status as a grandfather and then scared my daughters with his threats if they told me or anyone else," the girls' mother wrote in a statement filed with the Skagit County prosecuting attorney in December 1989. "It has left a lasting effect on me and both my daughters. They will have to grow up with this haunting them, and I feel it will keep them from leading a normal adult life when it comes to marriage and children."

Roy Jamison, who has lived at the Mount Vernon mobile-home park for 17 years, said that he knew the Youngs and that Ronald took over as manager at the park for a couple of years after Harold was arrested.

Ronald Young's mother, who lives in Alabama, said her husband's case has "nothing to do with Ronald."

Seattle Times staff reporter Christine Willmsen contributed to this report. Mike Carter: 206-464-3706 or mcarter@seattletimes.com

Retrieved September 3, 2008 from http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20040331&slug=foster31m

Child-Sex Case Jolts Family, Small Community

3/27/04. The Seattle Times

Tacoma - Ronald Harold Young, the Pierce County foster parent charged yesterday with 44 crimes of child pornography and rape involving six boys in his care, gave his family the impression that taking in broken children was his personal "ministry."

Young, 41, became "super-religious" about two years ago, said his 25-year-old niece, who only gave her first name as Bev. She said Young presented himself as "a good, God-fearing Christian of all things, super foster dad."

For most of his adult life, he told family members he was an atheist, said a woman who identified herself only as Young's sister and Bev's mother. One day, she said, "he started wearing a cross and preaching." Neither Young's sister nor his niece knew what caused the transformation. About that time, in July 2002, Young and his wife received a license to become foster parents.

Young said little yesterday before pleading not guilty in Pierce County Superior Court to child rape, molestation and sexual exploitation of a minor. He is being held on $2 million bail in the Pierce County Jail.

In charging papers, Pierce County prosecutors said that by September 2003, Young was engaging in sexual acts with the six boys, ages 5 to 7, taking hundreds of digital pictures and sending them all over the world via the Internet.

In fact, tips that sparked the investigation came from Europe and the United States. Investigators overseas found child pornography originating from the Tacoma area under the e-mail address fosterdad@hotmail.com. The e-mail address was connected to Young, who was arrested about 7:15 a.m. Thursday.

Young has had at least five other foster children who no longer lived at his home, and detectives are talking to them about whether they were victimized. Prosecutors said Young has contacted foster children after they've left his care.

The attorneys believe the boys, who lived with Young from December 2002 until three weeks ago, were molested. Young has no known criminal history. Pierce County sheriff's Detective Ed Troyer said investigators last night were trying to determine if Young previously went by a different name and had been charged or convicted of a sex crime under that name.

Young used to be a contractor, but recently, he was a full-time foster parent who did odd jobs. State officials say foster families are paid $366.31 to $514.95 per month for a child whose needs are average.

Linell Warnes, another cashier at the Home Country Store, said Young was "very nice, very quiet, very well-mannered. He was always correcting (his boys) firmly: 'No, you can only get one thing.' 'No, you don't behave like that.' "

Unrest in Home, court

But few people in Home had sympathy for Young yesterday. Many wished him harm or said he should die. Young's sister said his family "is not standing by him." "I don't want none of it, he's a sick bastard," she said. "What we have to say is he's very sick and we don't condone it." Young's niece, Bev, was so upset after the court hearing yesterday that she charged at Young's wife in the crowded hallway. Bev, who was restrained by her mother, accused Young's wife of wrongly supporting him.

retrieved September 3, 2008 from http://www.zoominfo.com/people/Young_Ronald_483770550.aspx

The Stranger

03/31/04. David Schmader. Index Newspapers, The Stranger (weekly column).

Speaking of sex crimes and cyberspace: Today brought some fascinating background to the case of Ronald Young, the 41-year-old Key Peninsula foster father charged last week with 30 counts of first-degree child rape, eight counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, and six counts of first-degree child molestation.

Today the Seattle Times reported on the spooky postings left by Ronald Young over the years on the Internet. Tacoma police have confirmed that Young used the name "Homeanon" to write of his battle with his sexual urges for children and to post photographs of sex acts between men and boys. According to the Times, Young's anguished testimonials took place primarily in newsgroups catering to Christian pedophiles, with "Homeanon" (detectives believe the pseudonym refers to Young's residence in Home, WA, and his desire to remain anonymous) detailing his "minute by minute" struggle with his urges, and characterizing himself as a "boylover that has devoted my life to boys and introducing the love of Christ to them." More disturbingly, "Homeanon" also posted dozens of pornographic photographs, many featuring Young's foster children, sometimes in settings so graphic they reportedly offended other pedophiles in the newsgroup.

Ronald Young remains in a Tacoma jail pending $2 million bail.

Retrieved September 3, 2008 from http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=17762

Child Abuse Tips Gain Priority for Tacoma and Seattle Police

07/10/08. Stacey Mulick. TheNewsTribune.com

Tacoma and Seattle police have started making changes in how they handle Internet child abuse tips after issues with their policies surfaced in a lawsuit involving eight boys whose foster father sexually abused and photographed them.

Allegations about how the departments handled the abuse tip were part of the lawsuit, whose $11 million settlement was announced Wednesday. On Tuesday, the Tacoma City Council approved payment of its portion of the settlement – $7.6 million.

Basically, the departments are strengthening their processes for tracking the tips they receive so they’re quickly reviewed and passed on to the appropriate agencies. Among the changes:

• Tacoma police now have a written policy on how tips on Internet child sex crimes are received, logged and assigned to a detective.

• Seattle police have a more efficient way to track when they send tips to other police agencies.

“We are very saddened for the victims and disappointed about our performance in this case and have taken every measure to avoid this from happening again,” Tacoma Police Chief Don Ramsdell said Wednesday. Tacoma police also are conducting an internal investigation of how detective Richard Voce handled the case, which was not begun for at least two months or as many as five after the department received the abuse tip.

Voce, a member of the computer crimes unit, remains on duty. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday, but in 2004 he told The News Tribune that his heavy caseload prevented him from investigating the tip sooner.It’s a “systemwide issue, and there are a lot of moving parts to it,” Ramsdell said. “It’s very complicated, and these cases are very complex.”

Photos Posted on the Internet

The lawsuit was brought on behalf of eight boys sexually abused and photographed in 2003 and 2004 by their foster father, Ronald Young, in his Key Peninsula home. Hundreds of photos were posted on the Internet. Young later was convicted and sentenced in the case.

In the lawsuit, attorneys for the boys, who were between 5 and 12 at the time, alleged Seattle and Tacoma police officers failed to follow state law by not reporting the suspected abuse to the state Department of Social and Health Services.

The suit also claimed that Tacoma police failed to act quickly on the tip. As the case sat untouched, the boys continued to be abused. Tacoma police “did act on it but did it very, very slowly,” said Jack Connelly, an attorney for the boys. “The problem with this case is everyone sat on it and nobody was acting very quickly.”

In addition to the $7.6 million Tacoma has agreed to pay to settle the suit, the City of Seattle will pay $1.9 million and the state $1.5 million. The state has paid $500,000 on behalf of Young’s wife, Wendy, who was accused of negligence for failing to be a proper foster parent.

A judge still must approve the settlement; no hearing has been scheduled.

Police Notified in 2003

The case began in September 2003 after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children found sexually explicit photos that had been uploaded on the Internet by someone with a computer in the Tacoma area. The center told the Seattle Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force that the person who posted the photos used the names “fosterdad” and “homeanon.”

At the time, the Seattle task force was the clearinghouse for such tips in Alaska and Washington. The nine-member task force, created in 2001, passed tips to the appropriate law enforcement agencies for further investigation. In the Young case, Seattle police contended they sent the tip to Tacoma police in September 2003. Tacoma police said they received it in December 2003. No records confirm when it was sent and received.

Voce, who is assigned to a joint computer crimes unit with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, didn’t start investigating the tip until February 2004, after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children contacted Tacoma police directly.

Investigators obtained search warrants and arrested Young, a state-licensed foster parent, in late March. The boys were removed from his home. Young later pleaded guilty to eight crimes related to the case. He was sentenced in April 2005 to 26 years in prison.

A lawsuit against the state on behalf of the victims was filed in 2005. Seattle and Tacoma were added in December 2006.

Policies Reviewed

After Tacoma was added to the lawsuit, the Police Department hired outside consultants to review its policies for handling the Internet crime tips and to make recommendations. “We didn’t have a clean process” for handling the tips, Ramsdell said Wednesday.

In March, Tacoma police commanders met with the consultants and, based on their input, put a new written policy in place. Under it:

• Internet tips are routed through a supervisor, who logs them, reviews them and assigns them to a detective.

• The supervisor also monitors the progress of the investigation.

• Both the detective and supervisor are responsible for alerting state social workers to possible child abuse allegations.

“We do that to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks and to ensure that these are the done way they should be,” Ramsdell said.

The Seattle Police Department and its Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force also has made changes. The task force now is a six-member team of Seattle police officers responsible for taking the tips and doling them out to agencies in Washington only. It now forwards tips using certified mail. “Our record keeping wasn’t what it should have been,” Seattle police spokesman Sean Whitcomb said.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has developed software that tracks tips as they are forwarded to law enforcement agencies for investigation. Seattle police also plan to talk with the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about whether any other steps need to be taken. They also will be meeting with state Department of Social and Health Services officials to “see if there are better ways for the agencies to communicate,” Whitcomb said.

Stacey Mulick: 253-597-8268. blogs.thenewstribune.com/crime

Retrieved September 3, 2008 from http://www.thenewstribune.com/331/v-lite/story/409021.html

Tacoma, Seattle Settle Foster Father Abuse Lawsuit

Tacoma -The cities of Tacoma and Seattle have agreed to settle a lawsuit over the sexual abuse of eight children in foster care for a total of $10.5 million. The cities were added as defendants to a lawsuit filed in 2005 in Pierce County Superior Court against the state Department of Social and Health Services.

The Tacoma City Council on Tuesday approved a $7.6 million payment to settle the lawsuit. The remaining $2.9 million would come from Seattle. The settlement is subject to approval by a judge. Tacoma is paying the larger share because it had the greater exposure, City Attorney Elizabeth Pauli told The News Tribune newspaper.

Young's wife, Wendy Young, was added as a defendant at the same time as Tacoma and Seattle, and a $500,000 settlement in her case was reached in February, court records show. Wendy Young was accused of negligence for failing to provide proper foster parenting but not of participating in sexual abuse.

The state licensed the Youngs as foster caregivers in July 2002. They cared for 11 children until Ronald Young's arrest, and sheriff's officials said Young abused at least eight of the boys. At the time of his arrest, Young was staying home with the children while his wife worked as a baker in a grocery store.

Prosecutors said Young posted pornographic pictures of his foster children, ages 5 to 12, on the Internet. The photos were traced to Washington state in September 2003 by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which notified Seattle police, Tacoma lawyer Jack Connelly said.

Investigators in Seattle were legally obligated to notify state Child Protective Services within 24 hours, Connelly said in 2006, but instead sent the information to police in Tacoma after determining that Young was from Pierce County .

Tacoma City Manager Eric Anderson said a police officer on duty at the time the information was received "failed to recognize the serious nature" of it, so the case was not immediately investigated. More than five months later, in early March 2004, Tacoma started a criminal investigation and Young was arrested on March 25, 2004. Anderson said Tacoma has improved its process for handling reports of sexual abuse, but a detailed investigation is continuing. "The lesson we have to learn is that we always have to be vigilant about children, and this underscores it," he said.

Information from: The News Tribune, http://www.thenewstribune.com

Retrieved September 3, 2008 from http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008041776_apwafostercareabuse1stldwritethru.html

Seattle Settles Foster Care Abuse Lawsuit

07/10/08. Associated Press

Tacoma – The cities of Tacoma and Seattle have agreed to settle a lawsuit over the sexual abuse of eight children in foster care for a total of $10.5 million.

The cities were added as defendants to a lawsuit filed in 2005 in Pierce County Superior Court against the state Department of Social and Health Services. The state agency was accused of failing to adequately screen Ronald Young before licensing him as a foster father and then of failing to properly monitor children in his custody.

Young pleaded guilty in 2004 to multiple counts of child rape and sexual exploitation of a minor and was sentenced to more than 26 years in prison.

The Tacoma City Council on Tuesday approved a $7.6 million payment to settle the lawsuit. Another $1.9 million would come from the city of Seattle and the remaining $1 million would come from the state of Washington. The settlement is subject to approval by a judge. Tacoma is paying the larger share because it had the greater exposure, City Attorney Elizabeth Pauli told the News Tribune newspaper.

Young's wife, Wendy Young, was added as a defendant at the same time as Tacoma and Seattle, and a $500,000 settlement in her case was reached in February, court records show. Wendy Young was accused of negligence for failing to provide proper foster parenting but not of participating in sexual abuse.

The state licensed the Youngs as foster caregivers in July 2002. They cared for 11 children until Ronald Young's arrest, and sheriff's officials said Young abused at least eight of the boys. At the time of his arrest, Young was staying home with the children while his wife worked as a baker in a grocery store.

Prosecutors said Young posted pornographic pictures of his foster children, ages 5 to 12, on the Internet. The photos were traced to Washington state in September 2003 by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which notified Seattle police, Tacoma lawyer Jack Connelly said.

Investigators in Seattle were legally obligated to notify state Child Protective Services within 24 hours, Connelly said in 2006, but instead sent the information to police in Tacoma after determining that Young was from Pierce County.

Tacoma City Manager Eric Anderson said a police officer on duty at the time the information was received "failed to recognize the serious nature" of it, so the case was not immediately investigated.

Retrieved September 3, 2008 from http://www.spokesmanreview.com/local/story.asp?ID=252307

Father of Sex-Abuse Suspect was Abuser: State had no Sure Way to Know That About Accused Child Rapist

03/30/04. Jennifer Langston and Rugh Teichroeb. Seattle Post-Intelligencer Reporters.

Mount Vernon - The father of a man who now faces more than 30 counts of child rape involving foster sons in his care was himself a child rapist, according to court records.

Fifteen years ago, Harold Edgar Young pleaded guilty to second-degree child rape after two of his granddaughters accused him of sexual molestation, prompting residents of the mobile-home park he managed to draft a petition to keep him away. Court documents in the case also say Harold Young may have molested his own stepdaughters.

State child-welfare officials said yesterday that they could not discuss Harold Young's son, Ronald Harold Young, who was charged last week in Pierce County with raping his foster children. The case, they said, is under investigation. Nor would they say whether they knew about his father's conviction.

But it is clear that if child-welfare officials knew about the conviction before licensing Ronald Young as a foster parent, he, his wife or someone else close to the family would have had to tell them. The state does check the criminal background of prospective foster parents, but depends on those people to tell them about other parts of their lives that court checks wouldn't reveal. The state has no authority to delve into the criminal background of the families of prospective foster parents.

"If someone is going to be devious and deceitful, we don't have perfect safeguards," said Nancy Zahn, who oversees the licensing of foster homes and other children's facilities for the state Department of Social and Health Services.

DSHS officials said that such information as his father's conviction would not necessarily have ruled out Ronald Young as a foster parent, although it would have prompted more questions. "You can't make the assumption that the child of a sex offender will be a sex offender," Zahn said. What occurred was hardly a secret in the Young family.

The mother of the girls who Harold Young abused had little sympathy for her brother Ronald Young at his arraignment last week. He is accused of posting hundreds of pornographic images on the Internet of himself and six foster boys engaged in a range of sexual acts.

Ronald Young, a seemingly devout born-again Christian who was studying to be a minister, and his wife began caring for abused and neglected children in their rural Key Peninsula home in the summer of 2002.

The state expanded the family's license from three to six children last year. Prospective foster parents not only undergo criminal background checks but are also asked specific questions about their family histories, including whether they were abused as children and whether any relatives are sex offenders, Zahn said. "Certainly that isn't information that we'd just ignore," Zahn said.

An applicant who is related to a convicted sex offender might still be granted a foster care license on the condition that the relative not have any access to children placed in the home, Zahn said. During the screening process, prospective foster parents also provide three personal references. One of those three references can be a relative. Those references are asked about whether the applicant has any history of domestic violence or abuse. "People are usually very forthcoming if they have any concerns," said Paula Bentz, who also works in the licensing division.

DSHS can ask applicants to undergo a psychological evaluation, parenting evaluation or even a sexual-deviancy evaluation, Bentz said. An applicant who refuses can be denied a license. But there are also limits on what DSHS can uncover during the screening process. Applicants must give their permission for criminal background checks to be done, and such checks can't legally be run on relatives who don't live in the home, Zahn said. And the screening process depends to a large part on the honesty of the applicant, she said.

Identifying pedophiles is difficult, said Lucy Berliner, director of the Harborview Center for Sexual Assault and Traumatic Stress. "We're really lousy at it. We don't have a way to do it yet," Berliner said. But she hopes DSHS re-examines its screening process in light of this incident, including looking at whether relatives should routinely be interviewed.

In Harold Young's child rape case, court documents from 1989 do not mention any relationship with a son. But two of his grandchildren, ages 7 and 11, told police their grandfather would take off his clothes and molest them. The eldest grandchild said he warned her that if she ever told anyone, she wouldn't live to see her next birthday, according to court documents. The girls' mother and two aunts described similar abuse from their stepfather after he moved into their home, according to statements in the court record from the late 1980s.

In December 1989, Harold Young entered a guilty plea in Skagit County Superior Court, despite his insistence that he did nothing wrong and that he was the target of a vendetta against him. He was sentenced to 34 months in prison and was ordered to register as a sex offender.

Roy and Carolyn Jamison, who lived in the Skagit Valley Mobile Manor in Mount Vernon, were among those who signed a petition to keep Harold Young from coming back to the manufactured home park that he and his wife managed. Residents circulated the petition after Young was charged. They said Harold Young had a low tolerance for children, constantly yelling at them for riding bicycles in the street or for setting up badminton nets in their own yards.

"There were a lot of kids at the time," said Carolyn Jamison. "We didn't want him back -- after hearing that you didn't want anyone else's kids getting molested." Harold's wife and Ronald's mother said this weekend that she and her husband started a new life in Alabama seven years ago and wouldn't comment on any prior sexual abuse accusations in the family. "We're leading a new life here," she said. "It would crush (Ronald) if the whole family was dragged into the mess."

P-I reporters Jake Ellison and Jeffrey M. Barker contributed to this report. P-I reporter Jennifer Langston can be reached at 425-252-5235 or jenniferlangston@seattlepi.com

Retrieved September 3, 2008 from http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/166922_fosterfolo30.html

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 09:24 PM | Permalink

Dr. Frank Kardasz, August 15, 2008

An Arizona newspaper recently printed a controversial article about a photographer who publicizes pictures of her own children posing nude.  The article included a chronology of dozens of nude images of the photographers’ pre-pubescent children ranging in age from less than one year to ten years.  The children were not posed in sexually suggestive positions and were not engaged in sex acts.  Although genitals were visible in the pictures, the specific focuses of the images were not zoomed on the child’s genitals.

The published images were probably not unlawful according to present United States Supreme Court standards.  The Court might consider the images to be lawful pictures of nudity or art.  The images probably did not violate the difficult-to-measure-and-enforce community obscenity standard.  The pictures might fall outside the legal definitions of images depicting the sexual exploitation of minors.  The photographer appears to be attempting to straddle the sometimes-confusing borderline between art and illegality, at the expense of her children.

While barely lawful, some would consider the nude pictures of children to be erotica.  Erotica includes lawful and non-pornographic items that may stimulate a sexual reaction from the viewer.

Those who would consider nude images of children to be sexually stimulating might include the ranks of pedophiles and others who are sexually attracted to pre-pubescent minors.  Anyone who considers sharing nude images of a child should consider that others may find their benign images sexually stimulating.

Those who consider photographing children nude and sharing the images should also know that doing so may make the children the targets of those who will enjoy the images for sexual masturbatory purposes.

The same persons who sexually enjoy the images may also try to befriend the children depicted and ingratiate themselves with the family for the predatory purpose of grooming the targeted children towards actual molestation.

Predators may pose as admiring "fans" of the young model. They may pose as professional photographers interested in advancing the modeling career of a young person: A young person who’s only protection from harm are the same star-hungry parents who send them to the photographer-predator.  This does not mean that all photographers are bad, only that parents must be vigilant.

Distributing and publishing erotic images of children also means that the pictures will likely be duplicated and distributed throughout cyberspace.  That means that once the children depicted are old enough to knowingly object to the pictures the images will already be irretrievable.  Once the child reaches middle school and is confronted with the pictures by crass adolescent peers who found the pictures on the Internet, the subsequent embarrassment will be irreversible.

Benign and innocent images may also be used for alteration or blending with other images for the purpose of creating pornography.  For example, innocent images of the famous child twin actresses Kate and Ashley Olsen have been duplicated, cropped, pasted and altered into sexual images for many years by deviants who enjoy the altered pictures for sexual self-gratification and who then trade them via the Internet.  Deviants often use software programs to cut the young faces from the Olsen twins and superimpose the images onto the nude or sexually active bodies of others so that the deviants can imagine having sex with the young girls.

It is also likely that the images will become part of someone’s larger collection that includes unlawful images depicting the sexual exploitation of minors.  For example, those who collect and enjoy unlawful images also sometimes collect lawful images of erotica and nudism.  Some go so far as to collect newspaper advertisements from retailers who sell children’s underwear or pajamas.  While there is nothing unlawful about images of children in pajamas, those who derive sexual gratification from such images might be considered by the psychology community as having pedophilic tendencies.

Unlawful images that depict the sexual exploitation of minors are often called child pornography.   Unlawful images of child pornography are different from lawful adult pornography.  Unlawful images should not be confused with lawful art, nudism, medical images or erotica.  The exact legal lines and definitions are often blurry and confusing to the average person.

The photographer who took nude pictures of her children under the legal umbrella protections of “art” should consider the wider ramifications of sharing the images.   Ramifications include the way in which others will perceive the images and the future possible uses of the images by persons with sexually deviant motives.  The barely-legal exploitation of children displayed in the newspaper article is disturbing.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

 More information about unlawful images

Unlawful images and videos that depict the sexual exploitation of minors are commonly called child pornography.  In most jurisdictions child pornography is a serious crime.  Why is child pornography a serious crime? Beyond sexual self-gratification, possessors and traffickers of unlawful images use the images for one or more reasons including (Child pornography, 1996):

• To blackmail children into keeping silent about the abuse.
• To preserve a child's youthful image at the age preferred by the pedophile.
• To establish trust and camaraderie with other pedophiles.
• To gain access to other markets and children by exchanging material with other pedophiles.
• To duplicate, produce and sell for profit.
• To reassure themselves that their deviant behavior is shared by others and therefore not abnormal.
• To seduce children and lower the child's inhibitions as part of the grooming process intended to model deviant sexual behavior.

Danger

Are the possessors of unlawful images dangerous? Is someone who looks at pictures a threat to offend against a child? Recent research (Hernandez, 2006) suggests that there may be a correlation between those who possess child pornography and those who are also "hands-on" contact offenders.  One surprising study of federal prisoners indicated that 85% of those in custody for possession of child pornography were also"hands-on" molesters whose contact offenses had never been discovered.

Other professionals agree that there is a danger that possessors of unlawful images depicting the sexual exploitation of minors could escalate and eventually offend against real children.  Dr.  Chris Hatcher, (1997) Professor of Psychology at the University of California said, "It begins with fantasy, moves to gratification through pornography, then voyeurism, and finally, to contact."

Former FBI profiler John Douglas (Mindhunter, 1995, p.  108) described the relationship between pornographic images and sex offenders.  He said, "With most sexually based killers, it is a several-step escalation from the fantasy to the reality, often fueled by pornography, morbid experimentation on animals, and cruelty to peers."

Some possessors of unlawful images use the contraband as a "unique solution" to their pedophilic preferences.  They rationalize that sexually gratifying themselves after viewing images is a justifiable alternative to committing "hands on" contact offenses against actual children.

Victims

What about the effect of child pornography on the victims? Are there any lingering problems for children who are the subject of abuse? Researchers found that the effects of unlawful images on child victims are often devastating.  According to Klain, Davies and Hicks (Child pornography, March 2001, p.10) child sex abuse victims suffer a multitude of physical and psychological problems.

The innocent victims of child pornography sometimes suffer a lifetime of psychological anguish and torment wondering when where and how their tortured images will re-surface.  Those who traffic in, possess and derive gratification from child pornography perpetuate the anguish.  Some argue that each image tacitly re-victimizes the child whenever the image is viewed.  Many victims of child pornography will never disclose their victimization to anyone.  They suffer in silent, haunted purgatory.  As adults, many do not wish to relive past abuse.

What is child pornography?

Child pornography depicts the sexual exploitation of minors.  It does not include child erotica. 

It does not include nudism and it does not include "baby in the bathtub" images.  Unlawful images are contraband.  They are the only form of contraband that is introduced into the human psyche through  the sense of sight.  Because unlawful images are now often produced in video form, the images are often accompanied by the sounds of children suffering.

What are some of the differences between lawful and unlawful images?

A California court offered some insight into the differences between lawful nudism and unlawful images depicting the sexual exploitation of minors.   An instructive set of guidelines for determining the differences was provided in the case of United States v.  Dost, 636 F.  Supp.  828, 830-32 (S.D. Cal. 1986).

The Dost factors give a more defined test for determining whether a visual depiction of a minor is a "lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area".

The Dost factors include the following guidelines:

1. whether the focal point of the visual depiction is on the child's genitalia or pubic area;
2. whether the setting of the visual depiction is sexually suggestive, i.e., in a place or pose generally associated with sexual activity;
3. whether the child is depicted in an unnatural pose, or in inappropriate attire, considering the age of the child;
4. whether the child is fully or partially clothed, or nude;
5. whether the visual depiction suggests sexual coyness or a willingness to engage in sexual activity;
6. whether the visual depiction is intended or designed to elicit a sexual response in the viewer.

-------------------------------------

A case study

In 2003, former Arizona high school teacher Morton Berger was convicted on 20 counts of possession of child pornography and sentenced to 200 years prison.  He appealed the sentence based on arguments of equal protection under the law and cruel and unusual punishment.  In December 2004, the conviction was affirmed by two of the three judges of the Arizona Court of Appeals (State of Arizona, 2004, December 14).

Judges Susan Ehrlich and Philip Hall dismissed Berger's appeal with arguments including (citations omitted):

* It is evident beyond the need for elaboration that a State's interest in safeguarding the physical and psychological well-being of a minor is compelling.

*...the victimization of a child continues when that act is memorialized in an image.  The materials produced are a permanent record of the children's participation and the harm to the child is exacerbated by their circulation.  Unfortunately, the victimization of the children involved does not end when the pornographer's camera is put away.

* The legislative judgment…is that the use of children as subjects of pornographic materials is harmful to the physiological, emotional, and mental health of the child.

* …the possession of child pornography drives that industry and…the production of child pornography will decrease if those who possess the product are punished equally with those who produce it.

* …it (the law) will decrease the production of child pornography if it penalizes those who possess and view the product, thereby decreasing demand.

* …the possession of child pornography inflames the desires of child molesters, pedophiles and child pornographers.  The State has more than a passing interest in forestalling the damage caused by child pornography: preventing harm to children is, without cavil, one of its most important interests.

* …we cannot fault the State for attempting to stamp out this vice at all levels in the distribution chain.

* Berger downloaded images from the Internet, and every time he visited a website, he demonstrated to the producers and sellers of child pornography that there was a demand for their product.  Berger's demand served to drive the industry; there need not have been a direct monetary exchange.  Berger maintains also that, because his possession of the pornographic images was passive and because he did not use threats or violence in the commission of his crimes, his sentence is grossly disproportionate.  This logic is abstruse.  As was described by this court in Hazlett, 205 Ariz.  at 527 p.  11, 73 P.  3d at 1262, and as is evident from the violent pornographic images in this case, child pornography is a form of child abuse.  The materials produced are a permanent record of the children's participation and the harm to the child is exacerbated by their circulation.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied Bergers next request for an appeal.  His 200 year prison sentence was upheld.  Berger is scheduled for release from the Arizona Department of Corrections in 2157.

Law enforcement

Disturbing unlawful videos of the sexual abuse of minors are often accompanied by the horrible audio sounds of suffering young victims.  The typical offender arrested by the Arizona ICAC Task Force possesses dozens and often hundreds of unlawful images and videos.  As law enforcement officers, once we overcome the sickening shock of witnessing the brutal recorded acts of terrible sexual violence we are left with a tenacious resolve to bring offenders to justice.

Conclusion

Contraband images and videos depicting the sexual exploitation of minors are serious crimes.  Offenders use the images for many disturbing reasons.  The victims of child pornography deserve to be protected from their torturers and from those who enjoy witnessing the torture.  Law enforcement efforts to stop unlawful images must continue.

References

Child pornography and pedophilia: Report made by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs, United States Senate. (1986). 99th Congress, Second session. Washington : U.S. G.P.O.1986. iii. 54: 24 cm.

Douglas , J. and Olshaker, M. (1995). Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's elite serial crime unit, New York : Pocket Books.

Hatcher, C. (1997, October). Cited in: Armagh , D. A. Safety net for the Internet: Protecting our children. Juvenile Justice Journal (on-line) Volume V, Number 1, May 1998. Retrieved March 15, 2003. From http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/jjjournal/jjjournal598/net.html

Hernandez, A. E. (2006, September 26). Statement of Andres E.  Hernandez before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Committee on Energy and Commerce.  U.S.  House of Representatives.

Retrieved October 20, 2007, from http://www.projectsafechildhood.gov/HernandezTestimonyCongress.pdf

Klain, E.J., Davies, H.J., & Hicks, M.A., (2001, March). Child Pornography: The criminal justice system response, American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Retrieved October 20, 2007, from http://www.missingkids. com/en_US/publications/NC81.pdf

State of Arizona Division One Court of Appeals.  (2004, December 14). Appeal from the Superior Court in Maricopa County.  1 CA-CR 03-0243. Retrieved October 20, 2007, from http://www.cofad1.state.az.us/opinionfiles/CR/CR030243.pdf/CR/CR030243.pdf

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 01:59 AM | Permalink

• To blackmail children into keeping silent about the abuse.
• To preserve a child's youthful image at the age preferred by the pedophile.
• To establish trust and camaraderie with other pedophiles.
• To gain access to other markets and children by exchanging material with other pedophiles.
• To duplicate, produce and sell for profit.
• To reassure themselves that their deviant behavior is shared by others and therefore, not abnormal.
• To seduce children and lower the child's inhibitions as part of the grooming process intended
• tomodel deviant sexual behavior.

I am also troubled because my training and experience suggests that possessors of unlawful images are sometimes also dangerous on a physical level. Recent research (Hernandez, 2006) suggests that there may be a correlation between those who possess child pornography and those who are also “hands-on” contact offenders. Surprising studies of federal prisoners indicated that 85% of those in custody for possession of unlawful images were also “hands-on” molesters whose contact offenses had never been discovered.

It disturbs me to know that other professionals agree that there exists a danger that possessors of unlawful images could escalate and that possessors could eventually offend against real children. Dr. Chris Hatcher, (1997) Professor of Psychology at the University of California said, "It begins with fantasy, moves to gratification through pornography, then voyeurism, and finally, to contact." Former FBI profiler John Douglas (Mindhunter, 1995, p. 108) described a relationship between pornographic images and sex offenders. He said, "With most sexually based killers, it is a several-step escalation from the fantasy to the reality, often fueled by pornography, morbid experimentation on animals, and cruelty to peers."

The ramifications of unlawful images was succinctly described in the case of Arizona v. Berger. In 2003, former Arizona high school teacher Morton Berger was convicted on 20 counts of possession of child pornography and sentenced to 200 years prison. He appealed the sentence based on arguments of equal protection under the law and cruel and unusual punishment. In December 2004, the conviction
was affirmed by the Arizona Court of Appeals (State of Arizona, 2004, December 14).

Arizona Judges Susan Ehrlich and Philip Hall dismissed Berger's appeal with opinions that have also been similarly reflected in previous US Supreme Court rulings. The AZ Appellate Court opinions included the following excerpts (citations omitted):

• It is evident beyond the need for elaboration that a State's interest in safeguarding the physical and psychological well-being of a minor is compelling.
• …the victimization of a child continues when that act is memorialized in an image. The materials produced are a permanent record of the children's participation and the harm to the child is exacerbated by their circulation. Unfortunately, the victimization of the children involved does not end when the pornographer's camera is put away.
• The legislative judgment…is that the use of children as subjects of pornographic materials is harmful to the physiological, emotional, and mental health of the child.
• …the possession of child pornography drives that industry and…the production of child pornography will decrease if those who possess the product are punished equally with those who produce it.
• ...it (the law) will decrease the production of child pornography if it penalizes those who possess and view the product, thereby decreasing demand.
• …the possession of child pornography inflames the desires of child molesters, pedophiles and child pornographers. The State has more than a passing interest in forestalling the damage caused by child pornography: preventing harm to children is, without cavil, one of its most important interests.
• …we cannot fault the State for attempting to stamp out this vice at all levels in the distribution chain.
• Berger downloaded images from the Internet, and every time he visited a website, he demonstrated to the producers and sellers of child pornography that there was a demand for their product. Berger's demand served to drive the industry; there need not have been a direct monetary exchange. Berger maintains also that because his possession of the pornographic images was passive and because he did not use threats or violence in the commission of his crimes, his sentence is grossly disproportionate. This logic is abstruse. As was described by this court in Hazlett, 205 Ariz. at 527 p. 11, 73 P. 3d at 1262, and as is evident from the violent pornographic images in this case, child pornography is a form of child abuse. The materials produced are a permanent record of the children's participation and the harm to the child is exacerbated by their circulation.

Please consider that the imaged victims who were the subject of the defendants’ sexual fantasies are unable to provide you with a victim impact statement. Try to imagine what they would say if they could appear before you in court. I know from my training and experience that some victims of child pornography suffer a lifetime of misery wondering when and where their images will reappear on the Internet. Researchers found that the effects of unlawful images on child victims are often devastating. According to Klain, Davies and Hicks (Child pornography, March 2001, p. 10) child sex abuse victims suffer a multitude of physical and psychological problems.

I am disquieted to know from my training and experience that some offenders are adept at creating public personas’ as trustworthy and demure persons while they are privately sexually deviant predators. Offenders sometimes practice techniques enabling them to thwart polygraph and penile plesmograph tests. They often feign religious transformations and plead for mercy from the court while privately
mocking the justice system and re-offending.

Your Honor, if you viewed the images in this case you may share my feelings and you may also have empathy for the victims. While I am anguished, I am also fortunate because unlike the victims depicted in the images, I am able to obtain counseling for my woes and I can use stress management techniques for my problems. I can turn my sadness into a strengthened resolve to continue to bring offenders to you for justice.

In the interest of protecting the public, I request that you impose the longest possible period of incarceration in this case along with lifetime probation and lifetime sex offender registration status for the defendant. In my humble opinion, a long period of incarceration is the best way to prevent the offender from victimizing others.

Thank you for considering my statement.

Kindest regards,

Frank Kardasz

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

References

Child pornography and pedophilia: Report made by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs, United States Senate. (1986). 99th Congress, Second session. Washington: U.S. G.P.O.1986. iii. 54: 24 cm.

Douglas, J. and Olshaker, M. (1995). Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's elite serial crime unit, New York: Pocket Books.

Hatcher, C. (1997, October). Cited in: Armagh, D. A. Safety net for the Internet: Protecting our children. Juvenile Justice Journal (on-line) Volume V, Number 1, May 1998. Retrieved March 15, 2003. From http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/jjjournal/jjjournal598/net.html

Hernandez, A. E. (2006, September 26). Statement of Andres E. Hernandez before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Committee on Energy and Commerce. U.S. House of Representatives. Retrieved October 20, 2007, from http://www.projectsafechildhood.gov/HernandezTestimonyCongress.pdf

Klain, E.J., Davies, H.J., & Hicks, M.A., (2001, March). Child Pornography: The criminal justice system response, American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Retrieved October 20, 2007, from http://www.missingkids.com/en_US/publications/NC81.pdf

State of Arizona Division One Court of Appeals. (2004, December 14). Appeal from the Superior Court in Maricopa County. 1 CA-CR 03-0243. Retrieved October 20, 2007, from http://www.cofad1.state.az. us/opinionfiles/CR/CR030243.pdf

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 08:32 PM | Permalink

Supporting the Combating Child Exploitation Act of 2007

Dr. Frank Kardasz, May 17, 2008

The Combating Child Exploitation Act of 2007 will provide funding to fight Internet sex offenders in areas where support is desperately needed.  Historically, the success of the DOJ, OJP, ICAC Task Force program was due in part to the abilities of personnel at the local, state and federal levels to overcome egoism, empire-building, and jealousy in order to organize and cooperate towards the common goal of apprehending deviant offenders.  Since the programs' inception, some quietly dedicated and talented people who possess steadfast resolve to protect children have done some amazing work, mostly in the shadows of cyberspace and largely unnoticed by the community. Administrators at the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention played an important role in these efforts.

My thoughts about the Combating Child Exploitation Act of 2007 are mixed.  It represents bright hope towards progress in our difficult endeavors against clandestine cyber-sex enemies, foreign and domestic.  If implemented, the Act will seek justice for those invisible child and teen victims who are marginalized; who have no political voice and who are unrecognized by traditional community based policing efforts.  The addition of more federal agents dedicated specifically to this battle is sorely needed.  Increased funding to the local ICAC Task Forces nationwide promises to permit more personnel, training and equipment to our understaffed, under trained and under equipped colleagues.

When the US Attorneys Office created Project Safe Childhood  a couple years ago, I was pleased to see that added attention was being given to the problem of Internet crimes against children. The predictable result of the increased attention included some inter agency jockeying, bruised feelings, and political maneuvering - that happens at every level of government. After the fallout, the law enforcement soldiers in this battle will regroup and press forward.

The fine work of local, state and federal law enforcement over the past ten years has resulted in enough attention being drawn to the subject that serious consideration is finally being given to horrible cybercrimes involving children. Although our numbers and resources are still far fewer that those of the criminals, the present initiative, the Combating Child Exploitation Act (S.1738), offers our best hope to date of progressing from the stone-age to the horse-drawn-carriage age of cybercrime enforcement.

Assuming that the bill passes the house and is approved, I hope that whoever is chosen as special counsel will be a non-partisan supporter of local, state and federal efforts. The position requires a person of high character and determined resolve.  The appointee should transcend political ladder-climbing ambitions and be someone deeply rooted in law enforcement.  The appointee should remember that although the power-base will be Washington DC, some of the most effective law enforcement efforts are still being made at the state and local levels nationwide.

It is important to remember that federal law does not grant enforcement responsibility for "hands-on" contact sex offenses to federal agents unless there is some interstate nexus.  Because many cyber criminals are also contact offenders the investigations must often be worked cooperatively between federal agents and local law enforcement.  The important local, state and federal partnerships established through the DOJ OJJDP ICAC Task Force Program must continue.

I support the initiative and hope that it passes.

see also : http://kardasz.org/blog/2008/04/investigating_internet_crimes_2.html

Information about the Child Exploitation Act of 2007: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?tab=main&bill=s110-1738

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 02:47 PM | Permalink

• To blackmail children into keeping silent about the abuse.
• To preserve a child's youthful image at the age preferred by the pedophile.
• To establish trust and camaraderie with other pedophiles.
• To gain access to other markets and children by exchanging material with other pedophiles.
• To duplicate, produce and sell for profit.
• To reassure themselves that their deviant behavior is shared by others and therefore not abnormal.
• To seduce children and lower the child's inhibitions as part of the grooming process intended to model deviant sexual behavior.

Danger

Are the possessors of unlawful images dangerous? Is someone who looks at pictures a threat to offend against a child? Recent research (Hernandez, 2006) suggests that there may be a correlation between those who possess child pornography and those who are also “hands-on” contact offenders. One surprising study of federal prisoners indicated that 85% of those in custody for possession of child pornography were also“hands-on” molesters whose contact offenses had never been discovered.

Other professionals agree that there is a danger that possessors of unlawful images depicting the sexual exploitation of minors could escalate and eventually offend against real children. Dr. Chris Hatcher, (1997) Professor of Psychology at the University of California said, "It begins with fantasy, moves to gratification through pornography, then voyeurism, and finally, to contact." Former FBI profiler John Douglas (Mindhunter, 1995, p. 108) described the relationship between pornographic images and sex offenders. He said, "With most sexually based killers, it is a several-step escalation from the fantasy to the reality, often fueled by pornography, morbid experimentation on animals, and cruelty to peers."

Some possessors of unlawful images use the contraband as a "unique solution" to their pedophilic preferences. They rationalize that sexually gratifying themselves after viewing images is a justifiable alternative to committing "hands on" contact offenses against actual children.

Victims

What about the effect of child pornography on the victims? Are there any lingering problems for children who are the subject of abuse? Researchers found that the effects of unlawful images on child victims are often devastating. According to Klain, Davies and Hicks (Child pornography, March 2001, p.10) child sex abuse victims suffer a multitude of physical and psychological problems.

The innocent victims of child pornography sometimes suffer a lifetime of psychological anguish and torment wondering when where and how their tortured images will re-surface. Those who traffic in, possess and derive gratification from child pornography perpetuate the anguish. Some argue that each image tacitly re-victimizes the child whenever the image is viewed. Many victims of child pornography will never disclose their victimization to anyone. They suffer in silent, haunted purgatory. As adults, many do not wish to relive past abuse.

What is child pornography?

Child pornography depicts the graphic sexual exploitation of minors. It does not include child erotica. It does not include nudism and it does not include “baby in the bathtub” images. Unlawful images are contraband. They are the only form of contraband that is introduced into the human psyche through the sense of sight.

A case study

In 2003, former Arizona high school teacher Morton Berger was convicted on 20 counts of possession of child pornography and sentenced to 200 years prison. He appealed the sentence based on arguments of equal protection under the law and cruel and unusual punishment. In December 2004, the conviction was affirmed by two of the three judges of the Arizona Court of Appeals (State of Arizona, 2004, December 14).

Judges Susan Ehrlich and Philip Hall dismissed Berger's appeal with arguments including (citations omitted):

• It is evident beyond the need for elaboration that a State's interest in safeguarding the physical and psychological well-being of a minor is compelling.
• ...the victimization of a child continues when that act is memorialized in an image. The materials produced are a permanent record of the children's participation and the harm to the child is exacerbated by their circulation. Unfortunately, the victimization of the children involved does not end when the pornographer's camera is put away.
• The legislative judgment…is that the use of children as subjects of pornographic materials is harmful to the physiological, emotional, and mental health of the child.
• …the possession of child pornography drives that industry and…the production of child pornography will decrease if those who possess the product are punished equally with those who produce it.
• …it (the law) will decrease the production of child pornography if it penalizes those who possess and view the product, thereby decreasing demand.
• …the possession of child pornography inflames the desires of child molesters, pedophiles and child pornographers. The State has more than a passing interest in forestalling the damage caused by child pornography: preventing harm to children is, without cavil, one of its most important interests.
• …we cannot fault the State for attempting to stamp out this vice at all levels in the distribution chain.
• Berger downloaded images from the Internet, and every time he visited a website, he demonstrated to the producers and sellers of child pornography that there was a demand for their product. Berger's demand served to drive the industry; there need not have been a direct monetary exchange. Berger maintains also that, because his possession of the pornographic images was passive and because he did not use threats or violence in the commission of his crimes, his sentence is grossly disproportionate. This logic is abstruse. As was described by this court in Hazlett, 205 Ariz. at 527 p. 11, 73 P. 3d at 1262, and as is evident from the violent pornographic images in this case, child pornography is a form of child abuse. The materials produced are a permanent record of the children's participation and the harm to the child is exacerbated by their circulation.

The U.S. Supreme court denied Morton Bergers next request for an appeal. His 200 year prison sentence was upheld. Berger is scheduled for release from the Arizona Department of Corrections in 2157.

Law enforcement

Disturbing unlawful videos of the sexual abuse of minors are often accompanied by the horrible audio sounds of suffering young victims. The typical offender arrested by the Arizona ICAC Task Force possesses dozens and often hundreds of unlawful images and videos. As law enforcement officers, once we overcome the sickening shock of witnessing the brutal recorded acts of terrible sexual violence we are left with a tenacious resolve to bring offenders to justice. Efforts to eradicate the contraband images and videos depicting the sexual suffering of minors must continue and offenders must be brought to justice.

Conclusion

Contraband images and videos depicting the sexual exploitation of minors are serious crimes. Offenders use the images for many disturbing reasons. The victims of child pornography deserve to be protected from their torturers and from those who enjoy witnessing the torture. Law enforcement efforts to stop unlawful images must continue.

References

Child pornography and pedophilia: Report made by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs, United States Senate. (1986). 99th Congress, Second session. Washington: U.S. G.P.O.1986. iii. 54: 24 cm.

Douglas, J. and Olshaker, M. (1995). Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's elite serial crime unit, New York: Pocket Books.

Hatcher, C. (1997, October). Cited in: Armagh, D. A. Safety net for the Internet: Protecting our children. Juvenile Justice Journal (on-line) Volume V, Number 1, May 1998. Retrieved March 15, 2003. From http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/jjjournal/jjjournal598/net.html

Hernandez, A. E. (2006, September 26). Statement of Andres E. Hernandez before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Committee on Energy and Commerce. U.S. House of Representatives. Retrieved October 20, 2007, from http://www.projectsafechildhood.gov/HernandezTestimonyCongress.pdf

Klain, E.J., Davies, H.J., & Hicks, M.A., (2001, March). Child Pornography: The criminal justice system response, American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law for the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children. Retrieved October 20, 2007, from http://www.missingkids. com/en_US/publications/NC81.pdf

State of Arizona Division One Court of Appeals. (2004, December 14). Appeal from the Superior Court inMaricopa County. 1 CA-CR 03-0243. Retrieved October 20, 2007, from http://www.cofad1.state.az.us/opinionfiles/CR/CR030243.pdf/CR/CR030243.pdf

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 04:59 PM | Permalink

Dr. Frank Kardasz

Originally written: April 14, 2008, Revised: August 22, 2008

Abstract

For the first time in history, law enforcement officers in the 21st century possess proactive methods to identify and bring to justice those who sexually abuse minors. In years past, law enforcement had to wait for reports of child abuse before investigations could begin. But today, using innovative undercover techniques and the Internet, investigators can proactively seek out and apprehend offenders.  Although this is one of the greatest advancements in the history of the enforcement of crimes against children, investigators still cannot take full advantage of the innovations. This work explores some of the stakeholders in the cyber-struggle and the troubling reasons that more resources are not devoted to the growing problem. The paper explores legal, systemic, societal and psychological hurdles related to Internet crimes against children and suggests a new law enforcement paradigm that better recognizes such crimes.

Introduction

The Internet opened an uninhibited world of wild digital wonder to our generation. Cyberspace offers terrific opportunities for education, commerce, entertainment and information exchange. Sadly, a troubling dark side to the World Wide Web exists where improved law enforcement efforts are needed. The quiet collision of young people and sex offenders on the Internet has resulted in a desperate but sometimes purposefully ignored cyber-struggle for the protection of children. Those who abuse minors make extensive use of computers and the Internet. Better law enforcement is urgently needed. Law enforcement officers in the 21st century possess proactive undercover methods to identify and bring to justice those who sexually abuse minors. In the past, police had wait for reports of child abuse before investigations could begin. But today, using undercover techniques and the Internet, investigators can seek out and identify abusers. Although these are the greatest advancements in the history of crimes against children, law enforcement still cannot take full advantage of the innovations.

Proactive undercover methods can identify those who lure and entice minors towards sexual abuse. Undercover officers posing as minors have been very successful in identifying hundreds of offenders who have also committed contact “hands-on” offenses against real victims (Kardasz, April 25, 2008). Investigative operations can also identify those who traffic images and videos depicting the sexual exploitation of minors. Possessors of unlawful images are also often found to also be “hands-on” contact abusers. Surprising studies of incarcerated federal prisoners by Hernandez and Bourke (November 2000) indicated that a significant number of possessors of unlawful images were also contact offenders. Sophisticated investigative methods exist that can identify possessors of unlawful images (Koch, April 15, 2008, Software tracks child porn traffickers online). Increased investigative efforts into unlawful images will also result in an increase in the identification of molesters.

This work explores some of the stakeholders in the cyber-struggle and the troubling reasons that more resources are not devoted to the problem. The paper explores legal, systemic, societal and psychological hurdles related to Internet crimes against children and suggests a new law enforcement paradigm that better recognizes such crimes.

Constitutional Conflicts

The Commerce Clause of the US Constitution (Article I, Section 8, and Clause 3) has been interpreted as giving some authority over the Internet to Congress. Legislators are understandably reticent to tread on the First Amendment freedoms provided by the Internet. Efforts to safeguard cyberspace are sometimes perceived as costly by the business community and draconian “snooping” by free-speech advocates (McCullagh, April 14, 2006). At risk are the under-represented Fourteenth Amendment due process rights of children who have no socioeconomic power.

Those who assert Constitutional protections should review the words of Thomas Jefferson. Perhaps in anticipation of the Internet, he wrote (July 10, 1810),

I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.

Jefferson refers to the discovery of “new truths.” One of the new truths discovered in the exploration of cyberspace is that the Internet is a conduit of both good and evil. Jefferson may have opined that constitutionally protected rights to free expression are in question when they permit the rights of children to be horribly violated. Perhaps the free expression rights that protect offenders require review and controls. Progressive human minds invented computers and the Internet. Deviant human minds invented ways to misuse cyberspace. A middle ground favoring public safety must be found.

It is unlikely that the legal quagmire of conflicting rights will be resolved anytime soon. Until effective safeguards are in place, minors who become victims of Internet sex offenders are not receiving the equal protection and due processes guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. More work is needed to resolve these constitutional conflicts.

Unlawful Images

Internet crimes involving unlawful images of the sexual abuse of children are now widespread and the number of images and videos available via cyberspace is probably incalculable. A Congressional study in 2006 identified several key factors that contributed to the proliferation of child pornography on the Internet.  First, and perhaps most problematic according to the study, is the sheer number of child abuse images on the Internet. United States law enforcement sources estimated approximately 3.5 million known child pornography images online (U.S. House of Representatives, January 2007).

The exact number of child pornography web sites is also difficult to determine. In the year 2001, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's CyberTipline received more than 24,400 reports of child pornography. Five years later, at the beginning of 2006, that number had climbed to more than 340,000. (National Center, March 15, 2006).

In 2008, during a 30 day period in February and March, offenders in Arizona were observed using one small avenue of the Internet to traffic 15,220 unlawful images (Kardasz, March 25, 2008).  The Internet has fueled a tremendous and immeasurable increase in the amount of child pornography being produced, trafficked and possessed worldwide.

Luring and Enticement

Curious and unsuspecting adolescents visit the Internet each day seeking friendship and information but sometimes instead encounter sexual deviance and menacing predators.  One study showed that one in seven youngsters received unwanted sexual solicitations and that 4% received aggressive solicitations involving a stranger who wanted to meet in person (Wolak, Mitchell & Finkelhor, 2006. p. 1).

In luring/enticement cases involving actual teens, few of the minors who are victimized ever report the crimes. Victimized teens are often too embarrassed to notify law enforcement and fearful of their parents’ wrath for disobeying rules against communicating with strangers online. Sometimes a teen returns home after secretly meeting an Internet stranger without his or her parents ever discovering the illicit tryst.

In 2002, an Arizona Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force undercover officer posing online as a young girl was contacted by a man who requested a meeting for sex. When the man went to the location where he believed that he would meet the minor he was arrested. Investigators learned that the offender had previously met two girls whom he had victimized and to whom he had given sexually transmitted diseases. In their shame, the girls had never notified their parents of the crimes. The girls' distraught parents only learned of the offenses when detectives informed them of the suspects’ confessions (Phoenix Police Department, Report No. 2002-2233604).

In some cases, a child's natural curiosity leads them to Internet places where they do not belong, and with sad results.Beginning at the age of 13, a California boy was repeatedly victimized by offenders who met him via the Internet after first seeing his image on a web cam. The boy suffered sexual abuses at the hands of the men who had first contacted him online. Some of the boys Internet acquaintances had assisted him in operating commercial pornography websites featuring sexual images and videos of himself (Eichenwald, December 19, 2005).

In many cases, the teens who are lured by sexual predators will never come forward due to fear or a misplaced sense of guilt. A few of them, like 13 year old Kasie Woody of Arkansas (Family Life, October 12, 2004), and 13 year old Christina Long  of Connecticut (CBS News, May 21, 2002), were forever silenced by Internet sexual predators who lured them via the Internet, sexually victimized them and killed them.

Child prostitution is also being facilitated via the Internet. Pimps use message boards and social networking sites to find customers seeking to engage in paid sex acts with minors. In January 2007, Cook County Illinois police arrested three adults who used Craigslist, a free Internet advertising site, to offer the sexual services of girls as young as 14 years old. The illegal prostitution business resulted in profits of tens of thousands of dollars for the pimps. Undercover officers investigated and solved the case by responding to postings on Craigslist (Gutierrez, January 11, 2007).

In the past, child molesters were characterized as often lurking near school yards. Folklore held that child molesters frequented school yards because that is where the children were. The Internet is the new proverbial schoolyard. Cyberspace provides a ready hunting-ground for those who seek children.

The Internet is an extraordinarily important part of the daily lives of millions of young people.  For some youngsters cyberspace is more influential than school, family or religion.  In March 2008, an Internet-obsessed Arizona teenager became so attached to a popular social networking site that when his father revoked his computer privileges he shot and killed him (Walsh, March 05, 2008).

Internet social networking sites are places in cyberspace where subscribers may post personal information about themselves and share the information with others. Children and adults use social networking sites to communicate and to make friends. A study in 2006 estimated that 55% of young people have established online profiles in one or more of the dozens of social networking sites (PEW, January 1, 2007).

Most social networking sites are free and permit users to register without providing information about the users’ true identities or whereabouts. The sites are well suited for molesters who can pose as harmless mentors while disguising their true intent. There have been many incidents of registered sex offenders who have created online profiles portraying themselves as inoffensive individuals seeking romance without reference to their malevolent pasts (Kardasz, Internet social networking sites. 2007).

Proactive undercover “sting” investigations often lead to the apprehension of Internet sexual predators. Undercover officers posing as teens are often solicited by cyberspace acquaintances who offer to participate in sex acts. Unfortunately, a very few law enforcement agencies have personnel devoted to proactive investigations of offenders who lure and entice minors.

Disenfranchised Youth are Perfect Victims

Children and teens are disenfranchised from social and political power.  They are unable or unwilling to express their needs for Internet safety. Some children who become the victims of child pornography offenses are too young to phone 911 for police assistance.  They cannot call their elected official and they are often too intimidated by the offender to ever tell anyone.

Helpless child victims of some sex offenders cannot summon the assistance of law enforcement. Some victims of child pornographers are too young to formulate words or use a telephone. The evidence of a child's victimization is invisible to the general public and the crimes are often unreported. Because crimes against children are not publicly apparent, law enforcement agencies may marginalize the problems and give the crimes lower priority than other offenses. Consequently, relatively few law enforcement resources are devoted to the problems of children.

Funding for Internet crime investigations is relatively small. Most police departments have many more traffic cops than crimes against children investigators. Abominations against children are mostly committed in private locations. The offenses do not create the conspicuous noise of gunfire or a car crash. The crimes do not have the noticeable smell of smoke from a fire and cannot be seen from the street like graffiti or broken windows so there is little public attention drawn to the crimes. Offenders know that children are easily intimidated into silence and often cannot communicate well enough to be understood by authorities. For offenders, disenfranchised children are perfect victims partly because the crimes are invisible to law enforcement and children are powerless.

Internet Service Providers

Internet service providers (ISP) are the unwitting facilitators of Internet crimes against children. ISP’s provide offenders with the connections to the web that allows crimes to occur. Without a cyberspace connection provided by an ISP, Internet crime would impossible. Some conscientious ISP’s are taking helpful steps to provide crime prevention education information to users but more assistance to law enforcement is needed.

Other unwitting persons who benefit from Internet services include businesses who advertise on web sites for the purpose of drawing buyers to their products. Some businesses have been surprised to learn that their advertising banners have appeared on web pages featuring child pornography. Some of the responsibility for cyberspace safety and enforcement also lies with those who benefit from advertising on the Internet.

Most ISP's charge a fee for service and individual subscribers often pay with credit cards. The subscription and payment process provides a path for law enforcement to use subpoenas or search warrants to trace back to a subscriber by following the money trail. The subpoena and search warrant response process can be time-consuming for both law enforcement and the ISP's. Delays in the response process can stall law enforcement investigative efforts. When an ISP does not retain subscriber data, the investigation sometimes ends.

In 1998, a federal law was passed (Cornell Law School, 2007) requiring ISP's to report child pornography to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). By 2002, thousands of reports were flooding into NCMEC from those ISP's that chose to comply with the law. Those reports were subsequently sent to federal, state and local agencies for investigation. The large number of reports quickly overwhelmed the small staffs of those few agencies that employed investigators who had the technical expertise needed to investigate Internet crimes. Investigators began to complain that ISP's were sometimes failing to respond in a timely manner to subpoenas or search warrants requesting subscriber information. Investigators noted that in some cases, ISP's retained no information whatsoever, leaving investigations to a dead end.

A small survey of law enforcement investigators in 2006 showed that the number one need of those who investigate Internet crimes against children was for improved responses from Internet service providers. At Congressional hearings in 2006, law enforcement officers requested improved data retention by ISP's (Kardasz, April 6, 2006). Representative Ed Whitfield from Kentucky responded to the request by saying, "I absolutely think that is an idea worth pursuing. If those files were retained for longer periods of time, it would help in the uncovering and prosecution of these crimes." When news of the request for improved data retention reached the Internet industry, some in the field denied that there was a problem and expressed reluctance about the idea to preserve data. The idea was subsequently mis-characterized as unnecessary government intervention in attempts to "snoop" and pry into private citizens’ lives (McCullagh, April 14, 2006).

The need for ISP's to retain data and to respond quickly to legal process from law enforcement is a critical need for investigators of Internet crimes. Lack of response to law enforcement subpoenas and search warrants can have dire consequences for victims and stall or end law enforcement investigations before an offender can be identified (Kardasz, February 12, 2008).

Special Agent Flint Waters of the Wyoming Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force testified before a Congressional Subcommittee that in one case, an ICAC investigator intercepted the Internet transmission of a video showing the rape of a two-year-old child and traced the video to a computer somewhere in Colorado.  When the investigator approached the Internet Service Provider, Comcast, to request the customer information for the Internet protocol address, Comcast replied that it had not retained the customer records for that address.  As of the date of the hearing (April, 2006), to Mr. Waters’ knowledge, the child in the video had not been identified (U.S. House of Representatives, January, 2007).

Internet service providers, credit card companies, social networking sites, gaming sites, providers of chat rooms, e-mail services and those who advertise in Cyberspace are all among the facilitators who are caught in the middle of the Internet crime problem. The providers tacitly assent to Internet crime while profiting from subscribers and advertisers. Providers should logically bear some of the responsibility for correcting the problems. In the same way that automobile manufacturers begrudgingly gave way, after thousands of roadway deaths, to regulations mandating vehicle safety, ISP's must provide improved Internet safety before the annual number of Internet crimes matches the annual number of vehicular accidents.

For Internet service providers, preserving information and providing it to law enforcement in response to legal process is an unwanted and unprofitable chore. As the tragedies associated with some ISP's reluctance to preserve and provide information gain increased attention, public pressure and legislative action may dictate that ISP's work harder to help law enforcement officers identify the suspects associated with Internet crimes. Eventually, reluctant ISP's will be unable to turn a blind eye to the crimes and might be forced to become partners in justice instead of facilitators of injustice.

Politics and Mute Constituents

Children can easily become a political afterthought because they do not make financial contributions to political campaigns and they do not vote. Teens cannot organize and hire influential lobbyists to represent them before legislators. Minors are the mute and powerless constituents of well-intentioned elected officials who are unknowingly blind to their victimization.

Media and Unlawful Images

In cases involving unlawful images and videos, the crimes against children facilitated by the Internet are sometimes so horrible that the news media is unable or unwilling to fully describe the incidents. Adding to the dilemma is the fact that unlawful images are themselves contraband and cannot be released for public viewing. When written in text the dispassionate descriptions of unlawful images use statutory legalese to explain the criminal sex acts involved. The pedantic written descriptions of the images and videos can never fully convey the abominations suffered by the victims.

Media and Luring/Enticement

Well intentioned media organizations in partnership with cybervigilante groups and sometimes with the cooperation of law enforcement have conducted undercover sting operations targeting Internet sexual predators (MSNBC, 2008). Such operations present unique and unusual challenges to law enforcement (Kardasz, March 17, 2008).  The sting operations do little to quell the onslaught of Internet predators and in some cases make the work of undercover officers more difficult.  The cybervigilantes often make the offenders more wary as the predators later demand more proofs from UC officers, asking the officers to show that they are not with law enforcement or the media before completing the criminal act.

Law Enforcement

Uniformed crime reporting.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) service collects data describing the saturation of law enforcement officers within various regions of the US. In 2004 there were 675,734 sworn officers who provided law enforcement services to more than 278 million people nationwide (Dept. of Justice, FBI, 2004). The UCR also reports the number of officers per 1000 population in various regions of the US. Depending on the location, different areas of the US had between 1.8 and 5.5 officers per 1000 population. The DOJ does not gather statistics about the number of citizens who use the Internet and no information is reported in the UCR about the number of law enforcement officers engaged in battling offenders who use the Internet to victimize minors.

The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) is ineffective in capturing statistics specifically related to Internet crimes against children. NIBRS does not have specific categories that capture Internet crimes against children (Finkelhor D., and Ormrod, R. December 2004). This tragic failure to collect data permits statistics-driven administrators to deny and ignore the existence of the problem.

Spending for enforcement.

The Internet crime problem craves increased resources for law enforcement services, training and equipment. Unfortunately, resources for law enforcement functions of any kind are sometimes scarce. The competition for the limited available funds occurs in environments where agencies contend with one another for each slice of the budget. Knowledgeable advocates for children continually hope that more government dollars will be devoted to the enforcement of Internet crimes against children. In his 2006 testimony to Congress (April 6) Grier Weeks, Executive Director of the National Association to Protect Children said:

Offenders, the public and law enforcement.

Crimes against children are particularly repugnant. Most people wish to mentally disassociate themselves from thoughts of dreadful abuse involving helpless children. 

Law-enforcement investigators must deal with the fact that the identification, investigation, and prosecution of child molesters may not be welcomed by their communities—especially if the molester is a prominent person. Individuals may protest, and community organizations may rally to the support of the offender and even attack the victims. City officials may apply pressure to halt or cover up the investigation. Many law-enforcement supervisors, prosecutors, judges, and juries cannot or do not want to deal with the details of deviant sexual behavior. They will do almost anything to avoid these cases (Lanning, 2001, p. 142).

Crimes against children are the most reviled types of investigations for law enforcement officers.  While respectful of the need to bring offenders to justice many officers say, “I could never work those kinds of crimes.”  The true facts about the sexual victimization of minors is so psychologically distressing that few can emotionally tolerate being deeply involved in the investigations.

Community based policing for invisible victims.

Traditional law enforcement approaches based on community oriented policing theories are not applicable in the area of Internet crimes against children. In a community oriented policing services publication intended to guide police administrators in evaluating their local child pornography problem, writers Wortley and Smallbone (May 2006, p. 29) recommend a curious statistics-based method for analyzing the problem. The publication clumsily counsels administrators to understand their local problem by determining how many complaints related to child pornography have been investigated in their jurisdictions. Unfortunately, because the victims of crimes against children cannot complain, using the suggested methods to evaluate child pornography crimes based on local crime statistics is an invalid over-simplification.

Unlike spectacular crimes and incidents involving crashes, explosions, shootings and widespread newsworthy bloodletting, the evil offenses against children are committed in dark and private places by offenders who often psychologically control or humiliate their victims into silence.  The crimes are mostly unreported.  Statistics will not reveal the true story.

Federal and local law enforcement.

Because of competing priorities, Internet crimes against children have received relatively little attention from federal law enforcement agencies.  Since 2001, Federal efforts have focused appropriately on terrorism and border protection. The continuing war on illegal drugs is also a proper federal priority. Several enforcement efforts against Internet film piracy, copyright violations and file-shared music were mounted after demands by influential and well-heeled victims in the movie and music industry (Dept. of Justice, November 17, 2006). The slow response to cybercrime is partly due to the fact that Internet crimes are a relatively new phenomena. Crimes against children were only added to Federal law enforcement duties in the mid 1980s, and Internet crimes against children only began to rise in the late 1990s. Law enforcement is far behind the criminals in the war against illegal images. In April, 2008, when asked about the war on child pornography, FBI Director Mueller admitted to Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona, "We're losing" (Ryan, April 23, 2008).

Local law enforcement resources at the state, county and city levels are drawn to homicides, sex assaults, gangs, drugs, burglaries, property crimes and other offenses of legitimate local importance. Consequently, those who fight Internet crimes against children are often overlooked under funded and understaffed. Advocates for children agree that more funding for the enforcement of cybercrime is needed (Koch, April 15, 2008, Limited funds hinder child porn fight).  As the issues become more apparent to the public and to lawmakers, perhaps funding will increase.

Advanced training and investigative skills are required in order to conduct proactive investigations of Internet sexual offenders.  Law enforcement investigators who are generalists and who must also carry caseloads involving other types of crimes are unable to conduct extensive undercover investigations involving Internet crimes against children. Consequently, few law enforcement agencies have staff who are devoted full time to proactive enforcement of Internet crimes against children.

Law enforcement educators.

Internet crimes against children are a troubling afterthought for many law enforcement agencies. Some agencies find it easier to mount Internet safety education efforts than to mount law enforcement effort aimed at arresting criminals. Internet safety education should not be confused with law enforcement.  One large metropolitan police department in the US boasts 99 school resource officers trained to conduct Internet safety education in schools but has only two investigators to conduct proactive Internet enforcement efforts.

Police are trained and paid to keep the peace and make arrests.  Unfortunately, their true enforcement efforts are sometimes detoured into the unfamiliar world of education where they must be re-trained as teachers. Internet public safety education efforts are important but administrators should consider whether they want sworn employees to be educators or law enforcers.

Recommendations

What can be done to improve law enforcement efforts towards apprehending Internet sexual predators and traffickers of unlawful images? How can funding be identified for more investigators to fight Internet crimes against children? Here are several suggestions.

• Voluntary contributions from ISP’s customers
  

Citizen Internet users may be willing to designate a dollar from their monthly Internet service bill to be dedicated specifically towards the investigations of crimes against children. Those funds could then be used to hire and train more investigators dedicated specifically to the job of identifying and apprehending offenders who use the Internet to commit crimes against children.

• Better statistics-gathering methods

Failure to capture the number of Internet crimes against children in the NIBRS system permits administrators to deny the existence of the problem. The system must be corrected to properly reflect the problem of Internet crimes.

• More proactive investigators

• Basic law enforcement training
  

Law enforcement basic training academies need to recognize Internet threats by providing a block of instruction regarding Internet crimes against children for entry-level employees.

• Permanent funding
  

Permanent funding sources specifically designated for the purpose of supporting proactive investigative (not citizen education) efforts should be designated. As of 2008, the successful Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program remained an optional Congressional earmark program with no guarantees of continuation. Federal agencies including the FBI, ICE, US Postal Service, US Marshalls Service and even the Secret Service are making increased efforts to assist in the efforts but more personnel and funding is needed.

• Legislation
  

Internet Service Providers should be mandated to retain subscriber data and required to respond promptly to legal process from law enforcement.

• Tax on Internet Service Providers
  

A luxury tax on Internet service providers. A small tax on Internet service providers with the proceeds dedicated towards supporting investigative (not citizen education) efforts towards apprehending Internet sex offenders.

Conclusion

Child victims of Internet sex crimes cannot summon assistance the way other victims can.  They cannot adjust agency manpower, set policy or change regulations for their benefit. They cannot notify their local elected official. They cannot form a citizen-action group and they cannot vote. All they can do is suffer and hope. Hope that someone will pick up the cause and summon the sustained resolve to overcome legal, systemic, societal and psychological hurdles to help them.

No single entity can claim to be in command of the Internet. Cyberspace has no single location on which to plant a flag. The Internet is like a new planet and we are still the early inhabitants. Because the Internet is not made of brick and mortar, it is easy to abdicate or ignore responsibility for authority over cyberspace. It is easy to succumb to those who might argue against any restraint whatsoever over electronic communications. While the Web remains unmanageable, offenders have quickly planted their flags and taken full advantage of the global communities’ inability to control cyberspace.

Law enforcement institutions must advance to keep pace with developments in cyberspace. Administrators should consider the number of Internet users and subscribers in various regions and consider deploying proactive Internet crime investigators based on Internet saturation ratios. Such considerations would represent a step towards a new paradigm in policing. The paradigm begins by recognizing the rights of children to be safe from offenders who use cyberspace to gratify their sexual desires. Undercover proactive investigative techniques must be improved. Instead of avoiding technology, we must embrace it for the purposes of protecting minors.

References

CBS News Web Site. (May 21, 2002). The two faces of a 13-year-old girl. Retrieved January 19, 2007 from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/05/31/
national/main510739.shtml

Cornell Law School. (2007). #13032. Reporting of child pornography by electronic communication service providers. Cornell Law School Web site. LII Legal Information Institute. U.S. Code collection. Title 32, Chapter 132, Subchapter IV, #13032. Retrieved January 15, 2007 from http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode42/usc_sec_42_00013032----000-.html

Department of Justice, FBI. (2004). Crime in the United States 2004. Law enforcement personnel. Retrieved April 15, 2008 from http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_04/law_enforcement_personnel/index.html

Department of Justice. (November 17, 2006). Raymond man sentenced in connection with Internet piracy scheme. Retrieved April 17, 2008 from http://seattle.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/2006/pr111706.htm

Eichenwald, K. (December 19, 2005). Through his webcam, a boy joins a sordid online world. The New York Times.com. Retrieved January 15, 2007 from http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/19/national/19kids.ready.html?ex=1292648400&en=aea51b3919b2361a&ei=5090

Family Life Today. (October 12, 2004). Kacie Woody's Story. Radio interview with Rick Woody and Jerry Spurgers. Retrieved January 19, 2007 from http://
familylifetoday.com/fltoday/default.asp?id=7633

Finkelhor D., and Ormrod, R. (December 2004). Child pornography: Patterns from NIBRS. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Retrieved December 28, 2007 from http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/204911.pdf

Gutierrez, T. (January 11, 2007). Online probe uncovers underage prostitution. ABC7chicago.cnews.com Web site. Retrieved January 20, 2007 from http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=local&id=4928094.

Hernandez, A.E. (November 2000). Self-Reported Contact Sexual Offenses by Participants in the Federal Bureau of Prison's Sex Offender Treatment Program: Implications for Internet Sex Offenders. Paper presented at the 19th Annual Research and Treatment Conference of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, on file with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Retrieved January 15, 2007 from http://www.kardasz.org/HernandezPrisonStudy.pdf

Jefferson. T. (July 12, 1810). Letter to Samuel Kercheval. The Jefferson Monticello. Quotations on the Jefferson Memorial. Retrieved April 16, 2008 from http://www.monticello.org/reports/quotes/memorial.html

Kardasz. F. (February 12, 2008). Ongoing survey of law enforcement re: ISP's responses to subpoena and search warrant requests. Retrieved August 22, 2008 from http://kardasz.org/blog/2008/02/ongoing_survey_of_law_enforcem.html

Kardasz. F. (March 17, 2008). Cybervigilantes: Issues to consider. Retrieved April 12, 2008 from http://www.kardasz.org/Cybervigilantes.html

Kardasz, F. (March 25, 2008). Contraband images in Arizona. Retrieved April 12, 2008 from http://kardasz.org/blog/2008/04/contraband_images_in_arizona.html

Kardasz, F. (April 25, 2008). Arizona: Internet crimes against children offenders. Retrieved April 14, 2008 from http://www.kardasz.org/Case_Studies.html

Kardasz, F. (2007). Internet social networking sites. Message posted to http://www.kardasz.org/Case_Studies.html  Message also posted to http://kardasz.blogspot.com/2008/03/contraband-images-in-arizona.html

Kardasz, F. (April 6, 2006). Sexual exploitation of children over the Internet: What parents, kids and Congress need to know about child predators. Testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Retrieved January 15, 2007 from http://www.kardasz.org/kardasz_testimony_040606.html

Koch, W. (April 15, 2008). Limited funds hinder child porn fight. USA Today. Retrieved April 17, 2008 from http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-04-15-childporn-main_N.htm?POE=click-refer

Koch, W. (April 15, 2008). Software tracks child porn traffickers online. USA Today. Retrieved April 17, 2008 from http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-04-15-childporn-side_N.htm?POE=click-refer          

Lanning, K.V. (September, 2001). Child molesters: A behavioral analysis. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. 4th Ed. p. 86. Retrieved January 15, 2007 from http://www.missingkids.com/en_US/publications/NC70.pdf

McCullagh, D. (April 14, 2006). ISP snooping gaining support. CNET News.com. Retrieved January 15, 2007 from http://news.com.co/ISP+snooping+gaining+support/2100-1028_3-6061187.html

MSNBC. (2008). To catch a predator. Dateline NBC. Retrieved April 17, 2008 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10912603/

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. (March 15, 2006). Financial and Internet industries to combat Internet child pornography: Child pornography fact sheet.

NCMEC Web site. Retrieved January 15, 2007 from http://www.ncmec.org/missingkids/servlet/NewsEventServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=2314

PEW, Internet & American Life Project. (January 1, 2007). Social networking web sites and Teens: An overview. Reports Family, friends & Community. Retrieved Janary 15, 2004 from http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/198/report_display.asp

Phoenix, Arizona Police Department. (2002). Phoenix Police Report no. 2002-2233604. Available from the Phoenix, Arizona Police Department Records and Identification Bureau. Phoenix Police Department web site, http://phoenix.gov/POLICE/pub1.html

Ryan, Jason. (April 23, 2008). Mueller: "We're Losing" the child porn war. FBI Director says task forces, more resources needed. ABC News (on-line). Retrieved August 22, 2008 from http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/FedCrimes/story?id=4712725

U. S. House of Representatives, Committee on Energy and Commerce. (January 2007). Sexual exploitation of children on the Internet: Bipartisan staff report for the use of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. 109th. Congress. Retrieved January 15, 2007 from http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:Lm4QGZZG5TEJ:burgess.house.gov/UploadedFiles/Subcommittee%2520on

Weeks, G. (April 6, 2006). Sexual Exploitation of Children Over the Internet: What Parents, Kids and Congress Need to Know About Child Predators. U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Retrieved January 15, 2007 from http://www.protect.org/newswire/pdf/PROTECTtestimony4-6-06.pdf

Wortley, R. & Smallbone, S. (May, 2006). Child pornography on the Internet. Problem-oriented guides for police problem-specific guides series. No. 41. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. Retrieved January 15, 2007 

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 06:25 PM | Permalink

Charged with possession of child porn

By Elizabeth Dinan. edinan@seacoastonline.com February 15, 2008 6:00 AM

EPPING — From an office in the Portsmouth police station, a detective traced Internet videos of prepubescent girls having sex with adult men to an Epping man, leading to a Wednesday arrest and cash bail.

Portsmouth Police say Miles Empey, 62, of 133 Exeter Road, Epping confessed to using his computer to search for "rape" and "teen sex" videos, that he "did it out of curiosity" and "did not think it was illegal to download child pornography as long as you don't share it with anyone."

Empey was arraigned in Portsmouth District Court on Thursday on a felony count of possession of child pornography and ordered held on $5,000 cash and $5,000 personal recognizance bail.

According to an affidavit by Detective Mike Leclair, an undercover investigation was launched in November, to search for people sharing child pornography over the Internet. Leclair's affidavit tells the court that several "clips" of minor girls engaged in sexual activity with adult men were traced to Empey's Internet address and on Nov. 28 a search warrant was obtained and his computer seized.

During the course of a subsequent forensic investigation, illicit still and video images were found, according to court records, some with incestuous themes.

Leclair's report to the court says that on Feb. 8, he learned Empey left his home after police seized his computer and while the investigation was ongoing, and moved to a Memphis, Tenn., motel room. By calling Empey on his cell phone, Leclair persuaded him to come back to Portsmouth for an interview, during which Empey said he recalled viewing specific child pornography, but "thought he had deleted it," according to court records.

Empey is being held at the Rockingham County House of Corrections and scheduled to return to the district court for a Feb. 21 probable cause hearing.

Leclair's investigation was in concert with the state Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which last year named him "Cyber Crime Investigator of the Year."

Retrieved April 12, 2008 from http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080215/NEWS/802150378/-1/NEWS11&sfad=1

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 01:25 AM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 01:18 AM | Permalink

CITIES AND INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS

Dr. Frank Kardasz, March 25, 2008

The following data was compiled from a source of information about contraband images depicting the sexual exploitation of minors. The report covers a 30 day period between February and March 2008.

During the reporting period there were 15,220 investigative "hits" in Arizona. Each "hit" indicates an unlawful image. The report noted 83 Arizona cities where investigative "hits" were observed. Fifty-two Internet service providers were the unwitting facilitators and provided Internet service for the offenders.

The information collected covers only a small portion of the Internet where images known to be of investigative interest are possessed. The report refers only to investigative targets in Arizona. Specific information related to individual offenders was redacted because many investigations are ongoing.

In the small part of the Internet examined, relating only to offenses in Arizona, the following items were noteworthy:

TOP TEN ARIZONA CITIES
The Arizona offenders were traced to cities as follows:

TOP TEN ARIZONA INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS
The Internet service providers used by offenders were reported as follows:



Other notable locations and public entities identified as Internet service providers associated with unlawful images included:

• Arizona State University
• Arizona State University including Phoenix Children Hospital
• City of Tucson. Server: Arizona.edu
• Headquarters, Fort Huachuca USAAISC, ARMY-RCAS
• Maricopa County Community College District
• Northern Arizona University
• Tucson Unified School District #1 Server:MAVERICK.TUSD.K12.AZ.US
• University of Arizona
• WestNet. including AZ Tri-University Network(ASU,UA,NAU)and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

DEFINITIONS
Hits - Each "hit" indicated in the report represents an image or movie file known by investigators to depict the sexual exploitation of a minor.

Cities - The cities described in the report were determined using computer software that estimates the global latitude and longitude of each Internet user identified as a possessor of contraband as the result of an investigative "hit".

Internet Service Provider (ISP)- The ISP's identified in this report are unwitting facilitators for the trafficking of unlawful images.

Internet Protocol (IP) Address - The individual investigations related to this study identified IP addresses associated with contraband images depicting the sexual exploitation of minors. The researcher redacted individual IP addresses and grouped like addresses according the Internet Service Provider associated with each address.

LIMITATIONS
1. The report covers a 30 day time span during the months of February and March 2008.

2. The report represents only cities in the state of Arizona, U.S.A.

3. The report does not represent a comprehensive estimate of all unlawful images trafficked via the Internet. The report represents only a small segment of the Internet being investigated by law enforcement personnel who are located throughout the U.S.

4. Further description of the investigative techniques used are beyond the scope of this report and would jeopardized ongoing investigations.

DELIMITATIONS
1. Similar results can be expected each month as the traffic in unlawful images is not believed to be seasonal.

2. Similar results can be expected to be found in other states with higher or lower number depending upon population and Internet service saturation.

3. Based on studies that indicate that some possessors of unlawful images are also "hands-on" contact offenders, it is reasonable to posit that some of the "hits" in the report are from suspects who are also contact offenders.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
IMAGE SOURCE LOCATIONS FOLLOWED BY NUMBER OF 'HITS' ON AN UNLAWFUL IMAGE (83 cities identified)

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 05:18 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 05:15 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 12:36 AM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 02:24 AM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 10:51 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 03:43 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 03:24 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 03:59 PM | Permalink

Dr. Kardasz

The following story from the Savannah Morning News discusses a judge who disagreed with federal mandatory sentencing provisions for a possessor of child pornography. The case highlights the need for judges to be become educated about the implications of unlawful images.
 
Current research indicates that a significant number of persons who possess unlawful images depicting the sexual exploitation of minors are also contact, "hands-on" offenders. Landmark studies conducted by Dr. Hernandez and Dr. Bourke at the Butner Federal Correctional Facility illuminated the problem. Studies of persons incarcerated for possessing unlawful images at Butner resulted in disclosures and admissions from the prisoners about hundreds of previously unknown hands-on offenses. (see: http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/19/america/19sex.php - also -  http://www.cultureandmediainstitute.org/articles/2007/20070720125546.aspx)
 
Some people rationalize unlawful images as "just pictures" and harmless. The images are not "just pictures". The images are permanent records of terrible crimes.

Judges often have incomplete information when deciding upon sentencing. Presentence reports describing offenders often cannot provide a true evaluation of the person. Many offenders in sex crimes against children have the outward appearance of fine upstanding citizens. Many have spent their entire lives developing  an alternate persona in order to present themselves as trustworthy and capable of being trusted around children. The offender in the instant case was, according to the report, a music teacher.
 
Some Judges need to become better educated about the facts regarding harmful images and about the offenders who use images for sexual gratification.

As for those who created the laws that punish offenders, I am grateful to those legislators responsible for approving mandatory sentencing. Mandatory sentencing overcomes the uninformed opinions of those who marginalize children and ignore the harm caused by unlawful images.

-----------------------------------------------------

Teacher gets five years in porn case; judge calls sentence too severe

By Jan Skutch.  12/13/07.

Calling it a "sad day for justice," a federal judge Wednesday railed against a mandatory sentence he considered too harsh but was forced to impose in a child pornography case. U.S. District Senior Judge William T. Moore Jr. made the comment as he ordered former St. Andrew's School music teacher Joshua Henry Evans, 25, to prison for five years.

"The facts in this case do not justify the sentence the court is compelled to impose," Moore said. "Sixty months is a sentence that is much more severe than should be called for in this case."

Evans pleaded guilty Aug. 6 to a charge of attempted receipt of child pornography over the Internet involving what he believed was a 14-year-old girl.

The judge, who last month became eligible to retire, said he had "anguished" over the case. He postponed sentencing, hoping the U.S. Supreme Court or Congress would give him some leeway, Moore said.

Because the charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence, advisory guidelines giving Moore some discretion were not available.

In court Wednesday, Evans fought back tears. "I made some awful decisions in my past," the defendant told Moore. "Looking back, I am ashamed of my wrongdoing. I hurt God, my community, my family, my wife, my new daughter and myself. "Your honor, I know I did wrong, and I must face the consequences." Evans also faced supervised release for life after completing his prison term. However, Moore imposed two years of supervised release for Evans - the minimum that could have been imposed.

Probation officers wanted a 10-year period, a recommendation requested by Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Wade. Evans' lawyer, attorney Alex Zipperer III, urged Moore to impose a lesser term.

Moore also ordered Evans to register as a sex offender. And the judge allowed Evans until 2 p.m. Jan. 14 to report to prison. Moore complained that the mandatory minimum sentence required in the case left him "handcuffed." "If there was any way I could avoid the mandatory minimum in this case, I assure you I would do it," Moore said. "Something else should have been done in this case, other than a plea resulting in a minimum mandatory."

Moore, a former U.S. attorney, said the prosecutor's office is independent and should have told the justice department, "I'm sorry, but I don't agree with your policy in this case." He said a more appropriate sentence would have involved "no or very, very little jail time for Mr. Evans. But as long as the mandatory minimum stands as a roadblock, the court is, in effect, handcuffed in this case."

He noted that Evans used his home computer, not one at the school, and that Evans did not attempt to traffic in or distribute the offensive material.

A counseling center where Evans has undergone treatment reported he did not "fit the typical profile of a sex offender" and said there was "little or no danger of any future activity of this kind by Mr. Evans."

"This is a sad day for Mr. Evans and for his family," Moore said. "It's a sad day for the court, and I think it's a sad day for justice."

Retrieved December 16, 2007 from  http://www.savannahnow.com/node/414835

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 09:58 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 12:05 AM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 12:02 AM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 12:00 AM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 11:54 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 08:17 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 01:58 AM | Permalink

By Tiara M. Ellis / The Dallas Morning News. 06/06/07

Collin County prosecutors say they dropped charges in 23 sex-predator cases stemming from stings in Murphy because they couldn't prove crimes were committed here. Part of the problem, they say, was a lack of cooperation from the Internet watchdog group that set up the stings.

That group, Perverted Justice, has fired back on its Web site, calling the prosecutors liars trying to deflect blame for the dropped cases.

Perverted Justice worked with Murphy police and the television show NBC Dateline last year to lure alleged sexual predators to a house in Murphy. They used a chat room decoy pretending to be a teenage boy or girl.

Last week, Collin County First Assistant District Attorney Greg Davis announced his office would not prosecute the cases, calling the evidence insufficient. He declined to comment further, citing an office policy.But queries from the public prompted him to write an e-mail this week giving a more detailed explanation.

"In many cases, we found that we had no legal jurisdiction to prosecute because legally the crime occurred outside Collin County," he wrote. "In many cases, we could not prosecute because Perverted Justice refused to answer our questions, refused to participate as witnesses, or refused
to turn over potential evidence."

He went on to say, "... We advised all concerned that we were in the law enforcement business - not show business."

Perverted Justice founder Xavier Von Erck sharply criticized Mr. Davis and his office in a lengthy Web posting.

He said members of his group were never asked for more evidence or to be witnesses. If they had been, he said, they would have cooperated completely.

"We've gone from questioning the competency of the Collin County prosecutor's office to questioning their sanity," said Mr. Von Erck, who describes himself as a 27-year-old from Portland, Ore.

Perverted Justice became involved at the invitation of Murphy Police Chief Bill Myrick and City Manager Craig Sherwood, neither of whom could be reached for comment this week. A scheduled interview was canceled.

For the Murphy sting, Perverted Justice volunteers spent weeks going into chat rooms pretending to be 13- and 14-year-olds. They waited for men to contact them, chatted online, then let Murphy police review the conversations, Mr. Von Erck said.

Mr. Von Erck said the Murphy house was used only after police said there was sufficient evidence.

Texas law does not require a meeting to take place for a crime to occur.

For the charge of online solicitation of a minor, the Internet chat is enough.

But to prosecute the cases in Collin County, Mr. Davis said in an interview Wednesday, the suspect or intended victim must be using a computer in the county or the Internet discussion must have run through a server in the county.

"If none of those are present that communication did not occur here and we can't prosecute even with a confession. They can confess here, but if a crime didn't happen here," Mr. Davis said. "In the majority of these cases that was the case."

Mr. Von Erck said in response to an e-mailed question that some of the Perverted Justice volunteers were in Collin County conducting chats, along with others doing the same in other parts of the country. But the group's server that recorded the chats was in Collin County, he said.

Mr. Davis said jurisdiction was only part of the problem. Perverted Justice volunteers hindered any further investigation by not cooperating, he said.

Mr. Von Erck said his volunteers received one phone call asking whether they had a contract with Murphy police and requesting a copy of the contract between Perverted Justice and NBC Dateline.

As proof of his group's value and its methods, he pointed to nearly 200convictions since the creation of the Web site in 2004.

California's Riverside County Sheriff's Department and districtattorney's office worked with Perverted Justice and NBC Dateline in 2006. They made 51 arrests, according to news reports and the PervertedJustice Web site.

He said that while Perverted Justice was helpful, his office "relied onthe sheriff's investigation and case preparation for the filing of criminal cases."

"A lot of people blur the lines because they think of informants orneighborhood watch groups. But you rely on them to provide you withinformation, not to do the investigations.

Before the Murphy operation, a Collin County prosecutor sent a letter toChief Myrick saying the district attorney's office would not take partin the planning or execution of the sting, but would "vigorously"prosecute any solid cases.

"I did not like the way the integrity of our prosecutors was beingattacked," he said. "I just did not want to let that go unchallenged,because I knew we had acted in full integrity."

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 12:55 AM | Permalink

Testimony of Dr. Frank Kardasz, Sergeant / Project Director

from the
Arizona Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force

for the
UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS

“Sexual Exploitation of Children over the Internet: What Parents, Kids and Congress need to Know about Child Predators"

Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the Committee, thank you for permitting me to speak today. Arizona joined the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force Program in 2000. We work cooperatively with our law enforcement colleagues from the FBI, ICE, Postal Inspection Service and the Secret Service. Although the names of our agencies differ, we all share the common goal of trying to keep children safe from Internet sexual predators and child pornographers.

The AZ ICAC Task Force has recorded over 2,000 investigations, with over 200 arrests. Although Arizona has the toughest laws in the nation against child pornography, this has not stopped the trafficking of unlawful images, and like all of our colleagues nationwide, we have many more solvable case files at the ready than we have personnel and resources to bring in the offenders. Sadly, while these cases await investigation, children and teens continue to suffer at the hands of sex offenders.

I have had the opportunity to speak with many citizen groups about Internet crime, and at the end of each presentation there is often some senior individual in the group who raises a hand and asks: "Why don't they just switch that whole dang Internet thing off!"...as if we have a control panel somewhere with a dial that we can turn and it will regulate Internet misconduct.

Legislation is the closest thing we have to an Internet control dial. Although opponents of controls argue that regulations are costly, imperfect and violations of constitutional freedoms, I sometimes wonder what the framers of the Constitution would have thought if they had known what we now know about computers and the Internet. Would they have permitted the Internet crimes against children that we are witnessing today?

I would like to talk about two things today: the threat from those predators who use social networking sites, and the legal help we need regarding data retention by Internet service providers. The luring of minors for sexual exploitation remains a continuing threat to our youth.

Beyond the chat rooms that predators have always frequented, social networking sites are now wildly popular. There are dozens of such free sites, including MySpace, Xanga, Friendster, Facebook, and others. Curious young people visit the sites every day and post images and personal information about themselves. They can browse and search for others according to age, sexual preference, zip code or school name. They can communicate with one another and then arrange to meet in person. And as you might imagine, the sites are also popular among sexual predators.

We received a phone call a few months ago from an Arizona woman who said that her young daughter, while using a social networking site, was contacted by a man from their neighborhood who was know to her as a registered sex offender. We found the mans web page where he described himself as a kindly lover of poetry, plants and flowers who was seeking female friendship for dating. Fourteen other young people were listed on his profile as friends with whom he had networked through the site. There was no mention on his profile that he is a high-risk registered sex offender in Arizona. Since that time the mans original web page is no longer available at the site, but there is nothing stopping him from re-subscribing to the same site or one of the many other sites under another assumed name.

The use of the sites by sexual predators remains a serious threat to the safety of our children. The problem will likely get worse before it gets better as kids flock to the sites and more communities, schools, libraries and businesses provide unrestricted Internet access through wireless access points that sometimes leave law enforcement investigations at a dead end. My written attachments contain some suggestions for improving the social networking site environment, but in the interest of saving time I do not wish to review them all now.

I would like to talk about an item of importance to my investigative colleagues nationwide. Last week I sent a survey to Internet crimes against children (ICAC) investigators at all of our nationwide affiliates throughout the United States.

The survey asked one question: What law could be created or revised to best assist the investigators who work cases involving Internet crimes against children?

The most frequent response involved data storage by Internet service providers and the retrieval of data from Internet service providers. What our people are telling us is that investigators need ISP's to retain subscriber and content information so that when legal process in the form of a subpoena or search warrant are served, there is data remaining with the ISP that will help the investigator find the offender.

Most ISP organizations are operated by conscientious and professional business people who are horrified by Internet crimes against children. Some ISP's have graciously extended themselves to help investigators. Some reluctant ISP's will only assist to the extent that the law mandates them to assist.

Mandating that ISP’s retain data is not a privacy violation. Law enforcement only needs the data preserved but not disclosed to us, except in response to legal process. Internet industry professionals may cite the financial burden of data storage, but consider the potential human cost of not retaining data. For example, when law enforcement is seeking a predator identifiable only by the information associated with his screen name, but the responsible ISP did not preserve the information, the investigation ends while the predator roams free. Based on the requests of my colleagues

I respectfully ask for two improvements to the law:

    1. That Internet service providers be mandated to retain information about subscribers for at least one year, with penalties for non-compliance.

    2. That Internet service providers be mandated to respond to subpoenas involving crimes against children investigations within one week of receiving a subpoena, and more quickly under exigent circumstances where a child is missing.

I will conclude by saying that investigators need your help in order to navigate those dark alleys of the Internet where they work diligently to help protect children. I recognize that turning the Internet control dial comes with a cost, but failing to turn the dial carries a greater human cost to our young people.

Thank you again.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS TO THE TESTIMONY OF DR. KARDASZ

Internet Social Networking Sites

Recent disturbing incidents involving Internet crimes against children have been prominent in the media. In some incidents, the crimes have involved suspects and victims who met each other via Internet social networking sites. Social networking sites are places on the Internet where people can meet one another, communicate and interact. Social networking and communication are normal parts of the human experience.

The Internet has become an important venue for people to network and interact. Young people are naturally curious about themselves, about others, and about the world. The sites permit them to reach out to others from around the globe, sometimes with tragic results. There are many social networking sites. Some of them are listed below:

• Myspace.com • Facebook.com • Friendster.com • Dittytalk.com • Cozydating.com • Interracialsingles.net • Livejournal.com • Friendsfusion.com • Intellectconnect.com • Prisonpenpals.com • Zogo.com

Why are the sites popular?

Most of the social networking sites are free and supported by advertisers who hope users will buy products or services advertised on the sites. Young people who are curious and seeking relationships and new experiences visit the sites to find others.

How do the sites work?

Any computer with Internet access can be used to permit someone to join a site. Some sites require only that the registrant provide an email address and often there is no verification process to check the truthfulness of any of the information that a registrant provides. Most sites require that users abide by conditions and terms of use meant to thwart improper conduct, but enforcement is often lax. Once a registrant becomes a member, he or she can post personal information, images or other information depending upon the features available at the site. Unless a user chooses to enable privacy options, all the information posted may be visible to all other users of a site.

What are the dangers?

Those who misuse the sites may do so in many ways including:

Luring / enticement – Internet sexual predators and known sex offenders have used social networking sites to locate and lure victims.

Identity theft – Criminals steal the identities of those who post personal information.

Cyberbullying / harassment – Agitators post derogatory, hurtful or threatening information about others.

Stalking – Stalkers can use personal information posted to the sites to locate and pursue victims.

Fraud schemes – Criminals who wish to defraud others of money or property can locate victims, gain their trust, and then take advantage of that trust for criminal purposes.

Inappropriate sexual content – Some users post sexually explicit information that is inappropriate for young computer users. Prevention What can you do to protect yourself from those who misuse social networking sites?

Do’s and Don’ts

Don’t -

• post personal images • post your true full name • post your home or cellular phone number • post your true age or date of birth • post your true home or business address • post your school name or the grad that you are in • post your calendar of upcoming events or information about your future whereabouts.

Do -

• discuss Internet risks with your child • enter into a safe-computing contract with your child • enable computer Internet filtering features if they are available from your Internet service • consider installing monitoring software or keystroke capture devices on your family computer that will help monitor your child's Internet activity • know each of your child's passwords, screen names and all account information • put the computer in a family area of the household and do not permit private usage • report all inappropriate non-criminal behavior to the site through their reporting procedures • report criminal behavior to the appropriate law enforcement agency including the NCMEC Cybertip line or the Internet Fraud Complaint Center • contact your legislators and request stronger laws against Internet crime • contact the corporations who place advertisements on the sites and let them know that their advertising is helping to support inappropriate Internet behavior. Also, let the corporations know that you intend to boycott or discontinue using their product or services because of the behavior they are supporting. • visit the NCMEC Netsmartz Workshop at http://www.netsmartz.org for more information • remember that every day is Halloween on the Internet. People on the Internet are not always as they first appear.

Making Social Networking Sites Safer

The following suggestions would make social networking sites safer for users and more law- enforcement friendly.

o On every social networking site web page, display a clearly visible hyperlink permitting users to easily report misconduct.
o For new users, make the default settings for viewing and sharing all account information ‘private’. This means that new accounts would be automatically set to exclude others and to not share information. The new subscriber would have to actively choose to share account information by checking the appropriate boxes in the account settings section.
o On every web page, display a link to the national sex offender registry.
o Proprietors of social networking sites should install filtering software to eliminate users from posting obscene words.
o Require that all new users enter verifiable credit card information when first subscribing.
o Require that all subscribers pay a nominal monthly fee.
o Include a provision in the social networking sites terms of use that notifies users that they have no expectation of privacy with regards to any of the content they post and that law enforcement may obtain any and all of their postings through the use of a subpoena only - without a search warrant.
o Retain profile information for deleted accounts for 90 days.
o Remove the browse and search functions that permit users to locate one another.
o On every social networking site page, display a link to the Internet Crime Complaint Center for incidents of theft or fraud. Their link is www.ic3.gov
o Include an admonition on social networking sites profile pages advising users that revealing personal information could lead to identity theft or victimization by offenders who are intent upon harassment, stalking, fraud or identity theft.
o Preserve changes to user’s pages and the Internet protocol address associated with the changes for 90 days.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SELECTED ICAC CASE STUDIES – ARIZONA ICAC TASK FORCE

Milwaukee Boy Found in Phoenix Home of Sex Offender

From the Arizona Republic, Aug. 23, 2005, Reported by William Hermann

Phoenix police say the experience of the 13-year-old Milwaukee boy they found Monday night in the company of a man they suspect of using the Internet to lure the child to town is one that parents need to take to heart.

Phoenix Police Sergeant Kardasz said Milwaukee police on Aug. 17 had received a missing persons report from the boy's mother. Investigators went into her son's computer and found that he had been communicating regularly with a person using a Phoenix wireless Internet site. "We went to the address of the wireless user and pretty quickly found he was an innocent person whose wireless service was being used by someone else," Kardasz said. "Through investigative work my staff established who was using the wireless connection, we watched his house, and soon the man drove up with the boy in his car."

At about 11:30 p.m. police arrested Vernon Monk, 31."The suspect had no ID and was using a false name and a fictitious license plate and pretending to be the boy's father to people in the neighborhood," Kardasz said. Monk was arrested for custodial interference and booked into a Maricopa County Jail. Police also learned that there is an outstanding arrest warrant on Monk from Seminole County, Okla., for a sexual offense against a minor. The boy was taken to the county's Juvenile Court Center to stay until his mother could arrange for his return home.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Internet Sexual Predator / Traveler Arrested and Imprisoned

Offender: David Jackson Donan, w/m, age 61

In September 2003, an investigation began involving an unidentified person using the Internet screen name "Brasshatter." Investigators learned that "Brasshatter" intended to travel via commercial aircraft from Austin, Texas to Phoenix, Arizona for the purpose of meeting a minor to engage in unlawful sexual intercourse.

"Brasshatter" was later identified as David Jackson Donan, age 61, with residences in both California and Texas. On October 20, 2003 Donan boarded a commercial aircraft and traveled from Texas to Arizona. To groom and entice his intended victim, he brought several packages of the candy - Skittles. To aid in his intended unlawful sexual acts he brought nine sexual aide devices, KY Jelly, a male sexual enhancement drug, a prescription for Viagra, and a digital camera - all in his carry-on baggage.

Donan was arrested without incident upon his arrival at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. He made no statements and was booked. Arizona ICAC investigators and FBI agents in Arizona, California, and Texas worked cooperatively in the subsequent investigation and search of Donan's residences for evidence. They uncovered computer evidence, firearms and other sexual aid devices belonging to Donan. Later forensics examinations of his computer also revealed a collection of child pornography.

Computer evidence indicated that Donan had bragged during Internet chat conversations about having victimized children while he had visited Thailand many years ago. Donan waived his right to trial plead guilty to one count of the Federal offense: Travel with intent to engage in a sexual act with a juvenile (Title 18, Part I, Chapter 117, 2423b).

Donans' presentence report was not favorable with indications that he had prior "hands-on" offenses with as-yet unidentified victims. On September 29, 2004, he plead guilty in U.S. Federal District Court (Phoenix).

Honorable Earl H. Carroll presided. Judge Carroll sentenced Donan to 7 years, 3 months prison, followed by one year residence in a transitional facility, $25,000 fine and lifetime supervised release. -

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

International Cooperation Leads to Child Pornography Trafficker

Offender: Lee McCulloch, w/m, age 26, resident of Gwent, South Wales, U.K.

Occupation: Factory worker, Marital status: single

Arrest Location: Abertillery, Gwent - South Wales, United Kingdom Charge: Distributing Indecent Photographs of Children (United Kingdom)

Sentence: Eight months prison, Sex offender registration for five years. Agencies involved: Arizona ICAC Task Force, Phoenix P.D., Phoenix F.B.I., Heddlu Gwent P.D. South Wales, U.K.

In April 2003, an investigator from the Arizona Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force / Phoenix P.D. initiated an investigation into an unidentified child pornography trafficker. the investigation led to an unknown suspect in the United Kingdom.

Working with the FBI and the Heddlu Gwent (UK) Police Department, investigators assembled a case that led to the identification and arrest of 26 year old Lee McCulloch in South Wales, UK. McCulloch, a factory worker, used computers at his home in the United Kingdom to collect and traffic images of child pornography with other nefarious Internet associates. cCulloch, who is unmarried, was arrested on November 28, 2003.

Investigators in the UK developed further information leading to twenty (20) other suspects there with whom McCulloch traded unlawful images of child pornography. On August 26, 2004, McCulloch was sentenced to 8 months in prison in the UK and five years of sex offender registration status.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

David Mojica Santos - Internet Sexual Predator

Arrest Date/Time: October 8, 2003, 1530 hours.

Offense: Luring a Minor for Sexual Exploitation

On October 8, 2003, David Mojica Santos, age 65, was arrested for luring a minor for sexual exploitation in northwest Phoenix. Santos first came to the attention of law enforcement in July 2003, when he used the Internet to solicit sexual conduct with a minor. Santos traveled from his residence in Mesa to a location in Northwest Phoenix where he intended to meet a minor for sex. He was arrested, booked, and subsequently released on bond. He later plead guilty to the court.

SENTENCING HEARING – STATEMENT OF SGT. KARDASZ

(The recent trend among judges in Maricopa County is to sometimes sentence such offenders to probation only, with no jail time. Anticipating this, we prepared a detailed statement to the sentencing judge. Here is an excerpt):

Your Honor, the innocent children we struggle to protect are unable to appear here today. They are children whose innocence was stolen by Internet sexual predators like this defendant. Most of those children will never come forward due to fear or a misplaced sense of guilt. A few of them, like 13 year old Kasie Woody of Arkansas, and 13 year old Christina Long of Connecticut, were forever silenced by Internet sexual predators. According to reports from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, one in five girls and one in ten boys will be sexually victimized before they reach adulthood, and less than 35% of these crimes will ever be reported.

The Internet provides an unparalleled opportunity for criminals to unearth themselves and victimize unwary young people. Research indicates that of the estimated 24 million child Internet users, one in five received a unwanted sexual solicitation, but only one in four told a parent.

Curious and innocent youngsters are flocking to the Internet seeking friendship and information but are instead finding sexual deviants and predators. My undercover investigators and I have witnessed no shortage of adults chatting on the Internet with the stated intention of sexually victimizing minors. Over the past few years our caseload has skyrocketed while our resources have not.

Our investigation of this defendant revealed that his Internet chat was not an isolated incident butpart of a series of ongoing offenses occurring against multiple victims over an extended period of time. He was not the unfortunate victim of a "sting" caught at the wrong place at the wrong time. He is a practiced Internet sexual predator. Forensics analysis of his computer revealed that he did not spend his idle time enjoying normal retirement hobbies or mentoring his family or community.

    This former missionary spent his day prowling cyberspace in search of young sexual prey. We discovered Internet chat conversations he had with four as yet unidentified girls aged fifteen, fourteen and eleven. In each of the chats he quickly turned the conversation to sex and began to manipulate each girl towards meeting him for sex.

    I am going to read brief excerpts of the chat conversations the defendant had with various young girls he contacted on the Internet. Much of the language is so sexually graphic that I will not repeat it verbatim.

"Do you like older guys?"
"Have you had sex yet?"
"Are you curious about having sex?"
"Do you think you would like to have sex sometime soon?"
"I wish I was next door to you....and then maybe not. I might rape you."
"What city do you live in....I was just wondering if there is a    large airport nearby."
"You just don't know how badly I want to (expletive) you right now."

And I will stop there your Honor because the conversations deteriorate graphically from there.

Your Honor, I have watched defendants in similar circumstances appear in these courtrooms arguing that everything they did was fantasy role-playing and that they were the unfortunate victims of zealous police operations. That's hogwash. Was it fantasy when this defendant drove over 20 miles from Mesa to Northeast Phoenix for the expressed purpose of meeting a minor for sex? Was it fantasy when the defendant brought condoms with him to the meeting? Condoms that he admitted that he does not use with his wife. Apologists for this defendant may look at his age and surmise that he has little capacity for future offenses - I disagree.

This defendant had the physical capacity to proudly display on the Internet, graphic sexual images of himself, captured with a computer web camera and in a variety of poses. In similar cases my colleagues and I have watched defendants receive minimal sentencing by other courts, only to re-offend later. In one recent case the defendant mocked the court by continuing to solicit minors for sex while the defendant was out on bond only days after his original arrest. In another of our cases, the convicted defendant, while free on probation, immediately began producing, acting in, and trafficking child pornography, including images of himself sexually abusing three young children under shocking and horrifying circumstances.

The Arizona law as it stands permits the court to exercise wide discretion in sentencing this offense. We trust that this court will act in the best interest of our community and send a strong message to this and all other Internet sexual predators. Finally your honor, we request that this court's judgment provide a message of reassurance to the children unable to appear in your courtroom today that their rights are being defended at this, the highest level of County justice.

SENTENCE - On June 18, 2004, Santos was sentenced before Judge Hotham of the Maricopa County Superior Court. He received ten months jail and lifetime probation.

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 12:33 AM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 01:21 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 01:19 PM | Permalink

10/30/07. By John Tunison. The Grand Rapids Press

Grand Haven - The Internet became an addiction for Kevin Wolters.

Specifically, the 36-year-old Holland man was hooked on "Internet sex," as his attorney described it Monday in an Ottawa County courtroom.

The problem continued until he caught the attention of two Internet crime task forces created to nab predators.

Wolters, a former boys soccer coach at Holland Calvary Schools, was sentenced Monday in Ottawa County Circuit Court to 270 days in jail for using a computer to accost a child for immoral purposes and using a computer to disseminate sexually explicit material to a minor.

He was placed on five years' probation and, during that time, may not have access to a computer nor be in contact with minors unless another adult is present. He must register as a sex offender.

Police said Wolters tried to solicit online what he thought were two 14-year-old girls. They turned out to be undercover officers with the State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Macomb Area Computer Enforcement Team.

During more than a month of online chatting in February and March, Wolters sent sexually explicit images of himself and talked about meeting to "engage in erotic fondling," according to a Macomb County prosecutor.

He was arrested in early April. Wolters' attorney, Robert Hamilton, said Wolters has been in sex-offender counseling since June 1. He was out on bond before being sentenced to the jail term Monday.

"This was, frankly, a situation where Mr. Wolters was addicted to anonymous Internet sex rather than seeking out a young woman," Hamilton said. "This was not a problem with someone who was a pedophile. "It's just something that got out of hand, a bad habit that became an addiction," he said.

In court Monday, Wolters made a broad apology.

Wolters was a 15-year coach with the Calvary Schools boys soccer team, serving as assistant coach for nine years and head coach for six years. Police said there was no evidence he had any inappropriate contact with soccer players.

Monday's sentence stemmed from charges through the state police task force. Wolters earlier was sentenced to a jail term in the Detroit area for contact with the Macomb task force.

Send e-mail to the author: jtunison@grpress.com

Retrieved October 31, 2007 from http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-38/1193770610172490.xml&coll=6&thispage=1

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 06:18 PM | Permalink

Submitted by Brandon Long on Tue, 10/30/2007 - 5:04pm. News Crime

As a result of two search warrants executed today in Monticello by agents of the GBI’s Milledgeville Office, local attorney Roy R. Kelly, 59, has been charged with Sexual Exploitation of Children and with violation of the Georgia Computer Pornography and Child Exploitation Act.

The search warrants were executed at Kelly’s law office at 121 East Greene Street and at his residence at 573 College Street. Images of child porn were found on his office computer.

A tip was received from federal law enforcement partners that stemmed from an investigation into a commercial child pornography website. This tip was forwarded to the Georgia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force at the GBI which led to the investigation of Kelly. After his arrest, Kelly was transported to the Jasper County Jail.

As the investigation continues, additional charges are possible. The Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) is a multi-jurisdictional task force that investigates and prosecutes individuals who use the Internet to exploit children. The task force is funded by a grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and administered through the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The GBI’s administration of the ICAC Task Force is in keeping one of the mandates established by Governor Perdue’s Child Safety Initiative.

Source: GBI News Release

Retrieved October 31, 2007 from http://www.wmgt.com/node/4992

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 04:23 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 01:33 PM | Permalink

The following link goes to a presentation regarding media relations specific to ICAC investigations. The information may be useful to investigators, prosecutors and administrators who supervise cases involving Internet crimes against children:

http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=ddhxr8zh_111f64rgg&fs=true 

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 03:21 PM | Permalink

ICAC Investigators and Prosecutors -

Click the link below for a short slide presentation. The presentation is an orientation to unlawful images and provides information about employee wellness:

http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=ddhxr8zh_136fv9ccqg4

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 02:06 AM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 01:48 AM | Permalink

Valley man arrested on molestation charges

By Rebecca Taylor / 3TV (Phoenix AZ), 08/30/07

A Valley man famous for putting smiles on kid's faces is now accused of molesting them. Ronald Sirull is a traveling skydiver, famous for parachuting with his pooch. Sadly, police say the dog might have been a ploy to lure kids for pornography. Plunging from airplanes, landed Brutus the dog in the Guinness Book of World Records.

His owner Sirull, 50, landed himself behind bars. Police say he sold kiddy porn to undercover detectives. “Five of those photographs, there was more, but 5 actually showed Mr. Sirull engaged in sex acts with young boys,” said. Sgt. Joel Tranter.  Sirull was arrested Friday, at a Kinkos, where police say he worked and kept pornography. His home computer was also seized.

“God you never know, never know who you can trust,” neighbor Jill Pierce said. Pierce lives next door to Sirull who she describes as a recluse. “His dog was adorable, run up and down, friendly little guy,” Pierce said. “Usually too you think animals are some kind of indication of their owner, nice well rounded dog, then usually the owner's like that too, you'd think.”

While ringing the doorbell, we could see inside Sirull's home near 40th Street and Thomas Road. In the bedroom, there are stuffed-animals, Spiderman figurines and baby oil on the window sill. Detectives believe the  boys in the photographs live here in the Valley, but don't know their identity. It's possible kids outside Arizona were victimizes as well using Brutus as bait. “Particularly in the summer months, and during air show season he routinely traveled through out the country,” Tranter said.

Sirull has been charged with 12 counts of child pornography, and 5 counts of sexual misconduct with a minor. Police also found marijuana inside his home.

As for the dog, police assure us he is safe.

Retrieved August 31, 2007 from http://www.azfamily.com/news/local/stories/KTVKLNews20070830_sirull.8834211b.html

Persons with information about Ronald Sirull should call Det. Jerry Barker of the Phoenix Police Department at 602-495-0681.

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 04:17 PM | Permalink

From MyFox Philadelphia, 08/28/07, By Dave Schratwieser

A 24-year-old Bucks County man was arrested on charges he used his MySpace account to lure a 15-year-old girl. Police say he then used drugs with her and repeatedly raped her. Now he's free on bail. 24-year-old Christopher Leasher said little as he walked into court with his lawyer, charged with using his online social networking account to lure and eventually rape a 15-year-old girl. "He's a predator.

He's a sexual predator of young children," said Bucks County District Attorney Diane Gibbons. Gibbons says Leasher contacted his victim in May and sent her messages asking for sex using the name "chicksdigskinny." Police say he met her at a local K-Mart and took her to Philadelphia to buy cocaine. The DA says the suspect then brought her to his friend's home in Doylestown, where the two took cocaine and the sexual assaults took place. "He then had sexual contact with her all through the night," Gibbons said. According to the DA, the young girl was given so much cocaine, her life was in danger. "He gave her drugs. She could have died. She felt ill and then he left her on the roadway," Gibbons added.

Investigators say Leasher told the teenager he was a rock star and admitted knowing she was just underage. "I have recorded some music and people paid attention to it. It's flattering for anyone to find me attractive or to want to have sex with me," the defendant told police. "When I'm on drugs I don't like to be alone. It was nice to have someone to talk to. When I'm online, I'm in a fantasy world. I get off on the idea just knowing I could be with a girl," he allegedly told detectives.

Christopher Leasher's bail was set at $200,000. His parents posted $20,000 and he was released. The judge ordered him to stay off the internet, away from the victim and to avoid all contact with minors. He is due back in court September 7th. His lawyer had no comment. If convicted on all charges, he faces 20-30 years.

Retrieved August 29, 2007 from http://www.myfoxphilly.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=4197286&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 08:45 PM | Permalink

Dr. Kardasz: The following informed testimony of Lt. Ritter last year succinctly described some possible solutions for the ISP data retention issue.

---------------------------------------------------------

July 10, 2006
STATEMENT OF THE NEW JERSEY STATE POLICE, Lieutenant Anthony W. Ritter, Assistant Bureau Chief, Computer Crimes and High Technology Surveillance Bureau

Before the SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS, of the COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE United States House of Representatives
 
Good morning Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Stupak and members of the Subcommittee, I am Lieutenant Anthony Ritter, Assistant Bureau Chief of the Computer Crimes and High Technology Surveillance Bureau within the Special Investigations Section of the New Jersey State Police.  I appreciate the opportunity to discuss with you our issues regarding combating predators on the Internet.

I.Introduction

I have been a member of the New Jersey State Police for 22 years and have been involved in both technology and cyber investigations for the last 17 years.The Computer Crimes and High Technology Surveillance Bureau coordinates the efforts of the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force.

II.Challenges

I would like to address some of the challenges that face our task force and that of cyber law enforcement in general.

A.Data Retention
There has been much testimony before the committee on the subject of data retention by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and I would like to address the three major concerns brought forth by ISPs generally.  First, the ISPs are not clear who will be able to access records of someone’s online behavior.  The law enforcement process begins with reasonable suspicion to develop required probable cause and operates under legal guidance and court orders.  I think unauthorized insider access to records is of graver concern to the ISPs.  Second, the ISPs are not clear who would pay for the data warehousing of these additional records.  I think everyone will bear part of the cost.  And third, ISPs say it is not clear that police are hindered by current law as long as they move swiftly in the investigative process.  In this case, they may be partly correct.  There needs to be a consistent, measured approach to data retention and an increase in the speed of the investigative process.  We both must work more efficiently.  Although we are pleased to see the ISPs moving forward, voluntarily, to address our concerns where they can, we seek to have a standard established for the retention of data by ISPs.   All ISPs should be required to have the capability of isolating targeted traffic and upon receipt of a court order, deliver that content to a law enforcement monitoring facility in a standardized manner.  This capability needs to extend to all methods of communication services supported by this industry.

B.Quality of Service
Quality of service is an industry recognized term that is important to a business’s ability to maintain and increase its customer base.  In our case, law enforcement is the customer and poor customer service equates to a delayed law enforcement action.  These delays can result in an inability to continue investigative leads in a timely manner.  Our goal here is to institute industry wide standards to ensure the efficient and timely return of the information sought by law enforcement.

C. Costs
There is an explosion in technology and it is the convergence of telephony networks and data networks on portable data assistants (PDA), cell phones and other wireless devices.  Current costs for intercepting conventional wireless devices can reach as much as $2600 per intercept order.  Our fear is that the costs associated with IP intercept will exceed the costs of conventional intercepts and will price many law enforcement agencies out of this investigative crime fighting tool.

D.Personnel
The need for skilled investigators is as critical as data retention.  Without the data we cannot investigate, without the detective we cannot investigate.  In New Jersey’s Peer-to Peer (P2P) initiative we have over 83,000 leads and as LTC Rodgers stated, we have 10 full time detectives with half working proactively.  The other half are working reactively on referrals and direct complaints.  And what about being proactive in other areas of the Internet?  Most people only know of browsing the web, but there are many other ways of communicating across the Internet and each one could keep a whole squad of detectives busy 24 hours a day.

E. Tools
Additional research and development needs to be conducted by law enforcement, technology corporations, and institutions of higher learning to close the large gaps impeding our ability to fight technology crime against Internet predators.  We need to:

- collect technical data and present it in an easy to view graphical format.
- automate the process of locating network log files regardless of operating system.
- overcome the obstacles of anonymizers, IP spoofing, encrypted data and steganography.
- forensically capture a computer’s Random Access Memory (RAM) without modification or alteration.
- provide real time IP intercept on data networks in a standardized format, with the ability to isolate the target and capture the communication inclusive of all activities such as instant messaging, voice over IP phone calls, web cams, emails and web browsing.
- facilitate an automated and standardized stored data handover interface for the return of historical records requested by subpoena or court order.
- develop tools to locate the physical position of devices connected to wireless networks.

III. Solutions   
There have been many suggestions from the men and women fighting Internet Crimes Against Children in New Jersey on ways to improve and streamline our mission.  Here are some of their thoughts:

A.Increase ISP record retention to not less than two years to include, but not be limited to, subscriber information, method of payment, types of devices connected and all in and out IP logging records.

B.Mandate that out-of-state subpoenas and warrants be recognized as valid legal documents.

C. Create a website rating system much like the one used by the motion picture industry so that parents can more easily block content.

D. Sponsor a national Internet Safety campaign through television and movie theaters.

E. Evaluate the Counterdrug Technology Assessment Center’s (CTAC) technology transfer program and model a similar program to support agencies combating Internet predators.

F. Recognize the FCC’s Second Report and Order and Memorandum Opinion and Order that addresses several issues regarding implementation of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), enacted in 1994. The primary goal of the Order is to ensure that Law Enforcement Agencies have all of the resources that CALEA authorizes, particularly with regard to facilities-based broadband Internet Service Providers and interconnected voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) providers.  Although the VOIP issue has now been addressed, other packet based services such as instant messaging, picture messaging and a host of other Internet based communication services have been excluded from CALEA standards.  This needs to be corrected.

G. Endorse, support and promote the expansion and implementation of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) which will allow ISPs the ability to give every internet accessible device its own unique static IP address and eliminate the nightmare of dynamic IP addressing issues.  The United States Government has specified that the network backbones of all federal agencies must deploy IPv6 by 2008.

IV. Conclusion
With the proper resources, states can and will do much more to continue the fight against Internet predators.  We remain committed to maintaining existing operations without minimization and are honored to be a partner in the fight against Internet child victimization.

SUMMARY OF TESTIMONY
Lieutenant Anthony W. Ritter
Assistant Bureau Chief
Computer Crimes and High Technology Surveillance Bureau
New Jersey State Police

Before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS
of the COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE
United States House of Representatives

July 10, 2006

1.Introduction
a. 22 years law enforcement experience
b. Oversees operation of the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force

2. Challenges

a. Data Retention
1) Need to establish standards for data retention
2) Should apply to all methods of communication services

b. Quality of Service
1) Need for industry wide standards for return of information to law enforcement

c. Costs
1) Costs for intercept of data may prove prohibitive

d. Personnel
1) There is a serious lack of skilled investigators

e. Tools
1) Development of additional investigative technology tools is needed

3. Solutions
1) Increase ISP record retention without limitations
2) Recognition of out-of-state subpoenas and warrants
3) Institute a website rating system
4) Sponsor a national Internet Safety campaign
5) Empower technology transfer programs to provide needed tools
6) Expand CALEA to fully support all IP based communication services
7) Support rapid deployment of IPv6

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 08:19 PM | Permalink

By Nikki Renner, The Arizona Republic, 08/28/07

A former Phoenix probationary firefighter was sentenced Tuesday to 41 months in prison and lifetime supervised release for possession of child pornography.

Robert Kuenzli, 43, was arrested on Nov. 3 and later indicted by a federal grand jury for receipt and possession of child pornography, according to the press release from the United States Attorney's office in Arizona.

In April, Kuenzli pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography but the charge of receipt of child pornography was dropped at sentencing. U.S. District Court Judge Neil V. Wake ordered Kuenzli to register as a sex offender and to successfully complete a sex offender treatment program.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents received information from Canadian officials about questionable Internet activity at Kuenzli's home. The agents conducted a search and found numerous images of children engaging in sexually explicit conduct on his computer hard drive.

Kuenzli served the Phoenix Fire Department as a probationary firefighter for 10 months and is no longer employed with the department. A public information officer with the department said that while Kuenzli was a probationary officer for Phoenix, he was on his best behavior.

He was previously employed with the Kingman Fire Department for 16 years.

Retrieved August 29, 2007 from http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0828child-porn0828-ON.html

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 04:15 PM | Permalink

AP WorldStream. 07/24/07

Raleigh, North Carolina - MySpace.com has found more than
29,000 registered U.S. sex offenders with profiles on the popular
social networking Web site -- more than four times the number cited
by the company two months ago, North Carolina officials said
Tuesday.

North Carolina's Roy Cooper is one of several state attorneys
general who recently demanded the News Corp.-owned Web site provide
data on how many registered sex offenders were using the site,
along with information about where they live.

After initially withholding the information, citing federal
privacy laws, MySpace began sharing the information in May after
the states filed formal legal requests.

At the time, MySpace said it had already used a database it
helped create to remove about 7,000 profiles of sex offenders, out
of a total of about 180 million profiles on the site.

Two MySpace spokeswomen did not immediately return calls seeking
comment Tuesday.

Cooper is pushing for legislation that would require children to
receive parental permission before creating social networking
profiles, and require the Web sites to enact procedures for
verifying the parents' identity and age.

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 01:25 AM | Permalink

Bill Conradt killed himself after appearing on ‘To Catch a Predator’

The Associated Press. 07/23/07

New York - The sister of a man who was suspected of being a sexual predator and who killed himself as the cameras of “Dateline NBC” closed in on him sued NBC Universal Inc. on Monday for $105 million.

Patricia Conradt’s brother, Bill Conradt Jr., shot himself last November in a Dallas suburb as police knocked at his door and a camera crew for the newsmagazine waited in the street.

Conradt claims her brother, an assistant county prosecutor, committed suicide after he was accused of engaging in a sexually explicit online chat with an adult posing as a 13-year-old boy. She alleges a police officer at the scene of the shooting told a “Dateline” producer, “That’ll make good TV.”

Bill Conradt, 57, became a target of a series called “To Catch a Predator” in which NBC and the activist group Perverted Justice set up shop for four days last November in a two-story home in Murphy, Texas. Perverted Justice staff posed as boys and girls online and arranged to meet men there.

Two dozen men were arrested, but the district attorney refused to prosecute any of them, saying many of the cases were tainted by the involvement of amateurs. And the city manager was fired for approving the arrangement without telling the mayor or the city council.

NBC and Perverted Justice have filmed similar operations in other cities, and the network has said the show did not have the same problems elsewhere that it produced in Murphy.

“We have not yet received the lawsuit, but we plan to defend ourselves vigorously as we believe the claims in the suit to be completely without merit,” said Jenny Tartikoff, a spokeswoman for NBC Universal.

Patricia Conradt accuses NBC Universal of engaging in a pattern of racketeering activity by bribing police across the country to let it film encounters with suspects it lures to a home where it has set up cameras.

She said in the lawsuit that NBC “steamrolled” police to arrest her brother at his home after he failed to show up at the rigged house 35 miles away.

Conradt said her brother was unable to defend himself when police, NBC employees and associates swarmed his yard, creating a relationship between NBC and her brother similar to the relationship a prison guard has with an inmate.

“The suicide was reasonably foreseeable,” her lawsuit reads. “At this time, the defendant wore the robe of a state official and Bill wore the shackles of a detainee. Having trespassed and invaded upon Bill’s property to broadcast a spectacle to millions, the defendant took no more steps toward protecting him than are received by a gladiator or bull.”

NBC was “concerned more with its own profits than with pedophilia,” she said in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in New York, where the network is based.

2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19922038/

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 06:12 PM | Permalink

Dr. Kardasz: The research of Doctors Bourke and Hernandez is some of the most important of our era. According to the story below, "Many Internet child pornography offenders may be undetected child molesters."

---------------------------------------------------------------

July 19, 2007. By Julian Sher and Benedict Carey. From BlueRidgeNow.com

Experts have often wondered what proportion of men who download explicit sexual images of children also molest them. A new government study of convicted Internet offenders suggests that the number may be startlingly high: 85 percent of the offenders said they had committed acts of sexual abuse against minors, from inappropriate touching to rape.

The study, which has not yet been published, is stirring a vehement debate among psychologists, law enforcement officers and prison officials, who cannot agree on how the findings should be presented or interpreted.

The research, carried out by psychologists at the Federal Bureau of Prisons, is the first in-depth survey of such online offenders’ sexual behavior done by prison therapists who were actively performing treatment. Its findings have circulated privately among experts, who say they could have enormous implications for public safety and law enforcement.

Traffic in online child pornography has exploded in recent years, and the new study, some experts say, should be made public as soon as possible, to identify men who claim to be “just looking at pictures” but could, in fact, be predators.

Yet others say that the results, while significant, risk tarring some men unfairly. The findings, based on offenders serving prison time who volunteered for the study, do not necessarily apply to the large and diverse group of adults who have at some point downloaded child pornography, and whose behavior is far too variable to be captured by a single survey.

Adding to the controversy, the prison bureau in April ordered the paper withdrawn from a peer-reviewed academic journal where it had been accepted for publication, apparently concerned that the results might be misinterpreted. A spokeswoman for the bureau said the agency was reviewing a study of child pornography offenders but declined to comment further.

Ernie Allen, who leads the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which is mandated to coordinate the nation’s efforts to combat child pornography, said he was surprised that the full study had not been released. “This is the kind of research the public needs to know about,” Mr. Allen said. Others agreed that the report should be published but were more cautious about the findings. “The results could have tremendous implications for community safety and for individual liberties,” said Dr. Fred Berlin, founder of the Johns Hopkins Sexual Disorders Clinic. “If people we thought were not dangerous are more so, then we need to know that and we should treat them that way. But if we’re wrong, then their liberties aren’t going to be fairly addressed.”

Everyone agrees that researchers need to learn more about online consumers of illegal child images. The volume of material seized from computers appears to be doubling each year — the National Center collected more than eight million images of explicit child pornography in the last five years — and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales made child protection a national priority in 2006.

Those who are arrested on charges of possession or distribution of child pornography generally receive lighter sentences and shorter parole periods than sexual abusers. They do not fit any criminal stereotype; recent arrests have included politicians, police officers, teachers and businessmen.

“It’s crucial to understand the sexual history of all these offenders, because sometimes the crime they were arrested for is the tip of the iceberg, and does not reflect their real patterns and interests,” said Jill S. Levenson, an assistant professor of human services at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., and head of the ethics committee of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers.

Previous studies, based on surveys of criminal records, estimated that 30 percent to 40 percent of those arrested for possessing child pornography also had molested children.

The psychologists who conducted the new study, Andres E. Hernandez and Michael L. Bourke, focused on 155 male inmates who had volunteered to be treated at the Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, N.C., according to a draft of the paper obtained by The New York Times from outside experts who want the study published.

The Butner clinic is the only residential program devoted to the treatment of sexual offenders in the federal prison system. The inmates in the study were all serving sentences for possession or distribution of child pornography.

About every six months as part of an 18-month treatment program, they filled out a record of their sexual history, including a “victims list” tallying their previous victims of abuse. Therapists encouraged the men to be honest as part of their treatment, and the sexual histories were anonymous, according to the paper.

The psychologists compared these confessions with the men’s criminal sexual histories at the time of sentencing. More than 85 percent admitted to abusing at least one child, they found, compared with 26 percent who were known to have committed any “hands on” offenses at sentencing. The researchers also counted many more total victims: 1,777, a more than 20-fold increase from the 75 identified when the men were sentenced.

Dr. Hernandez and Dr. Bourke concluded in the paper that “many Internet child pornography offenders may be undetected child molesters.” But they also cautioned that offenders who volunteer for treatment may differ in their behavior from those who do not seek treatment.

They submitted the paper to The Journal of Family Violence, a widely read peer-reviewed publication in the field, and it was accepted.

But in a letter obtained by The Times, dated April 3, Judi Garrett, an official of the Bureau of Prisons, requested that the editors of the journal withdraw the study, because it did not meet “agency approval.”

Editors at The Journal of Family Violence did not respond to phone or e-mail messages asking about the withdrawal.

Dr. Hernandez mentioned the research briefly during testimony before a Senate committee last year. But the bureau blocked Dr. Hernandez and Dr. Bourke from attending some law enforcement conferences to speak about the findings, said two prosecutors who did not want to be identified because they have a continuing work relationship with the bureau.

“We believe it unwise to generalize from limited observations gained in treatment or in records review to the broader population of persons who engage in such behavior,” a bureau official wrote to the organizers of a recent law enforcement conference, in a letter dated May 2 and given to The Times by an expert who is hoping the study will be published.

Some prosecutors say they could use the study to argue for stiffer sentences. While some outside researchers agreed that the risk of over-generalizing the study’s results was real, almost all the experts interviewed also said that the study should still be made public.

Dr. Peter Collins, who leads the Forensic Psychiatry Unit of the Ontario Provincial Police, called the findings “cutting-edge stuff.”

“We’re really on the cusp of learning more about these individuals and studies should be encouraged, not quashed,” Dr. Collins said.

Understanding the relationship between looking at child pornography and sexually assaulting children is central to developing effective treatment, psychologists say.

It is not at all clear when, or in whom, the viewing spurs action or activates a latent, unconscious desire; or whether such images have little or no effect on the offender’s subsequent behavior. But the relationship probably varies widely.

“My concern is about sensationalism, about the way something like this is handled in the media,” said Michael Miner, an associate professor in the department of family medicine at the University of Minnesota who treats sex offenders. “The public perception is that all of these guys will re-offend, and we know that just isn’t true.”

At least some men convicted of sexual abuse say that child pornography from the Internet fueled their urges. In a recent interview, one convicted pedophile serving a 14-year sentence in a Canadian federal prison said that looking at images online certainly gave him no release from his desires — exactly the opposite.

“Because there is no way I can look at a picture of a child on a video screen and not get turned on by that and want to do something about it,” he said. “I knew that in my mind. I knew that in my heart. I didn’t want it to happen, but it was going to happen.”

How many offenders does he speak for? The study may help answer that question, some say.

“The penalties we seek, the vigor with which we prosecute — the very importance we give to child pornography cases — all of these things are affected by what we know about the offenders,” said Leura G. Canary, the United States attorney for Middle Alabama who also leads the Attorney General’s Working Group on Child Exploitation and Obscenity. “And right now we know very little.”

Retrieved July 19, 2007 from http://www.blueridgenow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070719/ZNYT04/707190371/1170/NEWS/ZNYT04/Debate_on_Child_Pornography_x2019_s_Link_to_Molesting&template=printart

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 06:34 PM | Permalink

The New York Times. By Brad Stone. July 11, 2007.

Parents and child safety experts concerned about the online activities of teenagers have been particularly nervous about a Web site called Stickam, which allows its 600,000 registered users, age 14 and older, to participate in unfiltered live video chats using their Web cameras.

But those Internet safety advocates might be even more anxious if they knew of Stickam's close ties to a large online pornography business.

On its Web site and in press reports, Stickam says that it is owned by Advanced Video Communications, or AVC, a three-year-old Los Angeles company that sells video conferencing and e-commerce services to businesses in Japan and other Asian countries.

The sites, with names like DxLive, EXshot and JgirlParadise, use the same video technology as Stickam to link paying users with performers in one-on-one video chat sessions.

The workers at Mr. Takahashi's companies "only know how to conduct an adult Web site," Mr. Becker said. "They don't get it that there are predators on the Internet."

Stickam has attracted a few big-name partners. Lionsgate, Warner Brothers Records and the Los Angeles Film Festival have all used Stickam for promotional purposes. Representative Ron Paul, a Republican of Texas and a candidate for president, answered questions from Stickam users last month.

Yet Stickam, a free site, does not have advertising, and does not appear to have earned any recurring revenue in its two-year existence. It has courted media companies to use its site for promotions.

Mr. Becker said Stickam shares the 68th floor with DxLive, one of the sex sites. He said a running tally on a whiteboard there indicated that DxLive was bringing in around $220,000 a day.

Mr. Becker alleges that he saw DxLive on-camera performers being trained on the building's 61st floor in matters like how to respond to special customer requests. Mr. Flacks of Stickam flatly disputed this, but he acknowledged that DxLive does have "some" office space in the U.S. Bank Tower.

Mr. Becker said he first learned of the extent of the pornography business last April, when Mr. Takahashi, who employees refer to as Mr. T, took him to dinner at a downtown sushi restaurant. Through translators he described some of his companies' assets, which include at least 49 pornography sites, a pornographic film production company, nine restaurants in Japan and private planes, Mr. Becker said.

"I don't think I discovered everything, but I learned more than enough to be able to say with certainty that they are not leaders in the video-conferencing business," Mr. Becker said. "They are leaders in pushing porn via a Flash player and streaming porn from the United States to Japan."

Mr. Becker said Mr. Takahashi told him that he had based his sites in the United States because of Japan's restrictions on explicit nudity.

Public information about Mr. Takahashi, who declined interview requests, is hard to come by. A March issue of a local newspaper had a page with photos from a "Birthday Celebration in Honor of Billionaire Businessman Wataru Takahashi."

Donna Rice Hughes, president of Enough Is Enough, an Internet safety organization, said that considering Stickam's ties to pornography, children and their parents should exercise caution when using the site."

This is just another adult operator looking for a back door to the youth market," she said. "For youth without parental understanding and controls in place, this can be dangerous."

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 03:59 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 10:27 PM | Permalink

Tampa, Florida – If the red flags were going to go up, this was the time. Thursday night, Tampa Police were conducting a random sex offender check and knocked on 52-year-old Raymond Gomez’s door. When he answered, he was naked. “He kind of stood behind [the door], and his eyes were as big as saucers,” Ofr. Felicia Pecora recalled. “I just thought, he looked like people look when they just get out… when they’re naked and you catch them… So, I said, ‘Are you naked?’ And he said, ‘Yes.’ And I said, ‘Well, put your pants on because we’re going to do a check on you.’” Gomez did and then let the two officers inside. But as he was talking to them, another red flag went up. Ofr. Pecora noticed he was pacing deliberately in front of the bedroom door. “That’s when I kinda stepped in the bedroom. And as I walked past the door, I saw a young girl in the bed like this,” Ofr. Pecora said as she made a motion showing a stiff body, “with her hand kinda hidden, and I said, ‘Who are you?’”

The girl first told officers she was 18, but she is 15. She said she’d met Gomez about seven months ago through a Christian chat room online. But neither of them were using their computers to access the internet. They were using cell phones. “A lot of times parents don’t realize kids can get access to the internet through their cell phone. What she said was a 50-cent chat session, and that’s how they met,” Ofr. Pecora said.

Since then, the two had talked on the phone about God and religion. Eventually, Gomez visited the girl at her house in Bartow when her parents weren’t home. Since then, police say the two had had sex about 20 times at various locations, including Gomez’s home Thursday night.

The girl told officers, earlier in the day, Gomez had driven to her house in Bartow to pick her up. Gomez was arrested Thursday night for violating the conditions of his parole, which include staying at least 1,000 feet from a child, not using the internet and keeping a driving log. Gomez has been a registered sex offender since 2002, when he was charged with having sex with a child under the age of 16 in Hillsborough county.

Detectives think there is at least one more victim. If you have any information, contact Tampa Police.

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 03:54 PM | Permalink

AP WorldStreamTuesday, 07/03/07, By Tom Hester Jr., Associated Press Writer

Trenton, N.J. (AP) - Nearly 150 convicted New Jersey sex offenders had profiles on the social networking Internet site MySpace.com, with more than half either on probation or parole, the state attorney general said Tuesday. We have the proof in hand to confirm the worst fears of New Jersey's concerned parents and educators -- that sex offenders are active on Web sites used by children and teenagers," Attorney General Anne Milgram said. He said the sex offenders on probation and parole can be subjected to tougher prohibitions against Internet use.

MySpace agreed in May to provide states with e-mail and Internet addresses of sex offenders, bowing to requests from attorneys general in eight states who had pressured MySpace to disclose the information. It built a database on sex offenders, removed about 7,000 profiles from the site nationally and turned names over to law enforcement in all 50 states, officials said. The site has about 180 million profiles.

The names of the registered sex offenders were turned over to New Jersey authorities after the Attorney General's Office issued a May 21 subpoena. A second subpoena was served on June 29 seeking additional information from MySpace.com. Milgram said her office will review the list of sex offenders identified through MySpae and try to determine the exact nature of the offenders' activities on the site. Also, she said other social networking Web sites will be asked to cross-check their user profiles with publicly available lists of registered sex offenders and provide names of any sex offenders to her office. "The information provided by MySpace is only a first step," Milgram said. Social networking sites such as MySpace allow users to create online profiles with photos, music and personal information, let them send messages to one another and view other profiles. Milgram said MySpace included names, e-mail addresses and Internet protocol addresses of convicted sex offenders who had registered with state authorities. According to MySpace records: -- The 141 New Jersey sex offenders logged onto MySpace 34,000 times during the time they were registered with the site, which ranged from a few months to two years. Many logged onto the site hundreds of times.

-- 43 MySpace users were New Jersey parolees and another 37 on probation. The other 61 are registered New Jersey sex offenders, but neither on parole nor probation. The Attorney General's Office has turned over the information to parole and probation officials to check for violations, while the state police will review data for potential use in investigations. Connecticut, for instance, recently charged two sex offenders with violating parole by creating a MySpace profile without permission from parole officials.

New Jersey sex offenders who violate parole face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $15,000.

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children one in seven children in America between ages 10 and 17 is sexually solicited online.

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 09:27 PM | Permalink

Here is some information about an Arizona ICAC Task Force case that was recently adjudicated.

The Arrest
In 2004, Keith Alan Jarrett, age 50, was arrested for possession of Internet-traded child pornography. Jarrett admitted to his crimes and said that he knew that child pornography was illegal. Jarrett immediately blamed his collection of child pornography on prescribed testosterone injections that had been given to him by a physician. The injections, he said, turned him into a “sexual superman.”

An Alleged Medical Problem
According to a letter later written by Jarrett, the testosterone injections had the following effect:

The shots slowly consumed me. They turned me into a mad man, with uncontrollable sexual urges. At the time I was oblivious to it because I felt great and was now dependent on them. I felt like a sexual superman.

I discovered Online chat rooms. My sexual urges now turned to the internet. I started spending every waking moment in chat rooms, opening any and every link that chatters posted. I was going through profiles looking for porn. I was masturbating constantly, 6 or 7 times a day, sometimes all day long if situation allowed it. I was in there night and day, watching web cams, reading nasty conversations, collecting photos, and masturbating. And to say there was some child porn and other inappropriate photos being posted in chat rooms, would be an understatement. They were every where.

The Explanation
Jarrett’s attorney began to build a defense around the testosterone-injection causation theory. The attorney, Antonio Zuniga, consulted with Dr. Richard Krueger M.D. of the Columbia University Medical Center Department of Psychiatry.

Dr. Krueger examined 12 documents related to the Jarrett case including reports by physicians, a polygraph operator and Mr. Jarrett himself. Dr. Krueger never personally interviewed Jarrett and did not review the police reports documenting the investigation. 

Dr. Krueger authored a letter that Jarrett’s defense counsel used in his defense.  In the letter, Dr. Krueger said that Jarrett had a history of being sexually victimized as a boy by an adult, and said that the history of victimzation could increase also his predisposition to view child pornography.

Dr. Krueger also documented the findings of others who said that Jarrett suffers from depressive disorder, alcohol abuse, and hepatitis C.

According to Dr. Krueger, Mr. Jarrett “engaged in his acquisition of child pornography while under the influence of testosterone.”

Here is an excerpt from a letter by Dr. Krueger to Antonio Zuniga, lawyer for Keith Jarrett:

It is my opinion, with a reasonable degree of medical certainty, that Mr. Jarrett during the period from approximately January of 2003 through November 2004 developed an excessive sexual drive which resulted in, among other things, his acquisition of child pornography, as a result of receiving excessive dose of testosterone from his medical physician. It is also my opinion, with a reasonable degree of medical certainty, that without these testosterone injections, Mr. Jarrett would not have engaged in the acquisition of child pornography.

It is also my opinion, with a reasonable degree of medical certainty, that even with an admission of guilt to crimes involving possession and/or distribution of child pornography that Mr. Jarrett’s risk of actually abusing a child is remote, and that he could be safely managed in the community.

The Sentence
Jarrett decided not to try his unusual defense before a trial court or a jury. On June 14, 2007 Jarrett waived trial and plead guilty to two counts of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor (child pornography) in Maricopa County (AZ) Superior Court. He was sentenced to five years incarceration, lifetime probation, registration as a sex offender, monitoring by a global positioning device and prohibition from consuming alcohol.

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 09:56 PM | Permalink

AZ - Holbrook PD, Navajo County SO, AZ DPS &  Navajo County Attorney - Unlawful image suspect sentenced - (ICAC Task Force)

On May 25, 2007 Calvin Craig Bessent, age 44, was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison and lifetime probation after pleading guilty to state charges of furnishing harmful items to a minor and attempted sexual exploitation of a minor (child pornography).  Bessent is unmarried and unemployed. He was living with his mother at the time of his arrest.

The investigation was handled by the Holbrook Police Department and the Navajo County Sheriff’s Office. Investigators learned that on March 9, 2006 Bessent began an online relationship with a 15-year-old victim.  During their communications Bessent had sent numerous pornographic images to the victim.  A search warrant was served on Bessent’s residence and evidence was seized.  Bessent made admissions to the offenses and was arrested.  An Arizona Department of Public Safety forensic examiner reviewed the computer and found an unlawful image depicting the sexual exploitation of a minor.

This investigation was found to be linked to another ongoing case when it was leaned that the victim had also been communicating with another suspect. The case against the second suspect is pending.

The Navajo County Attorney’s Office handled the prosecution. 

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 02:21 PM | Permalink

06/29/07. Sandra Yi Reporting. From www.ksl.com

A warning for parents: If your child has a computer, state authorities want you to check it for any contact with a suspected child predator. Investigators say the man went online specifically to meet young girls for sex, and they believe he's already had contact with several girls.

They arrested Spencer Turner last week when he went to meet who he thought was a 13-year-old girl. Authorities say Turner asked the girl to meet him so he could kiss and fondle her. Turner didn't know that girl was actually an undercover officer.

After his arrest, investigators learned that Turner may have had sex with two underage girls he met online, and another girl he met while running in a Murray neighborhood. They say the encounters happened in the past two and a half years.

Chris Ahearn, who oversees the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force says, "His purpose was very specific and expressed: to engage in sexual activity with a minor."

Turner used the alias "Scott Taylor" on a buddy list and used the screen name "boredstiff_89" in Internet chat rooms.

Officials are urging parents to check their children's computers for any contact with Turner. He is in jail for enticing a minor over the Internet.

Ahearn says, "It's inherently dangerous for anyone to allow their children to talk to strangers. Their contact on the Internet should be with family and friends…We want to protect the children of the state."

This is the second recent arrest, which has prompted state authorities to send a warning to parents. Last week, the ICAC Task Force arrested Jeffery Burton for sexually abusing a six-year-old boy, and manufacturing and distributing child pornography. Investigators believe there are more victims. Authorities say this kind of crime is prevalent.

Anyone with information about Turner or possible victims is asked to call Lt. McQuiston of the Utah Attorney General's Office at (801) 514-4287.

Retrieved July 1, 2007 from http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=1415676

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 12:32 AM | Permalink

International Herald Tribune. The Associated Press. 06/28/07.

Murphy, Texas: A sting in which police teamed up with the "Dateline NBC" television show to catch online pedophiles was supposed to send a warning to other pedophiles. Instead, it has turned into a fiasco.

One of the 25 men caught in the sting — a prosecutor from a neighboring county — committed suicide when police came to arrest him. The city manager who approved the operation lost his job in the ensuing furor. And the district attorney is refusing to prosecute any of the men, saying many of the cases were tainted by the involvement of amateurs. "Certainly these people should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, but the fact that this was all done for television cameras raises some questions," said Mayor Bret Baldwin.

It is the first time in nine "Dateline NBC: To Catch a Predator" stings across the United States in the past year and a half that prosecutors did not pursue charges. "Dateline" has made prime-time entertainment out of contacting would-be child molesters over the Internet, luring them to a meeting place, and videotaping their humiliating confrontations with reporter Chris Hansen.  "Dateline" works with an activist group called Perverted Justice, which supplies adults who frequent Internet chat rooms, posing as underage boys and girls, and try to collect incriminating sex talk.

City manager Craig Sherwood approved such an operation in this well-to-do community of 11,000 after being approached by "Dateline" and Perverted Justice, but he never informed the mayor or the City Council. He said secrecy was necessary for the sting to be effective.

Over four days in November, 24 men were arrested at a home in one of Murphy's newer neighborhoods after allegedly arranging to meet boys or girls there. Some other suspects contacted Perverted Justice decoys online but never showed up at the house. Among them was Louis Conradt Jr., an assistant prosecutor from neighboring Kauffman County, who allegedly engaged in a sexually explicit online chat with an adult posing as a 13-year-old boy.

As police knocked at his door and a "Dateline" camera crew waited in the street, Conradt shot himself. His sister, Patricia Conradt, told the City Council that police acted as "a judge, jury and executioner that was encouraged by an out-of-control reality show."

Then, last month, Collin County District Attorney John Roach dropped all charges. He said that in 16 of the cases, he had no jurisdiction, since neither the suspects nor the decoys were in the county during the online chats. As for the rest of the cases, he said neither police nor NBC could guarantee the chat logs were authentic and complete. "The fact that somebody besides police officers were involved is what makes this case bad," said Roach, who was informed of the sting in advance but did not participate. "If professionals had been running the show, they would have done a much better job rather than being at the beck and call of outsiders."

As details of the suicide emerged, Murphy's mayor, City Council and most of its residents learned for the first time that potential molesters were being lured to their city. Many were furious. "They can chase predators all they want, but they shouldn't do it in a populated area with children, two blocks from an elementary school," said Lisa Watson, 33, who lives down the road from the sting house and has three children.Two weeks ago, the City Council voted to buy out the city manager's contract for $255,000.

NBC's Hansen said Murphy is the only place the show has encountered such resistance. "I don't want to get involved in the DA's business or the police business," he said. "I can tell you in the other locations, these issues did not come up."

Eric Nichols, a Texas deputy attorney general, said that when law enforcement authorities pull an Internet sex sting, officers posing as decoys follow strict rules. Detailed chat logs are kept to ensure that "sex talk" is initiated by the potential predator. That way, a defendant cannot claim entrapment.

Eric Chase, a defense attorney specializing in sex crimes, said stings are the job of police, not TV crews. "Police should not be abdicating a very important function to either private organizations or entertainment organizations," he said.

Retrieved June 29, 2007 from http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/28/america/NA-GEN-US-Sex-Predator-Sting.php

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 09:37 PM | Permalink

From wbbm780 (online). 06/23/07.

HARVARD, Ill. - A Harvard man is charged with a total of 20 counts for possession and dissemination of child pornography after sheriff's seized computers and data storage devices from his northwest suburban home Friday.

Sean V. Thompson, of Durkee Rd. in Harvard, was charged Friday with 10 each of dissemination of child pornography, a Class 1 felony, and child pornography, a Class 3 felony, according to a release from the McHenry County Sheriff’s department.

About 7:25 a.m., McHenry County sheriff's police served and executed a search warrant at Thompson’s Durkee Road home after receiving information from the Illinois Attorney General’s Illinois Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Child Exploitation Task Force in April 2007. The Task Force discovered that people in the Durkee Road residence may have received and disseminated child pornography via the internet, the release said.

The sheriff’s department initiated an investigation and Friday morning seized three computers and other data storage devices.

Police said more charges are expected in this ongoing investigation. A court date and bond has yet to be set by a judge for Thompson, the release said.

The Chicago Sun-Times.
Retrieved June 23 2007 from http://www.wbbm780.com/pages/609591.php?contentType=4&contentId=634194

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 04:22 AM | Permalink

Sheriff's deputies posing as a 14-year old on the Internet said man offered cell phone for sex.

From The Detroit News online  Santiago Esparza / The Detroit News

A 37-year-old Dearborn Public Schools employee is expected to be arraigned today on felony charges that accuse him of trying to set up a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old boy in exchange for a cellular phone.

The "boy" was actually a member of the Wayne County Sheriff's Internet Crime Unit, police said. Deputies arrested the man Wednesday afternoon in a city just outside Detroit.

Steven Lysogorski is scheduled for arraignment in Hamtramck District Court on one count each of arranging for child sexually abusive activity and using the Internet to commit a crime, according to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans said Lysogorski made contact with the "boy" five times in the last week. Lysogorski's plan was to have sex with the boy in his Toyota Camry at the time of his arrest, Evans said.

"It's very disheartening to see someone who has one of the most sacred trusts possible, the supervision of children, allegedly violate that trust by engaging in this type of behavior," Evans said.

Lysogorski worked in middle schools in the Dearborn Public Schools district for about 15 years, Evans said. He supervises middle school students who receive detention and works with at-risk students, Evans said

"I am certainly interested now in his past history," Evans said.

Lysogorski also works for Major League Baseball as an official scorer for Detroit Tigers games, WXYZ-TV reported. The suspect, who is not married or a parent, has no criminal record.

Dearborn school district officials declined comment until they receive confirmation of the suspect's identity from law enforcement officials.

Evans said his Internet Crime Unit deputies talk with 200-300 sexual predators monthly and that catching one is never an easy task.

"The problem is significant," he said. "Kids are always vulnerable."

The arrest comes as Attorney General Mike Cox turned over to law enforcement the names of 200 sex offenders who have pages on the popular online site www.MySpace.com.

Retrieved June 23, 2007 from http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070622/METRO01/706220370/1006

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 04:18 AM | Permalink

Man accused of using district computer

By Anthony Lane. From The (Colorado Springs ) Gazette (online). 06/22/07

A man accused of sending child pornography from a Penrose Library computer had been banned months earlier from the library district for using a Web site that links to child pornography, police said.

William James Huffstutter, a registered sex offender, was jailed earlier this month on suspicion of uploading child pornography in December to a Yahoo account. Although he was banned from the library last summer, Huffstutter is thought to have used a computer in December that does not require a library card for access, said Colorado Springs police detective Clay Blackwell.

Investigators searched 27 Internet computers at the library Wednesday morning, looking for evidence that Huffstutter or others used them to view or send child pornography, but did not find anything new, Blackwell said. He said library software, including a program that screens out sexual images, is apparently effective at scouring Web browsing history and keeping the computers free of unwanted images.

Huffstutter, 34, was arrested after police got a tip through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that Yahoo found child pornography on one of its servers posted from a library computer, Blackwell said. The e-mail account used to upload the images was linked to Huffstutter using a cell phone number listed with the account, he said.

It was the second tip police have received this year about child pornography uploaded with a library computer, Blackwell said.The other involved someone uploading sexual images of children and also logos for credit cards, suggesting possible material for a Web site, he said. That case went nowhere because the library does not keep track of who has used each computer, and its network is set up so investigators cannot tell which computer within the system was used to send the illegal images, Blackwell said.

In Huffstutter's case, information from Yahoo helped investigators connect him with the illegal images without tying him to a particular computer, Blackwell said.

Investigators also obtained a report Wednesday detailing the library's suspicion that Huffstutter was using a special search engine July 27, 2006, that provides links to child pornography, Blackwell said.

Huffstutter was suspended in August from using any library facilities for a year, library officials said.Dee Vazquez, a Pikes Peak Library District spokeswoman, said it is the library's policy to report suspected crimes. She said the library has suspended a handful of others from the library or from using its computers for looking at sexual images, but Huffstutter's case is the only one she knows about involving possibly illegal images. She said she did not know why last year's case would not have been reported, though she noted documents in that instance make no mention of him viewing child pornography, only of a Web site he is suspected of visiting.

Huffstutter's past includes a 1991 conviction for sexually assaulting a child, according to Pueblo court records.He remains in jail on $10,000 bond.

Retrieved June 23, 2007 from http://www.gazette.com/articles/library_23944___article.html/huffstutter_child.html

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 03:29 PM | Permalink

From Redding.com. By Record Searchlight Staff. 06/19/07

The Redding, California library will gird its Internet access policy against stealth porn surfers.

The City Council, acting as the Municipal Library Board, voted 3-2 on Monday to explicitly limit unfiltered Internet access to legitimate research purposes. The policy also spells out Internet content the library will label offensive or harmful to minors.

The board rejected a Shasta County Library policy allowing unfiltered Internet access to any patron older than 18 who requested it. Customers could have clandestinely surfed porn sites under that policy, council members Ken Murray and Rick Bosetti said.

The Shasta Public Library Committee had urged the board to keep the old policy, noting the more restrictive rules would force librarians to devote time to monitoring Internet use -- time that could be used to help patrons.

Councilman Patrick Jones also favored the more restrictive policy.

Mayor Dick Dickerson and Vice Mayor Mary Stegall voted against it.

Retrieved June 20, 2007 from http://www.redding.com/news/2007/jun/19/north-state-briefs/

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 09:40 AM | Permalink

By D'Arcy Doran, Associated Press Writer. 06/18/07

London - A team of international investigators infiltrated an Internet chat room used by pedophiles who streamed live videos of children being raped, rescuing 31 children and identifying more than 700 suspects worldwide.

Undercover officers in Britain, the U.S., Canada and Australia busted up the pedophile ring using surveillance techniques more commonly associated with fighting terrorism and organized crime.

The chat room, which was called "Kids the Light of Our Lives," featured images, including live videos, of children — some only months old — being subjected to horrific sexual abuse, said Jim Gamble, chief executive of Britain's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center.

"You could go and if you were in the club, arrange a time and a place when online you could view a child being raped and brutalized in real time," he said.

Police analyzed images and videos traded by the chat room's members for the smallest clues that could help them identify, locate and rescue the victims.

More than 15 children were found in Britain, Gamble said, declining to give further details. A Canadian official said authorities there arrested 24 Canadians and rescued seven Canadian children as part of the probe. Four people have been arrested in Australia, including one who was previously convicted of child pornography charges, officials said Tuesday.

Describing it as "a massive leap forward," Gamble said the investigation involved agencies from 35 countries. Investigators made the case public after the sentencing of ringleader Timothy David Martyn Cox on Monday.

Cox, 27, was given an indeterminate jail sentence, meaning he will remain in prison until authorities decide he is no longer a threat to children. One of his accomplices, Gordon Mackintosh, has pleaded guilty to 27 charges of making, possessing and distributing indecent images and videos. He is awaiting sentencing.

The probe began in Canada in the spring of 2005, then expanded internationally in August 2006 after Canadian officials tipped off authorities in London that they believed the chat room's host was based in Britain.

"Every arrest we make we seize computers and information," said Detective Sgt. Kim Scanlan, of the Toronto police sex crimes unit.

Working with their Canadian counterparts, British police infiltrated the chat room posing as contributors. They traced the host to a farmhouse in Buxhall, 90 miles northeast of London, where Cox lived with his parents and sister. He had operated the chat room out of his bedroom while working for the family's microbrewery.

The evidence police collected in the probe documented shocking abuse, Gamble said.

"(This was) not sharing a historic video ... but a child brought into a room — on Web cam — and brutalized for the pleasure of some deviant individual who might not even be in the same country as that child," Gamble said.

Cox had been a member of a U.S.-based online pedophile ring shut down by U.S. authorities in March 2006, Gamble said. His online identity, "Son of God," was believed to be a reference to the host of the "Kiddypics" and "Kiddyvids" site in the U.S. case who adopted the username "G.O.D."

Police arrested Cox on Sept. 28, charging him with nine offenses related to possessing and distributing indecent images of children. Forensic teams examining Cox's computer found 75,960 indecent and explicit images and evidence that he had supplied 11,491 images to other site users.

But as Cox was taken from the house in handcuffs, police stepped up their operation. British and Canadian officers immediately assumed Cox's identity and secretly ran the site for 10 days before shutting it down — gathering evidence on the chat room's hundreds of members. Police at no point distributed illegal images, Gamble said.

Weeks later, British police saw the chat room had been resurrected. Working with Canadian, Australian and U.S. authorities in December, they again infiltrated the chat room, working around the clock. Authorities traced the new host to an apartment in Welwyn Garden City, 30 miles north of London, belonging to the 33-year-old Mackintosh, a manager at a video streaming company owned by the Italian Internet company Tiscali.

After he was arrested, police took over his identity and continued to run the chat room, collecting more evidence. Mackintosh told investigators that every few months he was overcome by guilt and would delete all his files, but he was addicted and would start downloading again, Gamble said. He had 5,167 indecent and explicit images and 392 indecent movie files on his computer when he was arrested.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined to comment because their investigation is continuing in at least 12 states, which were not identified. Police in Germany are also investigating two men in connection with the ring, the country's Federal Crime Office said.

It was unclear whether any of the rescued children had been reported missing, but authorities said the investigation was not linked to the widely publicized disappearance of Madeleine McCann, a 4-year-old British girl who vanished nearly two months ago in southern Portugal.

"Anyone who even thinks about going online to share an image, to view an image, to arrange access to a child or to share live access to a child is now taking a hell of a chance," Gamble said.

Retrieved June 19, 2007 from  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070619/ap_on_re_eu/britain_pedophile_ring;_ylt=AlK3hqSrzfvBI21bmscHTMwEtbAF

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 02:15 AM | Permalink

From TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press/Washington Post. . By Alan Sipress. 06/16/07.

Washington - Earlier this year, one animated character in Second Life, a popular online fantasy world, allegedly raped another character. Some Internet bloggers dismissed the simulated attack as nothing more than digital fiction. But police in Belgium, according to newspapers there, opened an investigation into whether a crime had been committed. No one has yet been charged.

Then in May, authorities in Germany announced that they were looking into a separate incident involving virtual abuse in Second Life after receiving pictures of an animated child character engaging in simulated sex with an animated adult figure. Though adults created both characters, the activity could run afoul of German laws against child pornography, prosecutors said.

As recent advances in Internet technology have spurred millions of users to build and explore new digital worlds, the creations have imported not only their users' dreams but also their vices. These alternative realms are testing the long-held notions of what is criminal and whether law enforcement should patrol the digital frontier.

"People have an interest in their property and the integrity of their person. But in virtual reality, these interests are not tangible but built from intangible data and software," said Greg Lastowka, a professor at the Rutgers School of Law at Camden in New Jersey.

Some virtual activities clearly violate the law, like trafficking stolen credit card numbers, he said. Others, like virtual muggings and sex crimes, are harder to define, though they can cause real-life anguish for users.

Simulated violence and thievery have long been a part of virtual reality, especially in the computer games that pioneered online digital role-playing. At times, however, this conduct has crossed the lines of what even seasoned game players consider acceptable.

In World of Warcraft, a popular online game with an estimated 8 million participants worldwide, some regions of this fantasy domain have grown so lawless that players said they fear to brave them alone. Gangs of animated characters have repeatedly preyed upon lone travelers, killing them and making off with their virtual belongings.

Two years ago, Japanese authorities arrested a man for carrying out a series of virtual muggings in another popular game, Lineage II, by using software to beat up and rob characters in the game and then sell the virtual loot for real money.

Julian Dibbell, a prominent commentator on digital culture, chronicled the first known case of sexual assault in cyberspace in 1993, when virtual reality was still in its infancy. A participant in LambdaMOO, a community of users who congregated in a virtual California house, had used a computer program called a "voodoo doll" to force another player's character to act out being raped. Though this virtual world was rudimentary and the assault simulated, Dibbell recounted that the trauma was jarringly real. The woman whose character was attacked later wept - "post-traumatic tears were streaming down her face" - as she vented her outrage and demand for revenge in an online posting, he wrote.

Since then, advances in high-speed Internet, user interfaces and graphic design have rendered virtual reality more real, allowing users to endow their characters with greater humanity and identify ever more closely with their creations.

Nowhere is this truer than in Second Life, where more than 6 million people have registered to create characters called avatars, cartoon human figures that respond to keyboard commands and socialize with others' characters. The breadth of creativity and interaction in Second Life is greater than on nearly any other virtual-reality Web site because there is no game or other objective; it is just an open-ended, lifelike digital environment.

Moreover, Linden Labs, which operates Second Life, has given users the software tools to design their characters and online setting as they see fit; some avatars look like their real-life alter egos, while others are fantastical creations.

This virtual frontier has attracted a stunning array of immigrants. Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, has opened a virtual campaign headquarters. Reuters and other news agencies have set up virtual bureaus. IBM has developed office space for employee avatars. On May 22, Maldives became the first country to open an embassy in Second Life, with Sweden following last week.

Second Life is intended only for adults, and about 15 percent of the properties on the site - in essence, space on computer servers that appear as parcels of land - have been voluntarily flagged by their residents as having mature material. Though some is relatively innocent, in some locations avatars act out drug use, child abuse, rape and various forms of sadomasochism.

"This is the double-edged sword of the wonderful creativity in Second Life," Dibbell said in an interview.

One user found herself the unwilling neighbor of an especially sordid underage sex club. "Tons of men would drop in looking for sex with little girls and boys. I abhorred the club," wrote the user on a Second Life blog under the avatar name Anna Valeeva. She even tried to evict the club by buying their land, she wrote.

The question of what is criminal in virtual reality is complicated by disagreements among countries over what is legal even in real life. For example, virtual renderings of child abuse are not a crime in the United States but are considered illegal pornography in some European countries, including Germany.

After German authorities began their investigation, Linden Labs issued a statement on its official blog condemning the virtual depictions of child pornography. Linden Labs said it was cooperating with law enforcement and had banned two participants in the incident, a 54-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman, from Second Life.

Some Second Life users objected on the blog that Linden Labs had gone too far.

Philip Rosedale, the founder and chief executive of Linden Labs, said in an interview that Second Life activities should be governed by real-life laws for the time being.

Rosedale said he hopes participants in Second Life eventually develop their own virtual legal code and justice system.

"In the ideal case, the people who are in Second Life should think of themselves as citizens of this new place and not citizens of their countries," he said.

Retrieved June 17, 2007 from http://www.twincities.com/ci_6156915?source=rss

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 08:59 PM | Permalink

From the Sierra Vista Herald (online). By Gentry Braswell. Herald/Review. 06/17/07.

Sierra Vista, Arizona — The Internet has drastically changed the way people live and interact in most walks of life, and it has definitively brought crime and law enforcement into the cyberage.

Virtual neighborhoods are understood to be dangerous places for children, where they are exposed to predators who enjoy potentially unsupervised online hunting grounds. By all accounts, most computer-related police work involves either online fraud or crimes involving sexual predators seeking young victims.

The mission of the Arizona Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which comprises police agencies throughout the state, including the Sierra Vista Police Department and the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office, is to bring to justice Internet sexual predators and Internet child pornographers. Participating agencies cooperate with one another in state, with other task forces throughout the United States, and through international police connections as well, said Phoenix police Sgt. Frank Kardasz. As the Internet is virtually without borders, online crime reaches across state and national borders, and investigators must follow, Kardasz said. Kardasz is the Arizona ICAC project director. He describes the task force’s caseload as “very big and growing,” though he said statistics are tough to provide because of under-reported crime involving victimized teens and children. This lack of thorough and uniform historical crime data turns out to be a common obstacle in studying crimes that involve child and teen victims of abuse, neglect, molestation or exploitation.

Kardasz clarifies the operating procedure for ICAC’s online stings, and contrasts the ICAC ethics with those of such popular television programs as NBC Dateline’s “Perverted Justice.” Bungled media investigation can potentially cause problems with prosecution and follow-up investigation, through such mistakes as violation of suspects’ rights or unprofessional methods, Kardasz warns in his in-depth online ethics analysis at www.kardasz.org. He describes a potential lack of oversight for the safety and civil liability of respective accusers, and a risk of so-called “trial by media.”

The task force is partially grant funded through the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Local agencies also contribute funds. The organization began in 1998, as the impact of the Internet grew obvious, when 12 agencies throughout the United States received the first block of ICAC grants to fund the law enforcement and public safety education effort. “Our undercover detectives who go online to catch predators find no shortage of deviants who wish to victimize teens. Our investigations into child pornography indicate that traffic in unlawful images is rampant,” Kardasz said. “I don’t know about the future of ICAC, but the future of Internet crime is that the crimes will continue, and continue to increase,” he added.

Growing caseload, new investigative field
Local investigators see computer-related crime and police work increasing, too. Cochise County Sheriff’s Office Detective Bobby Gerencser, the computer forensics investigator for the county, said the Internet age has made it much easier for predators of children to perpetrate their crime and network among themselves. “Prior to the Internet these child-porn people, they had a hard time getting their stuff traded back and forth. Once the Internet came along, it’s all over the place,” Gerencser said. He said much child porn is imported electronically from foreign lands such as Holland and Russia, for example. “Yahoo! Groups is another place where this stuff gets sent around, and MySpace.com has become a big problem. You get these kids who put their full name and address in their MySpace.com profiles,” Gerencser said.

Popular social networking Web sites like MySpace.com have become lurking zones for predators because so many underage people frequently surf them, often free from watchful eyes of parents and teachers and unaware of the real presence and danger of online predators. Online supervision of children by their parents is a new but necessary part of life. “Parents should watch what their kids are doing, that even includes cell phones and computers. Kids are very vulnerable,” Gerencser said. Nearly every week in Phoenix there is an arrest for trying to “lure a minor,” Gerencser said. “Our caseload is steadily increasing, as far as Internet crimes,” he said. “Usually, Internet crimes are a little bit harder (to investigate) because of having to locate where things are coming and going.”

Many identity-theft cases also are Internet related. “Our meth heads have computers, and these meth heads are trading in identities,” Gerencser said. For example, the detective said, convenience stores have hired drug addicts, who add to the growing ID theft problem by stealing customers identities to fund their addiction. People foolishly leave sensitive nformation in their vehicles, and personal information is now the target of auto burglars just like stereos and radar detectors.

To protect children from victimization and predators, families need to take extra caution for a safe online experience. Common sense on the consumer’s part, reiterated Sgt. Randy Arthur, goes a long way online. Arthur is with the Arizona Department of Public Safety computer-forensics unit.

There are many Web sites, such as www.netsmartz.org, to help parents learn to provide a safe online experience for youngsters. “There are all kinds of ways parents can keep an eye on their kids,” Gerencser added. Parents can clandestinely observe their children’s Internet activity, just as police can observe suspects’ traffic online.

Traits of cybercrime; police priorities
Like in Cochise County, Arthur said his office’s casework mainly involves crimes against children or fraud- and forgery-related crimes. There also are some arson and homicide computer forensics needed at times because of the common use of e-mail and instant messaging these days. “It’s growing more and more down here, as far as identity theft,” Gerencser added about Cochise County. Right now, he is the only computer forensics detective for the county. Detective Angela Davis serves that role for the Sierra Vista Police Department. It’s tough for police agencies to keep up with the growing field of computer investigation and forensics. “We currently have a backlog of probably 70 or 80 cases, and some of them are a year old,” he said. The backlog occurs as higher priority cases, such as those involving homicide, child pornography or child molestation investigations, must be taken on first, Arthur said. Gerencser said he sees the same sort of backlog locally and at essentially every agency he interacts with. The DPS forensics unit in Phoenix consists of a sergeant and four officers. The one in Tucson comprises a sergeant and two officers. In response to the growing caseload, the DPS office is adding a new examiner in the next two months, Arthur said.

In keeping up with the changing face of law enforcement, the already familiar problem of payroll and staff recruiting remains, while crime changes with the times.“To keep up, it’s going to be tough. Patrol enforcement’s even getting more expensive,” Arthur said. He reiterated that recruiting in the field of law enforcement is very competitive in Arizona. It’s a challenge agencies in Southeastern Arizona must continually face.

And police must keep up with the technology of the day. Throughout the computer industries, all fields understand the implication of “Moore’s Law,” which predictively asserts today’s cutting-edge computer technology grows obsolete in mere months. The Internet age has placed law enforcement in that perpetual technological race, just as it has the criminals police pursue in cyberspace.

Gerencser said police investigators must reckon with the fact that people who perpetrate crimes online band together, network, departmentalize and “have their own hackers.” There are Web sites dedicated to networking for computer users, or hackers who seek to keep ahead of police computer forensics or other proprietary and security guidelines in general, Gerencser said. For example, Web site www.metasploit.com describes the Metasploit Project as providing useful information to people who perform “(security) penetration testing, IDS (intrusion detection systems) signature development, and (operating-system flaw) exploit research.” Using forensic software, police can, for example, search online chat-room histories for evidence and recover deleted files.

“There are several different types of forensic software,” Gerencser said. “A lot of cases are solved by cell phones or computers.” Cell phone forensics currently are more complex and time consuming because their proprietary operating systems vary more diversely than do personal computers, Gerencser said. Gerencser’s office contains investigative hardware such as a test hard drive, a thing called a “shadow box” that examines contents of suspect hard drives, and a “write-blocker” that prevents investigators from being able to place content on hard drives under investigation and hopefully preventing suspects from claiming police planted evidence.

The hazards of this kind of detective work can be different than those of traditional police work. “It’s rewarding because the work we do helps put pedophiles and major criminals in prison for a long time. The bad part is the images and stuff the detectives need to look at,” Arthur said.

REPORTER Gentry Braswell can be reached at 515-4680 or by e-mail at gentry.braswell@svherald.com.

Retrieved June 17, 2007 from http://www.svherald.com/articles/2007/06/17/news/doc4674c9250bf85984433636.prt

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 01:16 PM | Permalink

From the LivingstonDaily.com. By Aileen Wingblad. Gannett News Service.

A Milford, Michigan man known for his work as a freelance photographer of local youth athletes and community events could be facing years in prison after he allegedly set up a video camera in his home to watch young female visitors undress.

Police said a subsequent search of his home turned up a large collection of child pornography, leading to additional charges.

Michael Sharpe, 59, was arraigned last Thursday in Oakland County’s 52-1 District Court before Magistrate Michael Batchik on eight counts of possession of child sexually abusive material and two counts of felony eavesdropping. Each of the child pornography charges is punishable by up to four years in prison. The eavesdropping charges carry penalties up to two years in prison. He’s free after posting 10 percent of a $20,000 bond.

According to Milford police investigators, Sharpe had placed a video camera on a cabinet in a bedroom used by two sisters, ages 12 and 14, to change outfits several times for a photo shoot by Sharpe. The photo shoot was conducted in another room at his home in late May.

The girls and their mother became acquainted with Sharpe several years ago during an athletic event they were participating in and Sharpe was photographing, police said. He has reportedly photographed them many times in the past, and recently invited the girls to come over and pose so he could try out some new equipment. The girls’ mother reportedly accompanied them into the bedroom each time they changed outfits.

Milford Police Lt. Tom Callahan said the girls and their mother noticed the video camera right away, but didn’t realize it was running until they had changed clothes multiple times. At that point, the girls’ mother took the tape from the camera, left the home and contacted police.

After police viewed the tape, they called Sharpe to the police station for an interview. They then received Sharpe’s permission to search his home, where the child pornography was discovered, officials said. His computer was confiscated and turned over to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office computer crime lab for investigation. There’s no word yet on whether or not child pornography has been found on the computer.

Callahan said so far there’s no indication that Sharpe molested the girls or that he has secretly videotaped other youngsters in his home. However, an investigation continues.

Sharpe has no prior criminal history. Sharpe, who works full-time for a computer company, frequently photographed events as an independent contractor for the Milford Times.

Retrieved June 16, 2007 from http://www.dailypressandargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070605/NEWS01/70605006/1002

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 12:33 AM | Permalink

From Fox21.com (online). 06/08/07. By Christina Salvo, csalvo@fox21news.com

A registered sex offender living in Colorado Springs is in custody on charges of sexual exploitation of a child. Detectives said 34-year-old William Huffstutter was distributing images of child pornography on the internet using computers at a Pikes Peak Library.

Internet use at the library may be free, but that does not mean people are free to surf the web for anything. Sydene Dean works at the Pikes Peak Library. She said, "We do have a filter called Websense." This prevents users from viewing sexually explicit images over the internet or at least in some areas. Dean said, "E-mail isn't filtered it must be something the internet provider, like Yahoo! monitoring what's going over their site." That is how detectives were tipped off to Huffstutter.

Detective Adam Romine said, "We had information that Mr. Huffstutter had been sending images from the library downtown."

In February detectives received a cybertip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, who was alerted by Yahoo! that an e-mail account of theirs was being used to distribute images of child pornography. It was the tip that launched the four month investigation into Huffstutter, but one that detectives said should have come much sooner and from the library itself. Romine said, "He at one point was ban from the library for using their computers for viewing child pornography on one of their computers." Detectives said that was in June of last year and he was not reported to them by the library.

The library did not want to get into specifics but said it was only a temporary suspension that as issued because Huffstutter accessed a site that the they say only potentially contained child pornography.

Though Wednesday's arrest would suggest child pornography was what Huffstutter was searching for, detectives said they will never know since the library does not monitor or retain who is looking at what when on their computers. Dean said, "You sign up on a computer so for that day with info. After that day, I'm not a tech person, but that info is lost on a daily basis."

The library defends its actions saying while it is not logistically realistic to keep such information for longer than a day, they said more importantly, sharing such information is an infringement of privacy rights protecting their users' freedom of speech.

Posted by Kelly Brown. kbrown@fox21news.com

Retrieved June 16, 2007 from http://fox21news.com/Global/story.asp?S=6626198

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 10:10 PM | Permalink

From Wis10.com. 06/07/07. Posted by Bryce Mursch

Columbia, South Carolina - A Charleston man was arrested on June 1st in an undercover Internet sting conducted by the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office. Max Hodo Culp, 44, is an employee at a Charleston-based computer consulting company. He was arrested on one count of criminal solicitation of a minor.

Arrest warrants allege that on February 23, 2007, Culp solicited sex on the Internet with an individual he believed to be a 13-year-old girl, but he was actually communicating with undercover Spartanburg County Sheriff's Deputies.

A search warrant was executed at Culp's residence on June 1st and resulted in the seizure of several computers, computer hard drives, and computer- related items.

The City of Charleston Police Department, also a member of the ICAC Task Force, assisted with the arrest and search.

Culp was assigned a bond of $10,000.

Retrieved June 16, 2007 from http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6609122

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 10:04 PM | Permalink

Investigators reviewing computer of former Edgewood teacher who resigned amid allegations he was viewing inappropriate images.

From The Oxford Press (online). By Denise Wilson, Staff Writer. 06/14/07

A Dayton crime lab says it gets very few requests by school districts to analyze computers to determine whether an employee has been viewing pornographic images. "But we do see a tremendous amount of child pornography and pornography in general," particularly in the workplace in city and county organizations, said Ken Betz, director of the Miami Valley Regional Crime Laboratory and the Montgomery County Coroner's Office. Betz said if cases involve child pornography — because of federal laws against either possession or distribution — they are considered "critical." "Because every one of those children are victims and if we have a case involving child pornography that's a high priority case for us because it's a child at-risk case."

The Trenton Police Division recently sent an Edgewood City School District computer used by a former first-grade Bloomfield Elementary School teacher to the Dayton crime lab for analysis. Chris Beiser, who resigned May 31, was accused of viewing either adult or child pornographic images while students were in his classroom, according to police and school officials. No charges have been filed against Beiser, 42, who was hired as a first-grade teacher in June 2000 in the Edgewood district. His personnel file indicates no history of disciplinary action. Betz said upon receiving the computer from Trenton police the locally funded lab transferred it to the Miami Valley Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory, also in Dayton, which it is partnering with on the case.

The forensics laboratory is a one-stop, full-service forensics laboratory and training center devoted entirely to the examination of digital evidence in support of criminal investigations involving, but not limited to terrorism, child pornography, homicide, violent crimes, the theft or destruction of intellectual property and Internet crime. Miami Valley Regional Crime Laboratory and other participating agencies contribute personnel and resources to staff and maintain the operations of the regional crime lab, which is sponsored by the FBI.

Betz said he is not able to discuss the Beiser case, but confirmed there has been some preliminary work done in conjunction with Trenton police. "If they find something of a nature that requires immediate attention that case would be immediately worked." If the analysis of the computer determines adult pornography sites were visited then the issue will come down to Edgewood schools' policy on viewing that material, Betz said, because it would not be a crime. Trenton police Chief Carl Ray said that the analysis of Beiser's computer would take about three months to complete. Betz said the work is being paid for with funds from the FBI, which is a branch of the Department of Justice.

Using remote desktop software, Edgewood's technology department reportedly observed Beiser viewing explicit images on his computer on May 29, according to district officials. The computer was turned over to police two days later after district officials reported the allegations to them.

Beiser was immediately removed from his classroom, his computer was confiscated and he was placed on paid administrative leave following a pre-disciplinary conference, during which Beiser allegedly refused to answer questions, according to district officials. On May 31, he submitted his letter of resignation. The district has filed a misconduct report with the Ohio Department of Education. Edgewood Schools technology policy prohibits accessing inappropriate material.

In March, the Ohio Legislature passed House Bill 79, which requires school districts and other education entities to report matters of professional misconduct to ODE.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2595 or dewilson@coxohio.com.

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 09:55 PM | Permalink

From Media Newswire.com. 06/15/07

Illinois - Collaborative undercover work by the Wheaton Police Department and Illinois Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force resulted in the arrest of a Wonder Lake man Tuesday afternoon after he arrived in Wheaton for a meeting with a child he met through the Internet.

Clarence Jackson, 39, was arrested following the undercover Internet sting operation conducted by Wheaton Police detectives and the Attorney General’s ICAC.  Jackson initially met the child in an online chat room and then set up a face-to-face meeting.  After he traveled to meet the child, he was taken into custody.  The “child” was in fact an undercover Wheaton Police detective.

Jackson was scheduled to appear in DuPage County Circuit Court Wednesday for a bond hearing on felony charges of Indecent Solicitation of a Child and Attempted Aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse.  The DuPage County State’s Attorney’s office is prosecuting the case.

The public is reminded that these charges are merely accusations.  The defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

The ICAC Task Force is one of 46 Task Force agencies in the U.S. that assist local and state law enforcement agencies.  They work to enhance the investigative response to offenders who use the Internet, online systems and other computer technology in an attempt to exploit children.

Retrieved June 16, 2007 from http://media-newswire.com/release_1052413.html

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 09:42 PM | Permalink

by Dr. Frank Kardasz

Recent disturbing incidents involving Internet crimes against children have been prominent in the media. In some incidents, the crimes have involved suspects and victims who met each other via Internet social networking sites. Social networking sites are places on the Internet where people can meet one another, communicate and interact.

Social networking and communication are normal parts of the human experience. The Internet has become an important venue for people to network, communicate and interact. Young people are naturally curious about themselves, about others, and about the world. The sites permit them to reach out to others from around the globe, sometimes with tragic results. 

There are many social networking sites. Some of them are listed below:

Why are the sites popular?
Many young people are curious and seeking relationships. The sites offer new experiences , information and a place to share common interests with others. 

How do the sites work?
Any computer with Internet access can be used to permit someone to join a site. Some sites require only that the registrant provide an email address and often there is no verification process to check the truthfulness of any of the information that a registrant provides. Most sites require that users abide by conditions and terms of use meant to thwart improper conduct but enforcement is often lax. Once a registrant becomes a member he or she can post personal information, images or other information depending upon the features available at the site. Unless a user chooses privacy options all the information posted may be visible to all other users of a site. Most of the  sites are free and supported by advertisers who hope users will buy products or services advertised on the sites

What are the dangers?
Those who misuse the sites may do so in many ways including:

• Luring / enticement by Internet sexual predators
• Identity theft
• Cyberbullying / harassment
• Stalking
• Fraud schemes
• Inappropriate sexual content
• Facilitation of other crimes 

Prevention
What can you do to protect yourself from those who misuse social networking sites?

Do’s and Don’ts

Don’t -

• post personal images
• post your true full name
• post your home or cellular phone number
• post your true age or date of birth
• post your true home or business address
• post your school name or the grad that you are in
• post your calendar of upcoming events or information about your future wherabouts

Do -

• discuss Internet risks with your child
• enter into a safe-computing contract with your child
• remember that every day is Halloween on the Internet
• remember that people on the Internet are not always as they first appear
• enable computer Internet filtering features if available from your Internet service
• consider installing monitoring software that will police your child's Internet activity
• know each of your child's passwords, screen names and all acount information
• put the computer in a family area of the household and do not permit private usage
• report inappropriate behavior to your Internet service provider
• report criminal behavior to the appropriate law enforcement agency including the NCMEC Cybertip line or the Internet Fraud Complaint Center
• contact your legislators and request stronger laws against Internet crime
• contact the corporations who place advertisements on the sites and let them know that their advertising is helping to support inappropriate Internet behavior.
• advise the corporations who advertise on social networking sites that you intend to boycott or discontinue using their product or services because of the behavior they are  supporting.
• visit the NCMEC Netsmartz "Blog Beware" Workshop at  http://www.netsmartz.org/news/blogbeware.htm for more information

 

Find more complete lists of social networking sites at:
http://www.answers.com/topic/list-of-social-networking-websites

 

 

 

 

 

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 05:48 AM | Permalink

From Sjr.com.By Chris Dentro, Staff Writer. 06/07/07

Four central Illinois men, including two from Springfield, were indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday on unrelated child pornography charges. John William Peter, 35, of the 2600 block of South Ninth Street and Randall Foster, 52, of the 400 block of East Jefferson Street each are charged with receiving and possessing child pornography via the Internet. The indictment against Peter alleges he used software that links together computers through the Internet, allowing network users to share digital files. From about October 2006 to March 20, Peter allegedly possessed child porn that he received via computer using peer-to-peer software. The indictment also charges Foster with receiving and possessing child porn via computer using the peer-to-peer software from March 2005 to March 16.

Both men will be issued a summons to appear in U.S. District Court in Springfield at a date to be determined. The charges against Peter and Foster are the result of investigations conducted by Immigrations and Customs Enforceent and the FBI - agencies participating in the Springfield Computer Crimes Task Force. The multi-agency task force is dedicated to the investigation and prosecution of computer crime. Assistant U.S. attorney John Childress is prosecuting both cases as part of the U.S. Justice Department's Project Safe Childhood.

The same grand jury also returned separate, unrelated indictments charging Randy Maulding, 43, of Tuscola, and Joseph Canfield, 23, of Mattoon, with possession of child pornography. Receiving child pornography is punishable by a mandatory minimum five years in prison up to 20 years in prison. For possession of child pornography, the penalty is up to 10 years in prison. Fines also are a possibility should the men be convicted.

Chris Dettro can be reached at 788-1510 or chris.dettro@sj-r.com.

Retrieved June 14, 2007 from http://www.sj-r.com/sections/news/stories/116201.asp#

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 03:11 PM | Permalink

In June 2006, Phoenix City Councilman Greg Stanton visited the Arizona ICAC Task Force to learn more about investigations involving the luring of minors via the Internet. Members of the Task Force informed Councilman Stanton of a deficiency in the Arizona law that was resulting in Internet sexual predators receiving very light or no jail time.

Councilman Stanton began working diligently to improve the law. His fine efforts paid off on June 12, 2007 when Arizona's 48th State Legislature approved House bill 2342 providing increased sentencing under the State's Dangerous Crimes Against Children statute (ARS 13-604.01). Sponsors of the Bill included Arizona State Representative Burns J, Representative Alvarez, and Representative Hershberger et al.

Below is an excerpt from the Arizona State Legislature's web site describing the bill:
State of Arizona House of Representatives, HB 2342
HB 2342 expands the definition of a dangerous crime against children to include luring a minor for sexual exploitation.

History

A.R.S. § 13-604.01 contains a list of offenses that if committed against a person under 15 years old, constitute dangerous crimes against children (DCAC).  DCAC offenses are subject to several sentencing enhancements and consist primarily of sex offenses.   Luring a minor for sexual exploitation is not currently contained in the definition of a DCAC, but an enhanced sentence for the offense is provided in A.R.S. § 13-604.01.

Provisions

Luring a Minor for Sexual Exploitation* (The legislation) Expands the definition of a dangerous crime against children (DCAC) to include luring a minor for sexual exploitation.* Separates the existing penalty within the DCAC section for luring a minor into a separate section.  Keeps the same presumptive ten year penalty, but specifies that if a person has a prior predicate felony, the person must be sentenced to a presumptive of 15 years. * Makes technical and conforming changes.

Please take a moment to thank Councilman Stanton by sending him a short “thank-you” at his City of Phoenix email address: greg.stanton@phoenix.gov

Read the full text of the legislation at the Arizona Legislature's web site:
http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/48leg/1r/summary/h.hb2342_06-12-07_astransmittedtogovernor.doc.htm

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 05:35 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 01:35 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 08:11 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 08:07 PM | Permalink

Reminder! - June is Internet Safety Month

The following case study serves as another example of the continuing threat from Internet sexual predators.

Arizona Internet sexual predator sentenced

Phoenix, Arizona – April 5, 2007
Offender: Jeremy Eugene Helman, age 30
Screen name: "FUN_IN_THE_SUN_1976"
Unemployed electrician. Married with two small children.
Offense: Luring a minor for sexual exploitation (Internet enticement). ARS 13-3554
Phoenix Police Report number: 2006-61270527

On July 6, 2006, Jeremy Eugene Helman, a 29 year unemployed electrician was arrested by members of the Arizona Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and charged with luring a minor for sexual exploitation.

Helman came to the attention of law enforcement when he used the Internet with the intention of meeting a minor for sex. During Internet chat conversations, Helman used the screen name: “FUN_IN_THE_SUN_1976” and groomed his intended victim while making sexually explicit statements including (expletives deleted):
 

“Do you do bootycalls?”
“Wish you were a little older”
“Have you hooked up before?”
“Like sex”
“Are you ready for a guy to do more to you?”
“Do you masturbate?”
“Maybe we could experiment a little sometime”
“Play around a little”
“Make you feel good”
“Touch your (expletive) and your (expletive) softly”
“Well I could go to jail”
“U could be a cop right now though”
“When you wanna do it?”
“Do you shave or trim your (expletive)?”
“Do you have a digital camera?”
“Can I take pics of you?”
“Topless in panties”
“Maybe one with no panties”
“Do you want me to come see you”
“I will see you at 3”

Helman used his home computer while his wife, a nurse who works nights, was asleep. After the chat conversations, intent upon meeting a minor for sex, he drove eight miles to a predetermined location in west Phoenix for the planned meeting. His plan was interrupted when he was arrested without incident by members of the Arizona ICAC Task Force. He made admissions to the offense.

A computer and other evidence were seized from his Phoenix apartment as his surprised wife looked on. A computer forensic investigator from the Maricopa County Attorneys Office later examined the evidence.

Helman was booked into the Maricopa County jail and the case was handled by the Maricopa County Attorneys Office.

On April 5, 2007, Helman  pled guilty to one count of luring a minor for sexual exploitation. He was sentenced by Judge Douglas L. Rayes of Maricopa County Superior Court.

Helman’s sentence included the following:

Suspension of Sentence – Probation Granted
Probation – ten years
Probation fees
6 months jail beginning on 10/05/07
Register as sex offender
GPS Monitoring
DNA testing

Read the sentencing of Judge Rayes at http://www.courtminutes.maricopa.gov/scripts/meeds/qreturn.asp  (enter the case number  CR2006-139322)

More information about Internet safety can be found at the following web sites:

Arizona Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force
http://www.azicac.net

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
http://www.netsmartz.org

Web wise kids
http://www.webwisekids.org

I-Safe
http://www.isafe.org

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 03:53 PM | Permalink

From The Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General. 05/29/07. Contact Beth Stone. (617) 727-2543

Boston- A Wilbraham man admitted to facts sufficient with a guilty finding on charges he attempted to send pornographic material to a person he believed to be a child, who was actually an undercover Pennsylvania detective. Lane Weinberg, 24, of Wilbraham, admitted to facts to find him guilty of one count each of attempting to disseminate material harmful to a minor and possession of material harmful to a minor with intent to distribute. Palmer District Court Judge Patricia T. Poehler continued the case without a finding for five years and placed a number of restrictions on Weinberg including that he stay away from schools, daycares and playgrounds, avoid online chatrooms, have no contact with children under the age of 18 and wear a GPS monitor. The Commonwealth had requested that Weinberg plead guilty to the charges and serve 90 days in jail.

According to authorities, in late September 2006, officials in the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office in Pennsylvania contacted the Massachusetts Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force about an Internet chat they were involved in with Weinberg. Weinberg had engaged in a sexual conversation online with a detective with the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office, whom he believed to be a 12-year-old girl. Weinberg expressed his desires in very graphic terms before sending a pornographic image of himself consisting of a photograph of a portion of his naked body. Through a subpoena, the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office identified an Internet protocol address for the photo sender in Wilbraham and contacted the Massachusetts ICAC Task Force who referred the matter to the Attorney General's Office for investigation.

Criminal complaints issued and Weinberg was arrested on the charges on October 13, 2006. At the time of his arrest, Weinberg was employed as a youth worker at two separate agencies in Springfield and State Police notified the Department of Social Services about the case.

Today, Weinberg admitted to sufficient facts and was placed on probation by Judge Poehler. The prosecutor assigned to this case was Assistant Attorney General Matthew Shea. The case was investigated by State Police assigned to the Attorney General's Office with the assistance of the Massachusetts State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office.

Retrieved June 3, 2007 from  http://www.ago.state.ma.us/sp.cfm?pageid=986&id=1903

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 12:49 PM | Permalink

NBC's "Perverted" Justice?

Axed "Dateline" producer slams popular "Predator" series as unethical

05/29/07 -  In a scathing broadside at NBC's popular "To Catch a Predator" series, a former producer charges that she was canned last year after complaining that the show violated "numerous journalistic ethical standards" and many of the network's own "policies and guidelines." In a breach of contract lawsuit, Marsha Bartel, 49, alleges that her 21-year career at NBC ended months after her August 2006 appointment as "sole producer" of "To Catch a Predator," which conducts sting operations targeting men seeking illicit liaisons with children they've met online.

According to her complaint, which was filed last week in U.S. District Court in Chicago, Bartel charges that many of the program's ethical lapses stem from its relationship with Perverted Justice, a shadowy vigilante group that the show uses to "troll for and lure targets into its sting." A copy of Bartel's lawsuit can be found below. According to Bartel, by paying Perverted Justice, NBC has given the group a "financial incentive to lie to trick targets of its sting." The identities of the group's 50-plus volunteers were kept secret from her, Bartel says, adding that Perverted Justice does not provide "complete transcripts from its trolling operations," so network officials "cannot independently verify the accuracy" of the group's transcripts.

In some instances, Bartel claims, sting targets are "led into additional acts of humiliation (such as being encouraged to remove their clothes) in order to enhance the comedic effect of the public exposure of these persons." She also charges that NBC has unethically covered up the fact that law enforcement officials have acted improperly while working in conjunction with the "To Catch a Predator" crew, such as "goofing off by waving rubber chickens in the faces of sting targets while forcing them to the ground and handcuffing them." Bartel says that when she "raised concerns" about controversial comments made by Perverted Justice's founder, David Corvo, executive producer of the newsmagazine "Dateline," responded, "We all know they're nuts."

Bartel, who signed a four-year contract in March 2006, contends that soon after reporting her concerns about "To Catch a Predator" to NBC management, she was terminated effective December 24, 2006. While NBC told her she was part of a "mass layoff precipitated by general business factors," Bartel alleges that she was canned in retaliation for insistence on "ethical and accurate reporting on the Predator series." NBC, she adds, was "more interested in sensationalizing and dramatizing the Predator series for profit than news reporting." Bartel is seeking at least $1 million in damages from NBC. In a statement, NBC said it has been "transparent about our reporting" on the Predator series, for which audience reaction has been "overwhelmingly positive. NBC News is proud of its reporting and we believe this lawsuit is without merit."

To read the lawsuit visit: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0529071nbc1.html?link=rssfeed

Retrieved May 31, 2007 from http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0529071nbc1.html?link=rssfeed

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 03:26 PM | Permalink

05/25/07

The Bay County Sheriff's Office arrested three suspects on separate, unrelated sex abuse charges this week. Richard Rosenfeld, 53, of 3124 Nottaway Ct., Chamblee, Ga., was arrested when he turned himself into investigators at the Sheriff's Office May 22. Rosenfeld was the target of a three month North Florida Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigation after he solicited what he thought was a 13-year-old female during online conversations. The "girl" was actually a investigator with the sheriff's Office. Rosenfeld was booked into the Bay County Jail on one count of Lewd or Lascivious Conduct and is awaiting his first appearance.

Also arrested were:
Francisco Emilio Negron, 18, of 3307 East Baldwin Road, Panama City. Negron was arrested after the victim went to a parent and disclosed information about the incident. Negron, according to sheriff's reports, claimed he and the victim engaged in a consensual sexual encounter. Negron was arrested and charged with one count of Lewd and Lascivious Battery.

Tyler James Clary, 18, of 4007 Silver Sands Road, Panama City Beach. Clary was charged in a separate case involving two victim. He faces two counts of Lewd and Lascivious Battery with a child under the age of 12, and one count of Lewd and Lascivious Molestation with a child under the age of 12.

The two victims went to their parents about their encounters with Clary. According to reports, Clary provided investigators with a statement outlining the lewd and lascivious acts involving the children.
Both Clary and Negron were taken to the Bay County Jail and booked.

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 08:58 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 10:53 AM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 04:36 PM | Permalink

Weekly Playboy (5/28)

Far from going away, Japan's perennial school bullying problem has refined itself, shifting from the classrooms and schoolyards to more subtle attacks through the Internet, according to Weekly Playboy (5/28).

"Last year alone, the National Police Agency received 8,037 reported cases of online slander or defamation, a 39 percent increase over the previous year. Of these, 57 developed into criminal defamation cases where arrests were made. Both the number of reports and the number of arrests hit record highs," a police beat reporter for a national daily tells the weekly.

Bullies use their knowledge about their victims to set up fake sites to slur them, or hurl abuse at them on sites originally set up for information sharing between students.

"High school students have recognized for a while that there are plenty of problems with the sites set up for information exchanges between students. These sites, called 'underground school sites,' are set up separately to school's official home pages. They were supposed to be places where kids could swap information about all sorts of things, like exams and stuff, but instead they've become hotbeds of abuse, with some kids using them to post offensive material about other students," Internet crime expert Satoru Fujita tells Weekly Playboy. "I've received a number of complaints from young people saying that their personal details, like their name, address, phone number, mobile number and the like have been posted on a school's underground site and they don't know what to do about it. Once this information, or any sort of nasty story about someone, has been posted online, it opens up the victim to bullying from others in a wider group."

Psychological counselor Masako Fujii says that online bullying has arisen because it is such an easy place to play on people's anxieties.

"Places like bulletin boards that easily allow a sense of association to develop also permit the simple development of a feeling that you're going to be forgotten," she says. "If you don't agree with posts that everybody else in the online community has written, it sparks anxiety that you may be about to be cut out of the group. Bullies can pick up on that anxiety and exploit it by making nasty, personal posts that in turn make the anxiety even deeper."

Mobile phone expert K says there's a simple way for kids to handle online bullying.

"Don't pay too much attention to it. Most of the time the online bullies are only posting nasty messages because they want to the reaction of the person they've written about," he says. "The more you react or respond to nasty posts, the more intense the posts are going to become and the more depressed that's going to make you. The best way to deal with this stuff is just to ignore it."

Ignoring the problem may not be easy for the kids being slandered, but at least one group of people has apparently chosen to act on that advice.

"There's not a school teacher in the country who specializes in information technology education," Net crime expert Fujita tells Weekly Playboy. "IT in schools is being taught by teachers who know a bit about computers, but the vast majority of teachers don't know anything about computers and are petrified of the day they're ordered to teach information technology classes." (By Ryann Connell)

Retrieved May 18, 2007 from http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/waiwai/news/20070517p2g00m0dm027000c.html

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 02:13 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 02:57 PM | Permalink

Link to the Crimes Against Children Research Center of the University of New Hampshire. The site contains some very useful information about crimes against children.

http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 08:35 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 06:06 PM | Permalink

By Maria Cramer. The Boston Globe Staff. 05/30/06

She was lonely and looking for someone to talk to. He was the kind voice on the other end of the line who said he wanted to be her friend. But when they met at his house in New Hampshire after weeks of phone conversations, he raped her.

She was 13. He was Philip Longeway , 32, a convicted sex offender from Manchester. Now, two years after their meeting, authorities are warning parents and teens about phone chat lines that put people such as Longeway in touch with victims like the young Boston girl.

Police have long been aware of the perils of online chat rooms. But recently, the Suffolk district attorney's office has taken a hard look at phone chat lines after 15 girls, ages 12 to 16, came forward over the last two years, saying they were raped or molested by older men they met through the phone lines. The service advertises a free, fun way to meet people, but officials fear that phone chat lines also provide a way for pedophiles and sexual predators to find victims.

Assistant district attorneys have begun to address the chat lines in presentations to students at area schools. Educational brochures police hand out about Internet chat rooms will soon include warnings about phone lines. Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said his office is also investigating half a dozen other cases of sexual assaults that followed meetings over the phone.

``Many parents don't know [phone chat lines] exist, let alone that they're dangerous," he said.
Longeway, now about 34, pleaded guilty in December to charges of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 and traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor. He was sentenced to 17 1/2 years in state prison.

His victim, who is almost 15, is seeing a therapist. Her mother jumps every time she hears the phone ring. ``At one point, she had numbers in her bedroom from all kinds of guys," said the girl's mother. ``One of them was a teacher from Rhode Island. Another was an EMT from Connecticut. It's amazing. . . . It's disgusting."

The family's name is being withheld because the Globe does not reveal the identity of sexual assault victims without their consent.

Representatives from Ripple Communications , a Nevada-based company that runs chat lines, have cooperated with Suffolk prosecutors trying to track down predators, according to Conley's office.
A spokeswoman for the company said today that Ripple Communications cooperates with authorities in these kinds of investigations.

Officials from Middlesex and Essex counties and the Cape and Islands said they had not received reports of predators finding sexual assault victims on chat lines. But the increase of such cases around Boston is not surprising, said Gina Scaramella, executive director of the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center.``People can use any method of gaining trust to make someone feel like they're safe with them," she said. ``A voice is a really compelling way to do that."

For the youths who use the chat lines, the appeal is obvious, said RaShaun Nalls , a youth worker at Project RIGHT, a community organization located in the Grove Hall section of Dorchester.
``If your self-esteem is low, it's easier to flirt on the phone," said Nalls, who over the years has counseled girls who said they were assaulted by older men they met on chat lines.
``They're not seeing the risks that are associated with it," he said.

Teens also like the chat lines because they are private. Many youths now have cell phones, so they can call from any location without worrying that their parents will catch them, Conley said. And the service is usually free, so parents are less likely to pay attention to the phone numbers on their bills.

Those advantages also benefit the predator, who uses the phone to gain the child's trust, Conley said. ``Then eventually, this guy suggests that he loves the young child, that he wants to be a confidant and loving friend," he said.

While most chat lines caution callers that they must be at least 18 years of age to use the service, no caller is screened, and the company is not liable for what happens to people if they meet in person.

The Boston girl joined the chat line in the summer of 2004. She created a personal voice mail, describing herself as a petite, young girl with dark hair. Immediately, her message box was flooded with voice mails from men requesting phone sex. She ignored them.
But then Longeway called. He described himself as a bored guy looking to meet someone friendly. He even sounded a little pitiful.

``I think I felt bad for him," the teenager said. When a police officer found them together in October 2004, as the pair was driving around Dorchester, the teenager said she was only worried she would get in trouble with her mother.

After months of therapy, she said she is finally realizing she was a victim and she has advice for any youngster tempted to call the chat line. ``Don't even do it," she said.

Matt Carroll of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 07:16 PM | Permalink

Dr. Kardasz - It is questionable tabloid-policing when cybervigilantes are used to conduct undercover police operations. The latest publicity-stunt incarnation of a cyber-sting operation used celebrity-cybervigilante Miss America to chat on-line for the titillated audience of Fox Televisions Americas Most Wanted. The Associated Press report below indicates that Miss America will not assist the prosecution by testifying in the cases that she helped developed. This is another example of a situation where a private citizen should not have been used to conduct police operations.

For more information on this subject see: http://www.kardasz.org/Cybervigilantes.html

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Sex stings imperiled by Miss America

Tue May 1, 7:50 AM ET, From The Associated Press

An undercover sex sting that used Miss America as bait may be in trouble after the beauty queen told prosecutors that she does not plan to testify against the men she helped arrest.

Lauren Nelson, 20, of Lawton, Okla., worked with police in Suffolk County to target would-be Internet sexual predators, taped for an episode of the TV show "America's Most Wanted."

She posed as a teenager and lured men into chatting online and meeting her at a home, where police and crews were waiting. Eleven men were arrested in the sting.

But one or all of the cases against the men could be in jeopardy after Nelson told prosecutors she did not plan on returning to Long Island to testify, said Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota in Newsday's Tuesday edition.

"Her agents have told us that she's not coming back to testify," Spota said. The Miss America Organization did not return calls for comment Monday from a Newsday reporter.

Given that Nelson actually spoke with at least one of the men arrested during the operation, Spota said he had instructed prosecutors not to present any more cases to the grand jury until they can "determine her involvement." One case already presented may falter, he said.

Attorney Michael Brown, who represents one of the 11 men swept up in the sting, said he had the right to cross-examine the beauty queen if she contends that she spoke with his client.

"You've now made Miss America a witness," he said.

2007 The Associated Press.

Retrieved May 1, 2007 from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070501/ap_on_re_us/undercover_beauty&printer=1;_ylt=AuLJb4eJ6aZy6sdqMMze0RpH2ocA

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 05:12 PM | Permalink

April 18, 2007
Phoenix, Arizona - Maricopa County Superior Court
Offender: Tommy Jacob Vetter, age 49. Owner of Vetter Packing and Moving
Charges: Two counts sexual exploitation of a minor (child pornography)
Sentence: Ten years prison followed by 99 years probation and sex offender registration
Agencies: Arizona ICAC Task Force, FBI, Maricopa County Attorney’s Office (MCAO)

On October 17, 2004, a 16 year old employee of Vetter Packing and Moving reported that her boss, 49 year old Tommy Vetter, had shown her images of child pornography on a computer at their Phoenix workplace. Investigators from the Phoenix ICAC Task Force and FBI diligently worked on the case. A search warrant was served at the business and computers were seized. Detectives interviewed Vetter, a divorced father of two. An investigator from the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office conducted a forensics examination of Vetter’s computer and found numerous unlawful images. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office represented the state and Vetter was indicted by a grand jury in March, 2006. On April 18, 2007, Vetter plead guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor (child pornography). He was sentenced to ten years prison followed by 99 years probation and registration as a sex offender.

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 08:23 PM | Permalink

By: Jeffrey Wolf , Web Producer  KUSA*TV, 4/18/2007

Greeley – The Weld County Sheriff's Office has arrested a 26-year-old man they say was sending pornographic images to a 13-year-old girl in Kansas City over the Internet.

The sheriff's office was alerted to the behavior by the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The ICAC said the man was engaging in sexual conversation and sending pictures. The man was identified as Matthew Anthony Lilly of Greeley. He was arrested Wednesday and faces charges of Internet luring of a child with intent to exploit and sexual exploitation of a child.
He is being held in lieu of $100,000 bond.

Retrieved April 25, 2007 from http://www.9news.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=68360

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 11:40 PM | Permalink

April 19, 2007

Convicted sex offender Jeramie Dante of Albuquerque was sentenced today to a maximum penalty of 18 months in prison for one count of 4th degree child solicitation by computer.

New Mexico Attorney General Gary King’s prosecutors said that Dante was “lucky to be sentenced under the current law” and not the recently passed legislation that amended the statute.  Under current law, the maximum sentence for a conviction of child sexual solicitation is 18 months without a requirement to be registered as a sex offender. The strengthened law makes child solicitation by computer a 2nd degree felony and Dante could have faced up to nine years in prison and been required to register as a sex offender with the New Mexico State Police.

Attorney General Gary King says, “I’m glad we were able to get the maximum sentence under the old law, but the new penalties are clearly more in line with the severity of the crime and the lasting effects on young victims.”

Dante was arrested in May, 2006 by the Attorney General’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Unit.  During an online chat session on the Yahoo! Instant messaging service, an ICAC agent posing as a girl received messages from a user with the screen name “wiccanprince1982.”

Between May 3 and May 12, 2006, the agent received several sexually explicit instant messages from wiccanprince1982. The messages from wiccanprince1982 described what he would like to do to the “girl” and suggested they meet in person for sex at his residence. Dante, going by his screen name, disclosed that he was 32 years old, lived near Montano and I-25 in Albuquerque, and sent photographs of his body parts. Dante also allowed the supposed 12 year old girl to view his live web cam broadcast in which he masturbated in front of the camera.

The two scheduled to meet on May 9, but Dante did not make an appearance. Two days later, during the course of conversations, Dante asked for another opportunity to meet the “girl” and another meeting was scheduled for May 12. Dante again did not appear. May 16, the agent received a set of messages from Dante, who was using the screen name “shattered_dreams8899.” Dante told the agent he would teach her how to have sex.

Using the photographs Dante took of himself, ICAC Investigators were able to confirm Dante’s identity and address. On May 18, special agents from the Attorney General’s ICAC Unit approached the apartment where records show Dante was residing. When Dante opened the door, agents serving a search warrant were able to match items in Dante’s apartment to items contained in photographs he had sent of himself to the “girl” to which he was sending instant  messages.  He was arrested and taken into custody by ICAC agents.

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 11:26 PM | Permalink

Dr. Kardasz:

It is very troubling to see that another publicity-hungry law enforcement agency has used a private citizen, in this case Miss America, to conduct police operations. Who will be the next celebrity cybervigilante, Michael Jackson perhaps?

For more information about the use of private citizens for undercover law enforcement work see: http://www.kardasz.org/Cybervigilantes.html

---------------------------------------------------------------- 

Miss America Helps Cops in Sex Sting 

AP OnlineWednesday, April 25, 2007  3:34:00 AM, By Sean Murphy, Associated Press Writer

"I got to chat online with the predators and made phone calls, too," Nelson said by phone from Atlantic City, N.J. "The Suffolk County Police Department was there the whole time."

At least four men were arrested and face charges, said Avery Mann, a spokesman for the show. Another six men agreed to meet Nelson, of Lawton, Okla., he said.

"I would say I'm a 14-year-old female from Long Island. Sometimes they would say, 'You're too young, sorry,' which is exactly what needs to happen, but some would continue chatting.

"The story was that they knew I was 14, and I told them I was cutting school to meet with them," Nelson said. "I stood outside on the porch, and I would say, 'Hi' to them and wave them inside."

"That part was very scary, but the police were all over the place," Nelson said. "I was nervous, of course, but it was a very controlled environment, very safe."

"We came to the agreement that as long as she was safe and wanted to do this, we'd be behind her," McMaster said.

"As many as we caught on that day, there are a lot more out there," she said. "It's nice to know that they were chatting with police officers and me rather than a 14- or 15-year-old girl."

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 07:45 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 01:03 AM | Permalink

Associated Press, 04/02/07

A woman's five children were in protective custody after she was charged with offering to let an undercover investigator have sex with her 7-year-old daughter.

The 33-year-old woman, from the Detroit suburb of Taylor, was arrested Friday night after bringing the girl to a hotel in Romulus, near Detroit Metropolitan Airport, where she had agreed to meet the investigator, the Wayne County Sheriff's Department said.

The woman was prepared to offer her daughter "for pornographic photos and anything else that was available if the price was right," Sheriff Warren Evans said. "She had indicated very clearly that that child would do whatever it was that the person who was going to meet the child wanted to do, and that she would see that the child complied.

"It's a very, very disgusting case." The woman's name was not released so the child would not be identified.

She was arraigned Sunday on five charges, including child sexually abusive behavior, illegal use of the Internet for child sexually abusive actions or materials and distribution of child sexually abusive material, sheriff's spokesman John Roach said.

She was also charged with prostitution. The department said the woman propositioned the investigator herself and advertised online as a prostitute. A not guilty plea was entered on behalf of the woman, who wasn't represented by a lawyer at the arraignment, Roach said. A preliminary examination was scheduled for April 12.

The woman was being held on a $1 million bond. If convicted, she could get up 20 years in prison. Authorities said the investigator was posing as a photographer when he and the woman met online.

The woman arrived at the hotel with her daughter, along with adult sex toys in a duffel bag and different dresses for the girl to wear, the department said. At the time of the online chats, the department said it was investigating the woman on suspicion of distributing child pornography.

Evans said investigators were trying to determine if the woman's other children - ages 12, 11, 9 and 6 - were victims of illegal sexual activity.

2007 The Associated Press.
Retrieved April 2, 2007 from http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SEX_STING_DAUGHTER?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 10:47 PM | Permalink

Dr. Kardasz:

The right to free speech protects many unusual things. I wonder whether or not the authors of the Constitution could have imagined some of the twisted anarachy of thought that can be faciliated via the Internet.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Seattle, Washington - Area Pedophile Has 'How-to' Web Site for Men Seeking Little Girl Activities

By Robert Shaffer and Dan Springer, 03/30/07, Fox News

A Web site created by a pedophile is a virtual "how-to" manual, complete with the best places in western Washington state to see little girls, and tips on how to avoid getting caught by the police.

The site, (name deleted)," has been around for a few years. The police know all about it, yet they say they can't shut it down because the site is legal.

"As disturbing and offensive as we find this, there's no evidence of a crime, or even suspicion of illegal activity," said Rebecca Hover of the Snohomish County Sheriff's Department.

The man who runs it, 45-year-old Jack McClellan, has never been convicted of a sex crime, which means he can attend any family-friendly events where children are present, and take all the pictures he wants for his Web site. He also lives close to a school bus stop. McClellan says his purpose is to promote association, friendship and legal, consensual hugging and cuddling between men and pre-pubescent girls. He admitted to FOX News that his "age of attraction" is between 3 and 11 years old. "I guess the main thing is I just think they're cute, a lot cuter than women. I admit there is kind of an erotic arousal there," McClellan said. "It makes me happy simply. Like I said, I think girls are cute, beautiful, just children in general make me happy ... being around lots of them. ... I'm doing what anyone else would do with a hobby. If someone's into birds they're taking pictures of birds. I'm convinced that none of these images are illegal." McClellan wants to bring pedophiles out of the closet and give them a way to get some relief, by going out and being around little girls. He suggests a number of places, such as plays at elementary schools, parks, swimming pools and libraries. "I really think a lot of this pedophilia hysteria is overblown. I think there are a lot of people like me. They have the attraction but they're not going to do anything physical because of the laws. It just makes me happy to attend these events."

McClellan said that for pedophiles, just being around children is almost like a "legal high" that makes them happy. But "I can understand the fear," he added. "I hope that what I'm doing is setting myself up as an example that it is possible to have these attractions and not be out of control." But he said while it's OK to look, it's not OK to touch, given the many state laws in place to protect children against that. "I know it sounds kind of crazy, but there's kind of a code of ethics that these pedophiles have developed and what it is ... the contact has to be completely consensual, no coercion, if you're going to do it," McClellan said.

Parents are understandably outraged. FOX News spoke to the mother of an 8-year-old girl whose picture appeared on the Web site. The picture was taken at a dance recital.
"I needed to get those pictures off of there. I didn't want the pedophile community having any visibility to my daughter or her friends or any of the children that were on that site," said parent Ann Cialoa. "Whether it's a physical threat, a perceived threat, whatever threat it is. It's our jobs as parents to protect our kids from threats, and he is a threat, and people like him are a threat."

Some legal experts have said the best course of action for parents who see their kids' pictures on sites like these, is to get a temporary restraining order against McClellan and demand that his Web site be taken down.

"You have one in your face and you can't do anything about it because there's not a law to protect them from that," Cialoa said. "It's scary, and the fact that we're going to wait around for him to violate before we do something."

Neighbors of McClellan's say there's a man who rides his bike around town at night and peeps into others' windows. They believe that may be McClellan. "You'll notice that every single person in this neighborhood has very large attack dogs," said neighbor Melissa Henry.

The Web site was taken down by the Internet service provider after FOX News called the company about it this week. The company is investigating whether any material on the site is illegal.

At least one area school has sent McClellan a letter saying if he comes onto school property or attends their functions, they will consider it trespassing and will have him arrested.

Police and prosecutors are watching him closely to see if he crosses the line. A handful of state legislators are looking at drafting a new law to deal with such Web sites. But until they do, McClellan is free to continue pushing pedophilia.

FOX News' Robert Shaffer and Dan Springer contributed to this report.

Retrieved April 2, 2007 from http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,262700,00.html

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 10:37 PM | Permalink

Associated Press, 04/02/07

Three Walt Disney Co. employees were among 28 men charged with soliciting sex from a minor amid a weeklong sting operation in the Orlando area, authorities said.

The men, ranging in age from college students to their 40s and 50s, had chatted online with people they believed to be boys and girls, Polk County Sheriff's spokeswoman Donna Wood. She said several agencies worked together to set up the sting at a Polk County home, where the suspects were arrested through Sunday.

Three of the men worked for Walt Disney Co., one as a 21-year-old intern, another as a 55-year-old part-time instructor at Disney's Animal Kingdom, and the third as a 44-year-old electronics technician, according to the sheriff's office.

The other men included laborers, food service workers and salesmen. One man said he was an IBM consultant; another a vice president for a South Florida real estate company, authorities said.

"We take matters like this very seriously," Disney said in a statement released Monday. "The cast members have been placed on unpaid leave." Disney would not comment further on whether the employees had routine contact with children. The company said all cast members must pass background checks when they are hired.

2007 The Associated Press
Retrieved April 2, 2007 from http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/ONLINE_SEX_STING?SITE=FLTAM&SECTI

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 10:27 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 02:09 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 02:01 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 03:35 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 05:19 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 02:42 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 04:01 AM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 03:54 AM | Permalink

By Bonnie Hobbs, 03/22/07, The Connection Newspapers

Steve Franklin Garrison got a gigantic break. Sentenced in October to five years in prison for three counts of possession of child pornography, the Chantilly man only had to actually serve five days in jail. The rest of his sentence was suspended, and Garrison, 54, was placed on supervised probation for three years. Before learning of his fate that day in Fairfax County Circuit Court, he apologized for his actions.

Garrison acknowledged that he'd put his marriage of 35 years in jeopardy and vowed to the judge, "No matter what I have to do to get my life back on track, I'll do it." Now, though, it seems as if that train headed for the straight and narrow somehow veered off path. Fairfax County police have again arrested Garrison and charged him with two counts of possession of child pornography. And this time, he's facing a revocation hearing during which some or all of his previously suspended jail time could be reinstated. Garrison and his wife have three children and live at 4312 Poplar Branch Drive, in the vicinity of three schools: Greenbriar West Elementary, Rocky Run Middle and Chantilly High.

Since January 1998, he was employed by Fairfax County as a master building inspector. Then he learned to use the Internet. And as his attorney, John T. Graham, explained at Garrison's sentencing, "From ages 50-54, he became conversant in the use of the Internet [to view] both adult and child pornography." Eventually, authorities shined a light on Garrison's newfound interest. And on Oct. 6, 2005, he was arrested by the Northern Virginia-Washington, D.C., Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. He resigned his job with the county four days later.

Garrison pleaded guilty May 9, 2006 in Circuit Court, before Judge Marcus Williams, returning Oct. 13 to learn his punishment. Graham told the court his client was receiving treatment for his problem from two doctors and noted that he'd never engaged in physical contact with minors. "He's undergone a complete transformation and been honest and aboveboard with everyone," said Graham. "He's not the type of person to do this kind of thing, and he's never going to repeat it again."

But Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Kyle Manikas was concerned about the seriousness of the charges and troubled by Garrison's behavior. "This wasn't a one-time event," he said. "It was done repeatedly, over a three- to four-year period."

He then asked Williams to sentence Garrison to "some active jail time and a substantial period of probation" so he'd have some time hanging over his head if he ever gets into trouble again." Manikas also recommended that Garrison be ordered into sex-offender treatment requiring periodic polygraph tests.

Williams sentenced Garrison to five years in prison on each of his three charges, running the sentences concurrently. He then suspended all but five days and placed Garrison on supervised probation for three years. The judge also ordered him to receive sex-abuse evaluation and treatment and to continue with the therapy programs he's already begun. "I'm suspending [most of your sentence] because you have no prior record," Williams told Garrison. "But the court is concerned about the nature of this crime, so that's why the court has ordered the evaluation and treatment to continue."

Fast forward to March 5 of this year — less than five months after his sentencing — and Garrison is back in hot water. Det. Craig R. Paul — with the Child Investigations Unit of the police department's Criminal Investigations Bureau — presented details in a March 7 affidavit for a warrant to search Garrison's home for evidence of child-pornography possession. Paul wrote that he received information March 5 from Garrison's probation officer. According to the detective: "When Mr. Garrison learned that he was going to have to submit to a court-ordered polygraph as part of his compliance in his sentence, he [allegedly] admitted to his probation officer that he had downloaded a video of child pornography." The detective stated that Garrison reportedly told his probation officer he'd downloaded it from a computer in his home, around Feb. 20, and that it showed "a 12- to 14-year-old female giving oral sex to an adult male."

Furthermore, wrote Paul, Garrison allegedly admitted searching online for child pornography by using a particular term used by people who are stimulated by seeing sexual activity between adults and children. Police arrested Garrison Feb. 28, charging him with two counts of possession of child pornography. His revocation hearing is scheduled for this Friday,

March 23, in Circuit Court. Until then, he's being held without bond in the Adult Detention Center. Meanwhile, police searched his Chantilly home March 7 for two hours and seized more than two dozen items, including two computers and associated software and accessories, two cameras, a multitude of VHS tapes, CDs, CD-Roms, an alleged pornographic book and 10 alleged pornographic videotapes.

Retrieved March 22, 2007 from http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=79200&paper=62&cat=104

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 12:15 AM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 06:23 PM | Permalink

By Kassie Korich, 03/16/07

Bremerton, Washington - Command Master Chief of Naval Base Kitsap Edward E. Scott was arrested Friday morning for second-degree attempted rape of a child and communication with a minor for immoral purposes.

The arrest comes after a month-long undercover investigation by Bremerton Police detectives and the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC). “It’s a serious and unfortunate incident,” said Tom Danaher, spokesman for Naval Base Kitsap. “We are here to support his family.”

While online communicating from his computer at work, 43-year-old Scott engaged an undercover agent in sexually explicit conversations. “The conversations became very graphic” stated a Bremerton Police Department news release. “After extensive communication, Scott requested to meet. Scott provided graphic detail of specific sex acts he wanted to perform, and which he wanted children to perform as well.”

Scott was taken into custody 5 a.m. yesterday after he arranged to meet at a Bremerton motel. He was arrested and booked into jail. He is currently charged with communication with a minor for immoral purposes and second-degree rape of a child. His bail is set at $500,000.

Scott’s initial court appearance is scheduled for 3 p.m. Monday, March 19, at Kitsap County Superior Court. Scott worked at Naval Base Kitsap for about a year, according to Danaher and was a senior enlisted advisor to the commanding officer. “We’ll fill that position immediately,” Danaher said.

Scott joined the Navy in 1982 with assignments at Naval Telecommunications Station Pacific, Wahiawa, Hawaii; Naval Telecommunications Station Western Pacific, Guam; Naval Facility Whidbey Island; Naval Training Center, San Diego; and Recruit Training Command, also in San Diego, according to Naval Base Kitsap’s Web site www.nbk.navy.mil.

Scott also served as command master chief aboard the USS Camden and the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group.
 
Central Kitsap Reporter

Retrieved March 19, 2007 from http://www.centralkitsapreporter.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=93&cat=23&id=855109&more=

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 03:22 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 03:17 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 02:31 PM | Permalink

Pedophilia-Pics
Hardcore
Preteen photos
Preteen-bestiality-and-anything-taboo2
Homemade_vid_pthc, (note: among pedophiles, pthc means pre-teen hardcore)

Preschool
Strangers with Candy
Kinki Kids
PT Cruiser (note: among pedophiles, PT stands for “pre-teen”)
Kinder-und Jugendhilfe
Babyz
All in the Family

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 09:47 PM | Permalink

Man's arrest was 2nd by Web-crimes task force in a night

By Ben Winslow, Deseret Morning News

The Utah Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force has arrested a 37-year-old Payson man they claim admitted, during an interview for a job with the Utah Department of Corrections, that he had viewed child pornography. "He admitted to using child porn when hooked up to a polygraph," said Catherine Higgins, a spokeswoman for the Utah Attorney General's Office. A polygraph test is given to new applicants with the Utah Department of Corrections. "He acknowledged viewing and enjoying child porn," Higgins said Friday. State investigators went to look at his computer, but Higgins said they discovered it had been destroyed. "They sent it off to a forensic lab, where they recovered some pictures," she said. Henry Wayne Howk was charged in Provo's 4th District Court with five counts of sexual exploitation of a  minor, a a second-degree felony; and one count of obstruction of justice, a third-degree felony. He was arrested on a warrant Thursday night and booked into the Utah County Jail. Bail was set at $50,000. Howk was the second arrest by ICAC agents in one night.

The task force also arrested a Taylorsville man they said tried to arrange a sexual rendezvous with an underage child Thursday night. "The 'minor,' of course, was an investigator from the ICAC team," Higgins said. John Joseph Keane, 50, was arrested by members of the Utah Department of Corrections' Joint Criminal Apprehension team and booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on investigation of sexual exploitation of a minor and drug possession. He is being held without bail.

Retrieved March 10, 2007 from http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660202046,00.html

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 02:31 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 01:35 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 10:47 PM | Permalink

Dr. Frank Kardasz, updated March 7, 2007 

In February 2007 the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal of Morton Berger, a former Phoenix, Arizona high school teacher sentenced to 200 years prison for possessing child pornography. Bergers attorneys wished to argue that his sentence was grossly disproportionate to his crime, amounting to cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal.

After a jury trial in 2004, an Arizona judge sentenced the former Cortez High School teacher to consecutive 10-year prison terms on each of 20 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor (child pornography). Each of the counts was for possessing computer and printed images of child pornography, and 10 years was the minimum sentence for each count. While Berger actually possessed hundreds of images and videos in his twisted collection but only 20 images were selected for prosecution.

In 2002 Morton Berger was a married, 51 year old high school teacher when AZ ICAC Task Force investigators conducted a child pornography investigation at his home. Pursuant to a search warrant, investigators uncovered Berger's demented pornographic treasure trove including binders containing printed images and thousands of computer files of every imaginable style of pornography.

Arizona State Law contains serious penalties for possession of child pornography. A single image carries a sentencing range from 10-24 years mandatory prison with no early release provisions. Prosecutors offered Berger a plea of 17 years prison which he declined.

Prosecutors charged Berger with twenty of the unlawful images. After trial, the horrified jury quickly convicted, and Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Ruth Harris Hilliard sentenced Berger to the mandatory minimum, ten years prison for each of the twenty images.

Berger appealed the 200 year sentence based on arguments of equal protection under the law and cruel and unusual punishment. In December 2004, the conviction was affirmed by two of the three judges of the Arizona Court of Appeals (Division One). Judges Susan Ehrlich and Philip Hall dismissed Berger's appeal with well-reasoned and researched arguments including (citations omitted):

* It is evident beyond the need for elaboration that a State's interest in safeguarding the physical and psychological well-being of a minor is compelling.

* …the victimization of a child continues when that act is memorialized in an image. The materials produced are a permanent record of the children's participation and the harm to the child is exacerbated by their circulation. Unfortunately, the victimization of the children involved does not end when the pornographer's camera is put away.

* The legislative judgment…is that the use of children as subjects of pornographic materials is harmful to the physiological, emotional, and mental health of the child.

* …the possession of child pornography drives that industry and…the production of child pornography will decrease if those who possess the product are punished equally with those who produce it.

* …it (the law) will decrease the production of child pornography if it penalizes those who possess and view the product, thereby decreasing demand.

* …the possession of child pornography inflames the desires of child molesters, pedophiles and child pornographers.

* The State has more than a passing interest in forestalling the damage caused by child pornography: preventing harm to children is, without cavil, one of its most important interests.  …we cannot fault the State for attempting to stamp out this vice at all levels in the distribution chain.

* Berger downloaded images from the Internet, and every time he visited a website, he demonstrated to the producers and sellers of child pornography that there was a demand for their product. Berger's demand served to drive the industry; there need not have been a direct monetary exchange.

* Berger maintains also that, because his possession of the pornographic images was passive and because he did not use threats or violence in the commission of his crimes, his sentence is grossly disproportionate. This logic is abstruse. As was described by this court in Hazlett, 205 Ariz. at 527 p 11, 73 P.3d at 1262, and as is evident from the violent pornographic images in this case, child pornography is a form of child abuse.

* The materials produced are a permanent record of the children's participation and the harm to the child is exacerbated by their circulation.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morton Berger is scheduled for release on June 22, 2175.  
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Read the Arizona Appelate courts ruling at:
http://www.cofad1.state.az.us/opinionfiles/cridx.htm
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 09:47 PM | Permalink

Reuters Internet Report, 02/14/07

NEW YORK (Reuters) - News Corp.'s MySpace said on Wednesday a federal court dismissed a negligence lawsuit filed by the family of a teenage girl who was sexually assaulted by someone she met on the popular Internet social network.

Judge Sam Sparks of the U.S. District Court for the Western district of Texas granted MySpace's motion to dismiss the charges of negligence, fraud and negligent misrepresentation. he high profile suit was filed last year by the family of the Austin, Texas girl, who was attacked by a 19-year-old man she met on the Web site. The suit and reports of other victims of predators made the popular service a target of child protection advocates. MySpace users share information about their lives by posting photos, blogs and videos.

In dismissing the suit, Judge Sparks said that as an "interactive service," MySpace was protected from materials posted on its site by the Communications Decency Act (CDA) of 1996. Sparks explained that the CDA is aimed at allowing Internet and other interactive services to continue to develop. "To ensure that Web site operators and other interactive computer services would not be crippled by lawsuits arising out of third party communications, the Act provides interactive computer services with immunity," Sparks' ruling said.

Sparks noted also that the girl lied about her age, posing as an18-year-old when she was only 13, and registered for an account. MySpace's minimum age requirement is 14.

The girl's name was not divulged because of her age. Adam Loewy, a partner in Austin-based law firm Barry & Loewy LLP, who represented the family, said they planned to appeal the dismissal of the negligence charge and to refile charges of fraud and misrepresentation in a different court "in the very near future." "We intend to fully prevail in this litigation," Loewy told Reuters in a phone interview. MySpace separately faces several other lawsuits filed in state court in Los Angeles by families of teenage girl victims of predators they met on the service.

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, said the ruling could be "persuasive" to the remaining suits, which were filed in state court. But Sparks' decision in federal court would not be binding. Family protection groups have criticized MySpace, saying the Rupert Murdoch-controlled company had failed to provide safeguards such as age verification rules to protect its large group of teen users.

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 03:09 PM | Permalink

• In January 2005, a registered sex offender who had previous convictions in Oregon and Tennessee was observed in the library at Arizona State University using a computer to view child pornography. The Arizona State University Police affiliate of the Task Force arrested the man.
  

• In April 2005, a fraudulent scheme investigation by the Eloy Police Department affiliate of the Task Force resulted in the identification and apprehension of a gas-station cashier for possession of child pornography.
  

• In July 2005, a proactive investigation by a Phoenix detective identified an Internet sexual predator who had committed a similar offense 20 years ago.
  

• In August 2005, a 13 year old Milwaukee, Wisconsin boy was lured to Phoenix by a wanted sex offender from Oklahoma. Detectives arrested the offender, retrieved the boy and returned him to Wisconsin.
  

• In November 2005, a Phoenix neuropsychologist was arrested in a proactive investigation after he lured an undercover officer whom the man believed was a young boy. Further investigation revealed that the man was also a contact offender who had molested a boy in Phoenix.
  

• In February 2006, after a three-month, multi-state investigation into a child pornography trafficker who used computers at the Phoenix Public Library, the suspect was arrested at a library computer.
  

• In June 2006, ICAC investigators from the Phoenix and Mesa Police Departments used information from NCMEC Cybertip reports to identify and apprehend a trafficker of child pornography in Mesa.
  

• In July 2006, the Task Force conducted a 4-day, multi-agency proactive investigation which was titled, “Project Safe Childhood - Arizona”. The work of numerous investigators from affiliated agencies resulted in the arrests of six suspects for crimes including the luring of minors for sexual exploitation and/or possession of child pornography. During the investigation, several other Internet predators were identified after they initiated contact with undercover officers whom they believed were minors. Yahoo, Cox and Qwest each designated employees available 24/7 during the operation to immediately respond to subpoenas in order to quickly identify suspects.
  

• In September 2006, investigators executed a search warrant at a Camp Verde, Arizona residence as the result of an investigation into file shared child pornography. Suspect Leslie Davies was arrested. Investigators learned that Davies was wanted in Mississippi for sexual molestation of a minor.
  

• In December 2006, investigators executed a search warrant at the home of a Phoenix man involved in file-shared child pornography. The man was arrested. The investigation and arrest resulted in the Task Force receiving the January 2007, “Child Defender of the Month” award from the National Law Center for Children and Families.
  

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 08:54 PM | Permalink

Dr. Kardasz: The article below, written by Doug McCollam, provides interesting insight into Cybervigilantes.

----------------------------------------------------------

The Shame Game

By Douglas McCollam. From the Colombia Journalism Review

It was just before 3 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon last November when a contingent of police gathered outside the home of Louis Conradt Jr., a longtime county prosecutor living in the small community of Terrell, Texas, just east of Dallas. Though the fifty-six-year-old Conradt was a colleague of some of the officers, they hadn’t come to discuss a case or for a backyard barbeque. Rather, the veteran district attorney, who had prosecuted hundreds of felonies during more than two decades in law enforcement, was himself the target of an unusual criminal probe. For weeks the police in the nearby town of Murphy had been working with the online watchdog group Perverted Justice and producers from Dateline NBC’s popular “To Catch a Predator” series in an elaborate sting operation targeting adults cruising the Internet to solicit sex from minors. Dateline had leased a house in an upscale subdivision, outfitted it with multiple hidden cameras, and hired actors to impersonate minors to help lure suspects into the trap. As with several similar operations previously conducted by Dateline, there was no shortage of men looking to score with underage boys and girls. In all, twenty-four men were caught in the Murphy sting, including a retired doctor, a traveling businessman, a school teacher, and a Navy veteran.

Conradt had never shown up at the Dateline house, but according to the police, using the screen name “inxs00,” he did engage in explicit sexual exchanges in an Internet chat room with someone he believed to be a thirteen-year-old boy (but was actually a volunteer for Perverted Justice). Under a Texas law adopted in 2005 to combat Internet predators, it is a second-degree felony to have such communications with someone under the age of fourteen, even if no actual sexual contact takes place. Armed with a search warrant — and with a Dateline camera crew on the scene — the police went to Conradt’s home to arrest him. When the prosecutor failed to answer the door or answer phone calls, police forced their way into the house. Inside they encountered the prosecutor in a hallway holding a semiautomatic handgun. “I’m not going to hurt anybody,” Conradt reportedly told the police. Then he fired a single bullet into his own head.

Standing outside the house with his crew, the Dateline correspondent Chris Hansen said he did not hear the shot that ended Conradt’s life, but did see his body wheeled out on a gurney. Discussing Conradt’s death over lunch a couple of weeks later, I asked Hansen how it made him feel. Hansen said his first reaction was as a newsman who had to cover the story for his network (Hansen filed a report the next morning for NBC’s Today show). Hansen said that on a human level Conradt’s death was a tragedy that, naturally, he felt bad about. But he understood the true import of my question: “If you’re asking do I feel responsible, no,” Hansen said. “I sleep well at night.”

Others aren’t so sanguine. Galen Ray Sumrow, the criminal district attorney of Rockwall County, Texas, who heads the office where Conradt worked as an assistant district attorney, has reviewed evidence surrounding the case and believes it was badly botched. Among the problems he cites are that the search warrant obtained by the Murphy police officers was defective because it had the wrong date and listed the wrong county for service, basic errors that he believes would have gotten any evidence seized from Conradt’s home tossed out of court. He is also mystified as to why the police would force their way into Conradt’s home when they could have tried to talk him out, or just picked him up at work the next day. “He was here in the office every morning,” says Sumrow, who is himself a former police officer and has been prosecuting cases for more than twenty years. “You generally like to do an arrest like that away from the home to avoid things like what happened.” A sworn affidavit supporting the warrant also shows that the information about Conradt’s online activities was given to the Murphy police by Perverted Justice just hours before they went to arrest him. Why were the police in such a rush to pick up Conradt? Texas Rangers are investigating that question, but Sumrow thinks he knows the answer: “It’s reality television,” he says. Sumrow says an investigator told him the police pushed things because the Dateline people had plane tickets to fly home that afternoon and wanted to get the bust on film for the show. He says investigators also told him that film excerpts show Dateline personnel, including Hansen, interacting with police on the scene, supplying them with information, and advising them on tactics. Sergeant Snow Robertson of the Murphy police says accommodating Dateline’s schedule “wasn’t a factor at all.” Rather, he says, the urgency was to keep Conradt from contacting another minor. Dateline’s Hansen confirms that he was to fly out that Sunday, but says such plans are always subject to change and that he hadn’t even checked out of his hotel. He also denies advising the police during the operation at Conradt’s house. “This stuff is not remotely based in fact,” Hansen says.

At a town meeting called to discuss the Dateline sting operations, several Murphy residents expressed outrage that a parade of suspected sexual predators were lured to their community. Neighbors recounted police takedowns and car chases on their blocks, and some said fleeing suspects tossed drugs and other contraband into their yards. In a statement to the Murphy City Council, Conradt’s sister, Patricia, directly implicated Dateline in her brother’s death. “I will never consider my brother’s death a suicide,” she said. “It was an act precipitated by the rush to grab headlines where there was no evidence that there was any emergency other than to line the pockets of an out-of-control group and a TV show pressed for ratings and a deadline.” She added: “When these people came after him for a news show, it ended his life.” In an interview, she was even more direct: “They have blood on their hands,” she said, referring to Dateline, the police, and Perverted Justice.

In a sense, Conradt’s death was a tragedy foretold. In a piece for Radar magazine about the show, the writer John Cook quoted an unnamed Dateline producer as saying that “one of these guys is going to go home and shoot himself in the head.” When I asked Hansen and David Corvo, Dateline’s executive producer, if they were reviewing the show’s procedures in light of Conradt’s death, both said that there was no evidence to suggest that Conradt was aware of Dateline’s presence when he shot himself (though a camera crew was apparently on his block for hours before the police arrived), and that there were no plans to alter how the “Predator” series is handled. “I still feel like the show is a public service,” said Corvo. “We do investigations that expose people doing things not good for them. You can’t predict the unintended consequences of that. You have to let the chips fall where they may.”

The reluctance to tinker with the show’s formula is no doubt attributable to the fact that since its debut in the fall of 2004, “To Catch a Predator” has been the rarest of rare birds in the television news world: a clear ratings winner. The show regularly outdraws NBC’s other primetime fare. It succeeds by tapping into something that has been part of American culture since the Puritans stuck offenders in the stockade: public humiliation. The notion of delighting in another’s disgrace drives much of the reality TV phenomenon, and is present in the DNA of everything from Judge Judy to Jackass to Borat. “Predator” couples this with a hyped-up fear of Internet sex fiends, creating a can’t-miss formula. The show’s ratings success has made it a sweeps-week staple and turned Chris Hansen into something of a pop-culture icon. To date, by the show’s own count, it has netted 238 would-be predators, thirty-six of whom have either pleaded guilty or been convicted. Hansen regularly gives talks to schools and parent groups concerned about Internet sex predators, and he was even summoned to Washington to testify before a congressional subcommittee investigating the problem, where he and Dateline received effusive praise for their efforts. When the comedian Conan O’Brien filmed a bit to open this year’s Emmy Awards that showed him parading through the sets of hit shows of every network, his last stop was a “Predator” house where Hansen confronted him and O’Brien gave a spot-on rendition of the sweaty, shaky dissembling that most of the show’s targets display.

All that is a long way from where “To Catch a Predator” started. The Dateline producer Lynn Keller says she first contacted the Perverted Justice group about the possibility of doing a show in January or February of 2004. Perverted Justice had already worked with several local television stations, including one in Detroit, where Chris Hansen knew one of the producers and had talked with him about a sting operation the station had filmed using Perverted Justice’s online expertise to lure targets. Dateline’s first sting house was set up in Bethpage, Long Island, about an hour outside of New York City. Hansen recalls being nervous that no one would show up and that he might have to explain to the network why he had blown a bunch of money on a flop investigation. “We thought we might get one person,” Keller recalls. They needn’t have worried. Before he could even reach the house for the first day of filming, Hansen got a frantic call from Keller that the first target was inbound. Hansen beat him there by just fifteen minutes.

The Long Island sting netted eighteen suspects in two and a half days. Eight months later, the show set up a sting house in Fairfax, Virginia (at a home belonging to a friend of Hansen’s in the FBI), and snared nineteen more men, including a rabbi, an emergency-room doctor, a special-education teacher, and an unemployed man claiming to be a teacher, who memorably walked into the house naked. The third show, filmed in early 2006 in southern California, drew fifty-one men over three days. But even as the stings expanded and ratings soared, critics inside and outside the network raised serious questions about whether “To Catch a Predator” was erasing lines that even an increasingly tabloid newsmagazine show should respect.

To begin with, the show has an undeniable “ick” factor. The men (and to date they are all men) are mostly losers who show up packing booze and condoms. It is also undeniably compelling television. Each show follows a similar pattern: after asking the mark to come in, the decoy disappears to change clothes or go to the bathroom. Then, in a startling switcheroo, Hansen appears from off-stage and directs the man to take a seat. The men almost always comply, concluding that Hansen is either a cop or a father. The marks then proffer comical denials about what they are doing at the house, which never include their intent to have sex with a minor. Hansen then produces some particularly salacious details from their Internet chat with the decoy (“But you said you couldn’t wait to pour chocolate syrup all over her and lick it off with your tongue”). The mark then switches gears to say he has never done anything like this before and was just kidding around or role playing, which in turn cues Hansen to say something like, “Well, you’re playing on a big stage, because I’m Chris Hansen from Dateline NBC,” at which point cameras enter from off stage like furies summoned from hell. The mark, now fully perceiving his ruin, usually excuses himself, often pausing to shake hands with Hansen — the cult of celebrity apparently transcends even this awful reality — then exits into the waiting arms of police outside who swarm him as if he had just shot the president.

The police busts are the emotional capper to the encounter, one that highlights the show’s uncomfortably close affiliation with law enforcement. On the first two “Predator” stings, the show didn’t involve arrests, an omission that garnered complaints from viewers and cops alike. Though certain individuals from the initial episodes were subsequently prosecuted, the lack of police involvement from the outset made it hard to make cases that would stick. “The number one complaint from viewers was that we let them walk out,” says Keller. Starting with the third show and in the five subsequent stings, police were waiting to take down the suspects. In our interview and in his congressional testimony, Hansen is careful to refer to those arrests as “parallel” police investigations, as if they just happened to be running down the same track as Dateline, but the close cooperation is always evident. At a time when reporters are struggling to keep law enforcement from encroaching on newsgathering, Dateline, which is part of NBC’s news division, is inviting them in the front door — literally. Hansen tried to deflect this criticism of the show by saying that the volunteers from Perverted Justice serve as a “Chinese wall” between the news people at Dateline and the police.

But as we’ve learned from recent corporate scandals, such Chinese walls are often made of pretty thin tissue. In the case of “To Catch a Predator,” Perverted Justice does most of the groundwork preparing the shows and roping in the men. Initially, Dateline’s responsibility was to cover the group’s expenses, procure the house and outfit it with hidden cameras and, of course, supply Chris Hansen and airtime. However, after the third successful “Predator” show, Perverted Justice hired an agent and auctioned its services to several networks. NBC ended up retaining the group for a fee reported in The Washington Post and elsewhere to be between $100,000 and $150,000. Hansen would not confirm an amount but said he saw nothing wrong with compensating the group for its services, likening it to the way the news division will sometimes keep a retired general or FBI agent on retainer. “In the end I get paid, the producers get paid, the camera guy, why shouldn’t they?” says Hansen.
On the surface that certainly seems reasonable, but it ignores a few relevant points. First, Perverted Justice is a participant in the story, the kind of outfit that would traditionally be covered, not be on the news outlet’s payroll. “It’s an advocacy group intensely involved in this story,” says Robert Steele, who teaches journalism ethics at The Poynter Institute. “That’s different from hiring a retired general who is no longer involved in a policy-making role.” Second, it is clearly a no-no, even at this late date in the devolution of TV news, to directly pay government officials or police officers. Yet in effect that’s what Dateline did in at least one of its stings. The police in Darke County, Ohio, where Dateline set up its fourth sting in April 2006, insisted that personnel from Perverted Justice be deputized for the operation so as not to compromise the criminal cases it wished to bring against the targets. After some discussion, NBC’s lawyers agreed to the arrangement, which the network shrugs off as less than ideal but an isolated circumstance.

Further, though Hansen and Dateline reject allegations that they are engaging in paycheck journalism by paying Perverted Justice — arguing for a distinction between paying a consultant and paying a source for information — the line looks a little fuzzy. For example, Xavier von Erck, who founded Perverted Justice, says via e-mail that the operation had come to a point where it could “not bear any further costs relating to the shows. Hence, we obtained a consulting fee.” In turn, local law enforcement groups have stated that without the resources provided by Perverted Justice they couldn’t afford to do the criminal investigations they’ve mounted in conjunction with the “To Catch a Predator” series. See the problem? But for NBC’s deep pockets, no “parallel” police actions would take place. And are they really parallel? One lawyer I spoke with, who asked not be identified because her client’s case is still pending, claims the man was entrapped and said she has every intention of subpoenaing members of Dateline’s staff to testify if the case goes to trial. “They are acting as an arm of law enforcement and are material witnesses,” the lawyer said. “They definitely crossed a line.”

There is also the question of whether the series is fair to its targets. Let’s concede up front that this is an unsympathetic bunch of would-be perverts. But are they really that dangerous? Hansen himself divides those snared in the probes into three groups: dangerous predators, Internet pornography addicts, and sexual opportunists. But by Hansen’s own calculation fewer than one in ten of the men who show up at a sting house have a previous criminal record.

But the image projected by the “Predator” series is clearly meant to inflame parental fears about violent Internet sex fiends. The show has invoked the specter of famous child abduction cases like Polly Klaas. The very term “predator” calls to mind the image of the drooling, trench-coated sex fiend hanging out at the local playground with a bag full of candy. Reading through the chat transcripts posted on the Perverted Justice Web site, however, it seems clear that a lot of the men snared aren’t hard-core predators. Many express doubts about what they’re doing and have to be egged along a bit by the decoys, many of whom come off as anything but innocent children. Consider a few of these exchanges. In the first, the mark (johnchess2000) is talking to someone he believes is an underage girl (AJ’s Girl). She has agreed to let him come over to watch a movie:
johnchess2000: anything you want me to wear or bring?
AJ’s Girl: hmm
johnchess2000: wow your thinking for a long time
AJ’s Girl: lol sowwy
AJ’s Girl: u beter bring condoms
johnchess2000: wow. condoms???
johnchess2000: wow. your thinking big huh? ;0
johnchess2000: ;)
AJ’s Girl: :”>
johnchess2000: wow so you like me that much? :)
AJ’s Girl: maybe
johnchess2000: maybe?? why did you say condoms?
AJ’s Girl: :”> i duno
johnchess2000: haha. be honest
johnchess2000: you must like me a lot then huh?
AJ’s Girl: yea
AJ’s Girl: ur cute
 

Or this exchange between Jason, a twenty-one-year-old fireman and the decoy, a girl he thinks is thirteen:
jteno72960: so what kinda guys u like
katiedidsings: hot firman 1s
jteno72960: ok what else is sexy to you
katiedidsings: tats
jteno72960: i have 2 inside my arm
jteno72960: will u kiss them for me?
katiedidsings: ya>
jteno72960: what about on the lips
katiedidsings: ya
jteno72960: i love to kiss
katiedidsings: me 2
jteno72960: really what else
katiedidsings: i dunno watevr u wantd 2 do
jteno72960: well what have u done
katiedidsings: evry thing
katiedidsings: wel not evrything
katiedidsings: but alot of stuff
jteno72960: well what did u like
katiedidsings: from behind

Or this last exchange between Rob (rkline05) a twenty-year-old from Ohio, and Dateline’s online decoy “Shia,” who poses as an underage girl. After days of chatting, Rob expresses doubts about their age difference and about a sexual encounter, but Shia dismisses his concerns and reassures him:
rkline05: but idk about everything we talked about
shyshiagirl: why not
rkline05: well you sure you wana do all that
shyshiagirl: yeaa why not
rkline05: idk i just wasnt sure you wanted to you
are a virgin and all
rkline05: you sure you want it to be me that takes<that
shyshiagirl: yea why not. ur cool
rkline05: i just..... you really sure i feel weirdabout it you being so much younger than me and all
shyshiagirl: ur not old. dont feel weird

Rob came to the Dateline sting house and later pleaded guilty for soliciting a minor online.

Entrapment is a legal term best applicable to law enforcement. Perverted Justice says it’s careful not to initiate contact with marks, nor steer them into explicit sexual banter. But as these chats and others make clear, they are prepared to flirt, literally, with that line. Under most state statutes passed to combat online predators, the demonstrated intent to solicit sexual acts from a minor is sufficient to land you in jail regardless of whether the minor is a willing participant. So, as a legal matter, the enticements offered by the decoys are of little importance to the police, or to issue advocates like Perverted Justice. But journalistically it looks a lot like crossing the line from reporting the news to creating the news.

Dateline has run afoul of this distinction before. Famously, in 1993, several producers and correspondents were fired for rigging a General Motors truck to explode in a crash test. More recently the program took heat for bringing Muslim-looking men to a NASCAR race to see what might happen (the program never aired). “Predator” seems to fall somewhere between those two examples. Perhaps its most direct counterpart in recent journalistic history is the famous sting operation mounted by the Chicago Sun Times. In 1978 the paper set up the Mirage Tavern in Chicago and snared a host of city officials for seeking bribes from the “owners,” who were actually undercover reporters. The Mirage was controversial in its day, but it seems tame by comparison to the Dateline stings. Al Tompkins, who teaches the ethics of television journalism at the Poynter Institute, draws a clear distinction between the Mirage and “Predator.” Mirage, he notes, was targeted at public officials who were known to be abusing the power of their offices for personal enrichment. “It was a legit question whether you could have covered the story any other way,” Tompkins says. “You couldn’t go through law enforcement because you didn’t know if police were involved in the corruption.” Tompkins, who has watched the Dateline series, says it looks more like a police prostitution sting than a news investigation.

Dateline has argued that “Predator” serves a genuine public good, but it could be argued that, in fact, Dateline is doing the public a disservice. When Attorney General Alberto Gonzales gave a speech about a major initiative to combat the “growing problem” of Internet predators, he cited a statistic that 50,000 such would-be pedophiles were prowling the Net at any given moment and attributed it to Dateline. Jason McLure, a reporter at Legal Times in Washington, D.C., (where I was formerly an editor), asked the show about the number. Dateline told him that it had gotten it from a retired FBI agent who consulted with the show. When the agent was contacted he wasn’t sure where the number had come from, terming it a “Goldilocks” figure — “Not small and not large.” He added that it was the same figure that was used by the media to describe the number of people killed annually by Satanic cults in the 1980s, and before that was cited as the number of children abducted by strangers each year in the 1970s. Dateline has now disowned the number, saying solid statistics about Internet predators are hard to find, but that the problem seems to be getting worse, a sentiment echoed by lawmakers in Congress.

But actually there isn’t much evidence that it is getting worse. For example, many news reports have cited a Justice Department study as saying that one in five children is approached online by a sexual predator. But as Radford Benjamin of The Skeptical Inquirer pointed out, what that 2001 study actually said was that 19 percent had received a “sexual solicitation” online, about half of which came from other teens and none of which led to a sexual assault. According to the study, the number of teens aggressively solicited by adults online was about 3 percent. A more recent study by the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire found that the number of kids getting unwanted sexual advances on the Internet was in fact declining. In general, according to data compiled by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, more than 70 percent of sexual abuse of children is perpetrated by family members or family friends.

That doesn’t mean Internet sex predators don’t exist, but Dateline heavily skews reality by devoting hour after hour of primetime programming to the phenomenon. As Poynter’s Tompkins notes: “Is there any other issue that’s received that much airtime? The question is whether the level of coverage is proportional to the actual problem.”

The answer, it seems, is no, and the explanation of why Dateline has seized on this mythical trend to anchor its venerable news show is that reality TV has so altered the broadcast landscape that traditional newsmagazine fare — no matter how provocative — just doesn’t cut it anymore. “Reality programs came in and newsmagazines no longer looked so great,” says one former producer for NBC News. While newsmagazines are cheap compared to other primetime shows, they don’t have the potential to be gigantic hits like Survivor or American Idol. For that reason, the producer notes, the entertainment divisions at the networks never really liked newsmagazines, which they had little hand in producing and for which they received no credit. At NBC, the former producer says, Jeff Zucker, formerly the president of the network’s news and entertainment group and now the c.e.o. of its television operations, regularly put the squeeze on Dateline, maintaining that the network needed its time slots to either develop new programming or schedule hit shows. “About the only thing they really want newsmagazines to do now is crime,” says the former producer. “If it’s not crime, they don’t think they can sell it. The traditional investigative reporting on shows like Dateline, or 48 Hours, or Primetime Live is no more.” (A notable exception, he says, is 60 Minutes.)

Dateline’s executive producer David Corvo prefers to see the change as a setting aside of older journalistic conventions to focus on new kinds of issues. The “Predator” series, he says, is just another form of enterprise journalism, one suited to the Internet age. But the distinction between enterprise and entertainment can be a difficult one. Dateline hasn’t so much covered a story as created one. In the process it has further compromised the barrier between reporters and cops that is central to the mission of journalism. If humiliating perverts and needlessly terrifying parents is the best use that newsmagazines can make of hours of primetime television, then perhaps they should be allowed to die and the time given over to the blood sport of reality programming. At least no one would dare to call it news.

Douglas McCollam is a contributing editor to CJR.

Retrieved March 3, 2007 from http://www.cjr.org/issues/2007/1/McCollam.asp

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 07:22 PM | Permalink

By Christopher Leonard, Associated Press, 03/01/07

A Missouri man accused of kidnapping and molesting two boys was indicted Thursday on federal charges he took pornographic pictures and videos of one of the youngsters. The indictment marked the first federal charges against Michael Devlin, 41, a former pizzeria manager from the St. Louis suburbs.

Devlin is charged with kidnapping and other offenses in the 2002 abduction of Shawn Hornbeck, who is now 15, and the January abduction of 13-year-old Ben Ownby. Both boys were found in Devlin's apartment Jan. 12.

U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway said four counts of the six-count indictment allege Devlin photographed and videotaped a minor engaged in sexually explicit acts between 2002 and this year. Two other counts allege he took the minor to Illinois and Arizona with the intent to sexually assault him.

Hanaway said all six counts involved the same child, identified only as "S," an apparent reference to Shawn. Authorities have alleged that Devlin held him captive from October 2002 until police found the boy in January.

It is The Associated Press' policy not to identify most alleged victims of sexual abuse, but the boys' stories have been widely publicized and their names are now well-known. Their families have also gone public, conducting media interviews.

Besides the federal charges, Devlin faces 75 state charges, including forcible sodomy, kidnapping and armed criminal action. He has pleaded not guilty to all those allegations. Devlin's attorney, Michael Kielty, said he had not seen the prosecution's evidence, but he acknowledged that most child pornography cases are "very emotional, very difficult."

"If there are photos and videotapes, that certainly would add some weight to the government's case," Kielty said. Shawn Hornbeck knew the federal charges would be filed and was with family members for moral support Thursday, said the family's attorney Scott Sherman. "It's tough," Sherman said. "These are really tough facts. It's the most intimate and the most personal of all the indictments we think," Sherman said.

Shawn is ready to testify in the case, no matter how painful it might be, Sherman said. "Justice for he and Ben is a very important element in (Shawn's) recovery," Sherman said.

Authorities allege Devlin used a gun to abduct Shawn as the boy was riding his bike near his home. Prosecutors have said he sodomized Shawn at least once a month for the next four years.

Neighbors thought Shawn was Devlin's son and said the boy was free to ride a bike, hang out with friends and cruise the Internet.

When Ben was abducted soon after getting off a school bus in January, a witness got a description of a white pickup seen speeding away. The description matched Devlin's vehicle, leading to his arrest. Devlin remains jailed on $1 million bond. His federal trial won't begin until his three state trials have concluded.

Associated Press writers Betsy Taylor and Jim Salter in St. Louis and Lara Jakes Jordan in Washington contributed to this story.

Retrieved March 1, 2007 from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070301/ap_on_re_us/boys_found_10

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 11:41 PM | Permalink

By Kieran Nicholson, Denver Post Staff Writer, 02/26/2007

Colorado Bureau of Investigation agent Chris Andrist pulls a hard drive from a confiscated computer at the agency's computer crime lab in Lakewood earlier this month. Internet predators have no idea to whom they're talking, another agent says. (Post / Karl Gehring)Despite the arrests each year in Colorado of hundreds of predators who attempt to meet children on the Internet for sex, few of those arrested in stings do any jail time for a first offense. Instead, the majority are sentenced to probation.

Internet sex stings, where police pose as children, are resulting in a growing number of arrests here and nationwide. The stings have received a lot of media attention, from the NBC "Dateline" segments that show grown-ups as they arrive for a sex rendezvous with someone they think is a child, to the arrest of Colorado radio personality Scott Cortelyou.

And while the arrests often lead to convictions, jail is a different matter.

"A lot of the public says they should all go to prison," said Mike Harris, an investigator with the Jefferson County district attorney's office, which has made a priority of online sex stings. "I agree. ... But the costs would be outrageous." Harris, who has spent more than a decade investigating predators who lure children online, has made 149 such arrests since 1996. Last year alone, Harris' investigations led to 44 arrests. And this year, he is on a pace to more than double the 2006 total. On Thursday, Harris announced that Steven Wayne Wood, 26, had turned himself in after "talking sexually" with someone he thought was an underage girl in a chat room. It was really Harris, who said he was able to snare Wood after just a few minutes.

Law-enforcement agencies trumpet arrests, and the media is typically quick to report the cases, including one last month in which Cortelyou, a radio business reporter, was arrested after an alleged Internet chat with an undercover officer. No trial date has been set in his case. The bigger the splash these cases make in the media, the more attention they bring to a problem that more than likely has not crested, experts say. "The use of the Internet in terms of availability has grown tremendously," said Colorado Springs police Detective Adam Romine. "Offenders can sit at home and talk to eight to 10 kids at a time until they find the one who is most vulnerable and try to take advantage." Romine works with the Internet Crimes Against Children task force, a federally funded statewide group formed in 1998 and administered by his department. The task force trains and supports Colorado police officers who focus on sex crimes against children in which computers are used.

It has more than 50 participating agencies and has tripled in size over the past two years. Its members made 61 arrests in 2005 and 72 last year, and have made 12 this year. Internet luring of a child is a Class 4 felony, and conviction could bring a prison sentence of up to six years. But in arrests involving officers posing online as children where there has been no actual contact with a minor, defendants seldom get jail sentences.

In two typical cases, Charles Eugene Parsons Jr., 48, and Jamie Lee Sample, 33, were arrested in Jefferson County last March in a multi-agency sting. In September, they were sentenced to intensive supervised probation - Parsons seven years and Sample three years. Both were required to register as sex offenders and enroll in a treatment program. "I think there is still that perception that, since you are not dealing with a real victim, that might influence sentencing in the cases," said Jefferson County District Attorney Scott Storey, Harris' boss.

Colorado has almost 20,000 inmates behind bars around the state, at a per-inmate cost of about $27,500 a year.

Crowded conditions and rising prison costs are among reasons "to avoid the expedient trap of thinking that anyone who commits a crime deserves to go to jail," said Rep. Terrance Carroll, D-Denver, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

Judges in Colorado are given discretion in imposing sentences, in part because jails and courtrooms are so crowded. "I'm sure there is always more we can do," Carroll said. "The question is, how much more can we afford to do?"

Despite the lack of prison sentences, Storey points to court-ordered evaluations, treatment programs, sex-offender registries and felony convictions as positive steps in the battle against online predators. "What amazes me, with as much publicity that this gets, is that they are still out there and they still want to meet," Storey said. "They are so motivated, even with the danger they may be communicating with a cop, and not a 13-year-old, that it still doesn't discourage them."

On Feb. 2, Cañon City police, working with the ICAC, arrested a man from Big Bear, Calif., who allegedly drove halfway across the country thinking he was meeting an underage girl for sex. Andrew Christian Coelho, who had no prior criminal record, was booked on multiple felony counts. State legislators last year beefed up laws dealing with children, the Internet and predators, passing House Bill 1011.

The law makes it a felony to use the Internet to set up a meeting with a child younger than 15 without the parents' permission, or to expose oneself or ask a child to do the same over the Internet. Before the bill, police and prosecutors used other felony charges, such as sexual enticement of a child or attempted sexual assault of a child, to convict Internet predators. Even though no actual contact with a child is made, courts have upheld Internet-sting convictions based on intent.

Parents must bear the responsibility of knowing whom their children are talking with online, said Rep. Carroll, and Internet service providers should help come up with creative solutions to the problem. "We can make it harder for predators to do their work," Carroll said.

Meanwhile, police from throughout the state will keep working to combat predators on the Internet. "Predators who are out there, they never know who they are talking to - it could be a child or it could be a cop," said Collin Reese, an agent with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. "Go ahead, roll the dice."

Staff writer Kieran Nicholson can be reached at 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.

Retrieved February 26, 2007 from http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_5304915

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 06:54 PM | Permalink

 The following tables list information about offenders from the Arizona Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 05:39 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 12:26 AM | Permalink

Phoenix, Arizona - February 21, 2007

The Arizona Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force recently completed a 25-month operation resulting in 1,310 investigations, 100 arrests and Internet crime prevention training for over 11,000 children, adults and law enforcement officers.

“We are very proud of the Task Force’s efforts during the most recent grant-funding cycle,” said Ms. Audrey Sibley. Ms. Sibley, who was Miss Arizona in 2005, is the spokesperson for the Task Force and a popular statewide lecturer for the Arizona ICAC Task Force crime prevention effort.

The Arizona ICAC Task Force includes a statewide association of 47 Arizona law enforcement agencies whose detectives and special agents work cooperatively to investigate and bring to justice offenders who use the Internet to victimize minors. The Task Force also provides or facilitates training to children, adults and law enforcement officers throughout Arizona.

ICAC Investigators often work proactively during undercover Internet operations to identify and apprehend sexual predators and traffickers of child pornography. Investigators also receive tips and referrals from the National Centers for Missing and Exploited Children’s Cybertip line.

Arizona ICAC Task Force operations began officially in 2000, when the Phoenix Police Department received the first in a series of ICAC grants from the United States Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The most recent grant, totaling $450,000, provided shared monies that permitted local law enforcement agencies to fund personnel, equipment and training to support their Internet crime fighting efforts.

Arizona ICAC Task force affiliated agencies statewide include the Arizona Department of Public Safety, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, police departments and sheriff’s offices in Phoenix, Mesa, Glendale, Yavapai County, Flagstaff, Kingman, Bullhead City, Coconino County, Springerville, Cochise County, Oro Valley and many others. Prosecutions in the Phoenix area are conducted through the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.

On a wider scale, the National ICAC Task Force program includes 46 primary law enforcement agencies covering every state. Each state’s Task Force is affiliated with dozens of local agencies, all of whom work towards apprehending Internet sexual predators and providing education for the purpose of preventing Internet crime. Each Task Force also works cooperatively with Federal investigative agencies including the FBI, ICE, USPIS and the Secret Service.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Investigations

Child pornography related (54%) 

• 471 for possession of child pornography.204 for distribution of child pornography.
• 35 for manufacturing child pornography.

• 351 for the Internet-related luring of minors or child prostitution.12 for sexual predators who wished to travel for the purpose of meeting a minor for sex.

• 220 assists to other law enforcement agencies.

• 17 investigations of computer hacking or intrusion related to Internet crimes against children.

Categorization of investigations by the source of the original information

Of the 1,310 new investigations initiated during this grant period the cases are categorized by the source of the original information as follows:

• 611 were sent from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
• 602 were the result of information received by citizens (not through NCMEC).
• 97 investigations were initiated by undercover investigators using proactive methods.

Arrests & Adjudications

100 offenders were arrested, indicted or adjudicated from cases originated during this or previous grant reporting periods for crimes including Internet related child pornography, child enticement (luring) or contact sex offenses where the Internet was part of the offense.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Selected Significant Incidents

During the 25-month grant-funded period beginning January 1, 2005 and ending January 31, 2007 the following significant incidents occurred: 

• In January 2005, a registered sex offender who had previous convictions in Oregon and Tennessee was observed in the library at Arizona State University using a computer to view child pornography. The Arizona State University Police affiliate of the Task Force arrested the man.
• In April 2005, a fraudulent scheme investigation by the Eloy Police Department affiliate of the Task Force resulted in the identification and apprehension of a gas-station cashier for possession of child pornography.
• In July 2005, a proactive investigation by a Phoenix detective identified an Internet sexual predator who had committed a similar offense 20 years ago. 
• In August 2005, a 13 year old Milwaukee, Wisconsin boy was lured to Phoenix by a wanted sex offender from Oklahoma. Arizona ICAC detectives arrested the offender, retrieved the boy and returned him to Wisconsin.
• In November 2005, a Phoenix neuropsychologist was arrested in a proactive investigation after he lured an undercover officer whom the man believed was a young boy. Further investigation revealed that the man was also a contact offender who had molested a boy in Phoenix.
• In February 2006, after a three-month, multi-state investigation into a child pornography trafficker who used computers at the Phoenix Public Library, the suspect was arrested at a library computer.
• In June 2006, ICAC investigators from the Phoenix and Mesa Police Departments used information from NCMEC Cybertip reports to identify and apprehend a trafficker of child pornography in Mesa.
• In July 2006, the Task Force conducted a 4-day, multi-agency proactive investigation which was titled, “Project Safe Childhood - Arizona”. The work of numerous investigators from affiliated agencies resulted in the arrests of six suspects for crimes including the luring of minors for sexual exploitation and/or possession of child pornography. During the investigation, several other Internet predators were identified after they initiated contact with undercover officers whom they believed were minors. Yahoo, Cox and Qwest each designated employees available 24/7 during the operation to immediately respond to subpoenas in order to quickly identify suspects.
• In September 2006, investigators executed a search warrant at a Camp Verde, Arizona residence as the result of an investigation into file-shared child pornography. Suspect Leslie Davies was arrested. Investigators learned that Davies was wanted in Mississippi for sexual molestation of a minor.
• In December 2006, investigators executed a search warrant at the home of a Phoenix man involved in file-shared child pornography. The man was arrested. The investigation and arrest resulted in the Task Force receiving the January 2007, “Child Defender of the Month” award from the National Law Center for Children and Families.

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 10:04 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 02:18 PM | Permalink

Dr. Kardasz:

A bill being introduced into the Arizona Senate would permit increased duplication and the possible subsequent trafficking of child pornography. I recommend that the bill be rejected and I sent the following letter to the Arizona Legislature. If you also oppose the bill, please contact the legislature and let them know your thoughts. A list of their email addresses appears at the end of this letter.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

February 10, 2007 

Dear Chairman Farnsworth, Vice-Chairman Driggs and distinguished members of the Committee,

The purpose of this email is to oppose SB 1329. Approval of the bill would encourage the duplication and trafficking of child pornography. I recommend that the bill be rejected.

Discussion

Child pornography is a peculiar type of contraband for two reasons:

1. Child pornography is the only type of contraband that penetrates the human psyche through the sense of sight. Unlike drugs that must be ingested through the bloodstream or respiratory systems, child pornography is illegal when seen. Consequently, the viewing of child pornography must be very carefully protected from those who have no legal reason to see it.

2. Child pornography is also peculiar because it is very easily duplicated. Unlike drugs, an image of child pornography can be copied using the computer software that is standard with most computers. Images can also be duplicated using digital cameras, copy machines or computer printers. Computer files containing contraband images can be quickly transferred to portable storage media including thumb drives, floppy disks or compact disks.

Child pornography must be carefully protected once it becomes evidence. It should not be unnecessarily duplicated nor released to the defense during the legal process of discovery. Most prosecuting attorneys have procedures in place to permit defense attorneys representing accused individuals to view images for court preparation under carefully controlled conditions. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office has procedures in place that permit the defense to view the evidence while simultaneously protecting the evidence from uncontrolled release.

Conclusion

SB 1329 encourages the unnecessary replication of contraband and the subsequent risk of increased trafficking of child pornography. The bill should be rejected.

Regards,

Dr. Frank Kardasz

link to further information about child pornography: http://www.kardasz.org/Unlawful_Images_are_Serious_Crimes.html

--------------------------------------------

Link to the proposed bill: http://www.azleg.gov/FormatDocument.asp?inDoc=%2Flegtext%2F48leg%2F1r%2Fproposed%2Fs%2E1329942jud%2Edoc%2Ehtm

--------------------------------------------

The Arizona State Legislature

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 08:32 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 05:28 PM | Permalink

Samantha M. Novick, Cronkite News Service, 02/09/07

There's often more to sexual predators than just a name and street address.

Lurking behind computer monitors and MySpace profiles, many sexual predators have turned the anonymity of the Internet into a means of contacting children, Attorney General Terry Goddard says. "MySpace has become a playground for the Internet predator," Goddard said.

An Arizona lawmaker wants to address that threat by requiring registered sex offenders to share their social networking site profiles, e-mail addresses and instant messaging names with authorities. Those refusing to do so would be charged with a felony. "We're beginning to recognize that it's become this untamed world, the Internet," said Rep. Bob Robson, R-Chandler. "It's created a perfect sanctuary for criminals to hide. This is the time that we can start doing something about this." Robson introduced HB 2734, which would require registered sex offenders to provide their online information to their county sheriff's department. This would be added to information already collected on sex offenders and made public, such as name, age, photograph and current address.

Parents would be able to access the information on the Arizona Department of Public Safety Web site to verify who their children are speaking to online. The information would also be used to notify social networking Web sites such as MySpace, the Facebook and Friendster.

Sex offenders failing to comply with the requirement would face up to 15 years in prison without probation, depending upon their prior convictions.

One in seven children between the ages of 10 to 17 has been sexually solicited over the Internet, according to a 2006 study by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. There are currently 11,000 registered sex offenders in Arizona.

Dr. Frank Kardasz, a sergeant with the Phoenix Police Department and project director of the Arizona Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, said the Internet is one of the best inventions to aid pedophiles. "It doesn't take us that long before police officers are approached online as we're posing as minors," Kardasz said. "This legislation would be a helpful tool for us. It also puts them on notice that we're watching them."

In August, Goddard started giving Internet safety presentations to middle school students across the state. He said that only half of the students he has spoken to had talked to their parents about their computer use. "Many parents tend to be very unaware of what their children are doing on the computer," Goddard said. "Many parents are unaware that their son or daughter even has a MySpace page, and that to me is inexcusable." Goddard said that HB 2734 was a step in the right direction, but he added that national legislation is needed so information on offenders in other states is available.

Congress is considering similar legislation, as are legislatures in Kentucky and Florida. The federal bill would require convicted sex offenders to register their online information into a national database that could be accessed by social networking Web sites. These Web sites could use the information to check their members, but the database would not be made public.

Retrieved February 10, 2007 from http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0209cns-online09-ON.html#

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 05:06 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 05:29 AM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 11:59 PM | Permalink

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 10:40 PM | Permalink

Dr. Kardasz: I support the Connecticut Attorney General's push to mandate that social networking sites implement an age verification system.

------------------------------------------------

Connecticut Attorney General's Office

Press Release

Attorney General Says Proposed MySpace Software Fails To Protect Children, Renews Call For Age Verification

January 17, 2007

"MySpace's 'Zephyr' software is a shortsighted and ineffective response to a towering danger to kids. Children can easily evade the software's purported protections by creating profiles from computers outside the home. This software does noting to stop predators or protect kids from inappropriate material.

"Predators will continue to prey on children using MySpace until the web site and its parent company implement real age verification. I and my fellow attorneys general will continue to demand that MySpace institute age verification, safeguarding kids against explicit sexual material and adults seeking sex. MySpace needs to stop making excuses and introduce age verification, as well as increase its minimum age to 16. Age verification for users 18 and older using publicly available data is easy and effective. MySpace can confirm the ages of younger users by requiring information from a parent or guardian.

"MySpace must better shield children from sexual predators and inappropriate content. Action is long overdue. MySpace must stop ignoring the elephant in the room and implement real age verification.

"I will continue to help lead our powerful coalition of Connecticut and 33 other states and consider every available option, including possible legal action, if the site continues to resist doing so."

Content Last Modified on 1/29/2007 9:26:56 AM

Retrieved February 2, 2006 from http://www.ct.gov/ag/cwp/view.asp?A=2788&Q=330762

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 09:39 PM | Permalink

Dr. Kardasz: Great article by Kevin Joy of the Columbus Dispatch

--------------------------------------------

01/31/07, by Kevin Joy, The Columbus Dispatch

Marissa never shared her password. But last month, she started getting suspicious messages over her AOL Instant Messenger account. "This one girl asked me, ‘How old are you?’ " said Marissa, 14. "She was giving me all of her information; she was in her 20s . . . asking me all these weird questions. Then I had other strange people IMing me, using cuss words. I was really scared."

Marissa’s not sure how it happened, but someone had accessed her IM account and used it to have an online chat with someone else, later posting the typed back-andforth dialogue on a popular public Web site. In turn, people who wouldn’t normally know Marissa’s screen name saw it, using the information to contact her. A quick change of her AOL screen name and password remedied the problem, but it didn’t make the incident any less uncomfortable. And it reflects a scary new reality for kids such as Marissa and their parents: When using a computer, safety must be a priority.

Digital dangers
As the digital world grows larger — and cell phones, e-mail, instant messaging and social-networking sites help people connect globally — dangers can lurk in the shadows, especially when communicating online.

"You don’t really know who’s behind that other keyboard," said Kent Smith, a project coordinator for the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, or ICAC.
"The same thing you learned about strangers in the real world is how you should approach the Internet."
Nearly everyone has heard the same safety warnings since childhood — don’t talk to, accept gifts from, or go anywhere with a stranger.

When surfing the Web, however, many young people don’t always follow those rules. "I don’t know anyone my age who takes the warnings people give seriously," said Sarah, 14. "That’s not what you’re thinking about when you go online." The faceless nature of the Internet can make it tricky terrain. People aren’t always who they claim to be. An online contact could live in another state, be a different age or even the opposite gender than his or her profile indicates. "When you’re not speaking with someone face to face, it’s much easier to be somebody you’re not," said detective Evan Pridham, a task-force agent for the FBI’s cyber-crimes unit. "Not everybody out there is a good person." Maybe that sounds like common sense, and you would never talk to strangers online. It doesn’t mean you’re safe.

Take MySpace, for example, the hugely popular social-networking Web site that allows people to post their own profiles with photos, music, blog entries and, perhaps more dangerous, personal interests and information. The site maintains more than 100 million registered members of various ages. Unless you make your profile page private, all of its details are on display for anyone to see. Letting people know that you like soccer, Beyonce and Pirates of the Caribbean isn’t a problem. But sharing personal information is — a mistake that Internet-safety experts say is a common problem among tweens and teens. Think about it. You wouldn’t walk around advertising your phone number or home address on a T-shirt, would you?

The same goes for posting pictures. A basic headshot is probably OK, but photographs that give hints to where you live or attend school or show you in minimal or indecent clothing can be very dangerous. If you can resist posting a picture, that’s best. "Kids are putting themselves at risk by engaging in behavior that is peer-pressure friendly," said Smith of the ICAC task force. "That’s potentially setting themselves up for folks to take advantage of them."

And don’t think it’s only your classmates who are looking. Students who have posted pictures of themselves engaged in illegal activity, such as drinking alcohol, have been caught by parents and school administrators, according to news reports. "They’re just trying to be funny, but some people put photos online that are really bad," said Kelly, 14, who said she’s seen such pictures of several middle-school classmates that are inappropriate or, at worst, embarrassing.

In general, use caution and think carefully before you post anything in your profile. It takes only a simple right-click-and-save action for someone to copy your information and paste it into his hard drive, whether it is a photo, an instant message or something more private. So it’s important to understand that what you post — even if you delete it later — can resurface, whether in a few months or a few years when you’re applying for college or a job.

"When you put your information on the Internet, it’s there forever," said Lt. Jeff Gaylor of the Westerville Police Department’s Internetcrimes enforcement team. "Whoever grabs that, it belongs to them, and you can’t get it back."

Safety measures
Last year, MySpace gave its users the option of making their profiles "private," meaning full access to someone’s personal page is restricted without the user’s permission. When the site dropped the minimum user age from 16 to 14, its youngest members’ pages were automatically made private from viewers who list their age as older than 18. Users older than 18 can’t list a 14- or 15-yearold as a friend unless they know the teen’s first and last names or e-mail address.

And this month, MySpace announced plans for parent-monitoring software, called Zephyr, that would allow parents to track what name, age and location their child is using in his MySpace profile. But it wouldn’t allow parents to access their child’s actual profile. The user, meanwhile, would be informed that he or she was being monitored.

Still, critics think the safety measures aren’t tough enough. Several lawsuits, including one this month in Dallas, have been filed against MySpace. The Dallas suit involves a 15-year-old girl who was allegedly drugged and raped by an adult she met on the Web site.

Representatives from News Corp., the parent company that purchased MySpace in 2005, declined multiple interview requests to discuss the site’s present and pending security measures. Young kids, meanwhile, continue to flock to the site. "I’m still not 14 years old, and I joined MySpace a couple years ago," said Jacob, 13. "All you have to do is push a button that says you’re 14 or older. You can have a 5-year-old using it."

The site claims to have deleted more than 250,000 profiles of kids who were thought to be younger than 14. Regardless of your age, it’s a good idea to keep your profile private (open to friends only). But that strategy isn’t foolproof, either. "If (a stranger) sweet-talks to you to get on your friends list, all that information is open again," Smith said. Likewise, it’s very easy for a stranger to pretend he is someone else. Don’t respond to messages or friend-request invitations from people you don’t know. "When someone IMs me, and I don’t know them, I ignore them," said Ariel, 15. "That’s happened a few times."

But if a stranger sends disturbing or inappropriate images, asks for your phone number or offers to meet in person, tell a parent or guardian immediately, said Pridham, of the FBI’s cybercrimes unit.

Don’t worry about getting in trouble; it’s more important to address the situation. Keep parents involved. Though it might seem uncool, you should have a discussion with your parents about Internet safety and establish ground rules before the computer is even used — to keep things safe (and avoid arguments later).

Those rules might include where the computer should be located (such as the family room), which way the screen should face (toward public viewing), how many hours a day the computer can be used for leisure and what types of sites are OK to visit.

"I’m allowed to be online for 45 minutes a day, at most, after I finish my homework," said Mia, 14. "My parents are pretty strict about it."

You can do your part, too, to avoid computer conflicts. Keep your parents involved in your online activities. Show them how MySpace, AOL Instant Messenger and online-journal sites such as Xanga and LiveJournal work.

Many experts advise that parents keep a MySpace profile of their own, to keep in contact with their kid’s online activity. It’s also a good idea to talk to your parents about installing filters for your Internet browser. Even if you’re not looking for trouble, it’s easy to stumble across inappropriate Web sites.  "I was doing a project and used Google images," said Gebby, 15, who said the search turned up several improper images that were unrelated to his assignment topic. "It can really be something with nothing bad implied, and a lot of bad stuff could come up. It’s awkward."

Be careful
Installing anti-virus programs also is an important step to protecting your computer. Some such programs are free; others can be purchased. But it’s also up to you to look out for suspicious things, such as those flashing pop-up advertisements and junk e-mails (also known as "spam") that might say you’re a prizewinner or ask for your bank account number. Don’t be fooled — forwarding an e-mail chain letter to 20 of your friends won’t bring you good luck. And clicking on the dancing monkey will not win you an iPod.

Jeremy, 12, wasn’t so careful. Last year, he clicked on a pop-up ad that claimed he had won a laptop computer. Jeremy entered his personal information, including a home address, on a site linked to the pop-up. Before Jeremy realized his error, 16 viruses had infected his computer. An expensive repair to the machine’s hard drive followed. But the worst part? "That came out of my allowance," Jeremy said.

It’s also possible to contract a computer virus when using file-sharing sites such as LimeWire and BearShare to download copyright music and videos. Even worse, downloading such content without paying for it is illegal. Government authorities have fined illegal downloaders — including kids — thousands of dollars. Unless a file is specifically marked as free, it’s no different than stealing an album from the store, even though it might not feel that way. It’s a lot to digest in today’s digital world — and dangers are definitely out there.

But using a computer also can be fun and educational. Connecting with friends online can be great, too, as long as you have the tools and skills to surf smart — and safely.

"Frankly, it’s like learning to cross the street for the first time," Smith of the Ohio ICAC said. "You’ve got to learn to do it safely — to watch with your eyes and ears. You look both ways, take a few steps and look again."

kjoy@dispatch.com

Retrieved January 31, 2007 from http://www.columbusdispatch.com/news/now/now.php?story=dispatch/2007/01/31/20070131-H1-00.html

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 03:09 PM | Permalink

Dr. Kardasz: The legislation proposed below is a good idea and will be helpful if offenders choose to comply with it.

---------------------------------------------

Senators McCain and Schumer Introduce Kids Act of 2007

Legislation would require sex offenders to register with law enforcement, enabling social-networking web sites to actively track and expel child predators

Washington, D.C. -- U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) and John McCain (R-AZ) today introduced the “Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual-Predators Act of 2007,” to be known as the KIDS Act, that would require registered sex offenders to submit e-mail addresses, instant message addresses or other identifying Internet information to law enforcement to be placed on the National Sex Offender Registry.  This bi-partisan legislation would allow social networking websites to cross-check users’ information against the registry to protect users from sexual predators.

“Millions of teenagers log on to websites like MySpace and they, and their parents, shouldn’t have to worry about running in to these predators online. Sex offenders have no business joining social networking communities – especially those with teenage users – and our legislation will help keep them out. We know that many predators are using the Internet to find victims. This legislation will take a big step toward keeping sexual predators out of the online neighborhoods our kids frequent,” Schumer said.

Under the proposed legislation, any sex offender who submits a fraudulent email could face jail time. Any offender caught using an unregistered email address would be in violation of probation or parole terms and face a return to prison.

The senators said the registration and collection of sex offenders’ email addresses will provide an invaluable tool for law enforcement because, should a sex offender provide an email found to be fraudulent, they will know that the predator is trying to evade detection.

“The fight to protect our children from sexual predators has moved from the playground to the Internet.  Many children who access the Internet in a safe environment -- such as their home or school -- forget that they are sharing personal information with complete strangers. By adopting this legislation, Congress would be able to provide websites with the tools to develop innovative solutions to protect children,” McCain said.

“I am pleased that both MySpace and Facebook have endorsed the KIDS Act. I look forward to other commercial social networking websites endorsing the bill and using the registry information after the bill is signed into law.”

In addition to the social networking sites, the KIDS Act has been endorsed by the American Family Association. Schumer and McCain will introduce additional internet predator legislation next week.

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 11:44 PM | Permalink

From FoxNews.com on-line version -

Defense In Child Porn Case Distorts the Truth

Sunday, January 28, 2007

By Rachel Alexander, Deputy County Attorney, Maricopa County

Recent media reports, including a Jan. 23 column by FOXNews.com
columnist Wendy McElroy, and a Jan. 19 broadcast of the ABC news program
20/20, have portrayed the prosecution of an Phoenix, Ariz., teenager in an
Internet child pornography case as an overzealous prosecution by the
Maricopa County Attorney's Office.

The Maricopa County Attorney's office would like to make clear our
contention that these reports grossly misrepresented the facts involved,
and that the characterization of this case in the media is the result of
the juvenile defendant's parents denial of the evidence of their son's
guilt and unfortunate initiation of a media disinformation campaign.

The Bandy’s even hired Bernstein Crisis Management to design a web site
attacking County Attorney Andrew Thomas and further spread
disinformation. The “experts” quoted on the website were not given the specific
facts of Bandy’s situation; they were simply asked broad questions about
viruses hijacking a computer.

This case was not about adult pornography, nor was it about a computer
virus surreptitiously downloading child pornography to your computer--
as the media, family and defense counsel have portrayed it. The
prosecution of then 16-year old Matt Bandy was about an investigation that
yielded overwhelming evidence of the defendant viewing, downloading,
uploading and sharing pornographic images of children being sexually abused,
and burning them to a CD.

Matt Bandy admitted to detectives that he visited pornographic websites
as well as an online group known for sharing pornographic images of
children. A burned CD was found in his home, which contained the same
pornographic images of children found on his computer. The images were
saved in a file named "Lolita," which is a term used by child pornographer
traffickers to refer to underage images.

Bandy’s defense attorney asserted that a “virus” or “trojan” must have
downloaded the child pornography to Bandy’s computer without his
knowledge. Even if this were true, it is the County Attorney's contention
that a virus could not have burned those images to a CD, titled them
“Lolita,” then physically removed the CD from the computer and place it
elsewhere within the family home. The fact that child pornography was found
on the CD at his home cannot be ignored.

The investigation was initiated by the Phoenix Police Department after
Yahoo! reported the transfer of child pornography to the Center for
Missing and Exploited Children, as required by law. Evidence subpoenaed
from Yahoo! revealed that pornographic images of children had been
uploaded from a username “mrbob1980hoopdu” to a Yahoo! online group called
“beth_lard9.”

Beth_lard9 was an online group created for exchanging child
pornography. Bandy admitted to the Phoenix police detectives assigned to the case
that he participated in this online group, and said his username was
“joebean1988hoopdu.” Yahoo! provided information showing that the
username that uploaded the child pornography, “mrbob1980hoopdu,” was
registered as “Ms. Joe Bean”-- a clear link to Bandy.

In addition, both the IP address assigned to the Bandy computer by the
Bandy’s Internet service provider Cox and the MAC address of the Bandy
computer were matched to the newsgroup postings by “mrbob1980hoopdu.”

Ms. McElroy's column reported the defense assertion that the
prosecution refused to perform a forensic analysis of the juvenile’s computer,
and that a forensic analysis found that “nine images were probably
downloaded without his knowledge onto his hard drive by a virus.”

This is not accurate. The prosecution’s forensic examiner, a detective
with over 400 hours of training in computer forensics who is certified
by the International Association of Computer Investigative Specialists,
the leading organization in this area, performed a lengthy analysis of
Bandy’s computer. The results of this examination were detailed in a
report over 100 pages long. This detective found 72 images of child
pornography on the computer, stored in folders created on his computer
entitled “…kidlolitagood ones.

The Bandy family hired their own forensic examiner, whose resume does
not indicate she is certified with IACIS and whose expertise and
training is seriously questioned by the prosecutors. This examiner is
responsible for the claim that a virus probably downloaded the images without
the juvenile’s knowledge.

(Fox News Editor's note: each side in this case disputes the expertise and
qualifications of the forensic examiner used by the other side. )

If this were the case, what would stop anyone accused of downloading
child porn from using that excuse? That excuse has been used with little
success in the past by defendants. Last summer, in U.S. v. O’Keefe, the
11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the child pornography conviction
of a defendant who blamed a virus for placing child pornography on his
computer. In that case, the prosecution’s forensic analysis of his
computer indicated there were viruses on his computer, but they were not
capable of downloading child pornography.

If the analysis by the forensic analyst hired by Bandy provided
exculpatory evidence, it should have been presented during the prosecution of
the case. The only report that has been provided to our office was a
seven-page document consisting of some conclusions; there was no report
on scanning for viruses, no mention of the CD that was found or the work
the examiner performed – no mention of any viruses supposedly
responsible for the activities described or the CD.

In fact, our office’s forensic examiner who examined the computer
acknowledged after the case blew up in the media that there were child porn
images present on the computer nine months before the viruses infected
the computer, so the viruses could not have been solely responsible.

It is a prosecutor’s responsibility to try cases where there is a
reasonable likelihood of conviction. Bandy’s defense attorney has publicly
acknowledged that there was an “80 percent” chance of conviction if the
case went to trial.

The plea agreement reached in this case has been misrepresented as an
indication that we did not have a strong case. This too is not accurate.

Arizona has one of the toughest child pornography laws in the nation,
requiring a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison for each image of
child pornography, and multiple counts must be served consecutively. By
these laws, Bandy could have faced 90 years in prison.

Our office never intended to ask for a sentence of 90 years in prison,
as has been so greatly exaggerated, and the plea reflects our office
efforts to avoid giving the juvenile 90 years in prison. Our office has a
duty to examine each case on its own merits and reach a result which is
just. In light of the circumstances surrounding this case -- such as
the age of the juvenile and his lack of prior criminal conduct -- we felt
90 years was disproportionately harsh and offered a plea bargain
allowing Bandy to plead guilty to the lesser charge of distributing
pornography to minors. Bandy accepted this agreement.

The victim in this case is not Matt Bandy. The victims are the children
who are exploited and made virtual sex slaves. Some of the children in
the images found on his computer and CD were recognized as past victims
of exploitation, and some were under 10 years old.

This case is not about pornography, it is about child pornography.
Child pornography sexualizes children for profit. If you can justify a
crime as horrible as child pornography, you can justify any heinous crime.

Our office did what it thought was right in this situation, and a media
disinformation campaign cannot change the overwhelming evidence of
Bandy’s guilt.

Unfortunately, the court removed the sex offender registration terms
from Bandy’s guilty plea, so he will not receive the treatment he needs
to avoid this happening again. Individuals who become involved in child
pornography have a hard time breaking free from it. We can only hope
that Bandy does.

Rachel Alexander is the deputy county attorney with the Maricopa County
Attorney’s Office, Maricopa County, Arizona.

Retrieved January 29, 2006 from
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,247903,00.html

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 12:14 AM | Permalink

Dr. Kardasz - Good news from NCMEC and MYSpace. This will help identify those sex offenders who use their true names on-line. There is still a difficult issue regarding those sex offenders who use aliases.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

From the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children web site:

Press Release

MYSPACE AND SENTINEL DONATE NEW DATABASE TECHNOLOGY TO THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN TO ASSIST LAW ENFORCEMENT IN THEIR ONLINE SAFETY INVESTIGATIONS

WASHINGTON D.C.—January 29, 2007—MySpace.com, the leading social networking and lifestyle portal, and Sentinel Tech announced today at the National Press Club that they are donating their Sentinel Safe database technology to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® (NCMEC). Sentinel Safe is a new database developed by MySpace and Sentinel Tech that enables Web sites and other third parties to effectively identify, remove, and block convicted sex offenders from online communities. NCMEC will leverage the Sentinel Safe database as an analytical tool to assist federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in their investigations.

“We’re pleased to join Sentinel in donating this important database technology to NCMEC,” said Hemanshu Nigam, Chief Security Officer, Fox Interactive Media, a parent company of MySpace. “We believe it’s an extremely useful law enforcement tool and want to see it used as broadly as possible.  It’s critical that we work together as we continue to innovate and develop creative solutions to reduce online safety risks.”  

“Providing assistance to law enforcement with their investigations is part of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s core mission,” said Ernie Allen, NCMEC President and CEO. “MySpace’s donation of its Sentinel Safe database will enable us to help keep the Internet safer by tracking down those who commit crimes against our children.”

Last month, MySpace joined forces with Sentinel Tech to build Sentinel Safe, a national, searchable, sex offender database to contain information on the estimated 600,000 registered sex offenders in the U.S. MySpace and Sentinel Tech are donating this technology to provide NCMEC with additional resources to assist federal, state and local law enforcement with their investigations ranging from missing child cases, Internet-facilitated crimes against children, locating registered sex offenders, and potentially identifying fugitives.

"Through this donation, NCMEC will have access to the most cutting edge technology available today to identify non-compliant and registered sex offenders so it can provide better assistance to  law enforcement agencies across the nation” said John Cardillo, CEO of Sentinel Tech, an industry expert on security and a former NYPD Detective. “Sentinel Safe will allow law enforcement, both big and small, the ability to enhance their searches and better track these criminals, making the Internet safer for all.”

The Sentinel Safe database is designed to receive the most current updates from localized state sex offender registries with new information and identifiers of registered sex offenders. NCMEC will directly interface with law enforcement to provide them access to the database information in order to assist in their investigations. As part of this donation, MySpace and Sentinel Tech will provide all research and development to tailor the Sentinel Safe technology to NCMEC’s unique needs in aiding law enforcement.

The Sentinel Safe database is currently being used by a dedicated MySpace safety team to proactively monitor 24/7 for convicted sex offenders in the community. Once a positive match is confirmed, the safety team immediately removes any matching profiles on its site.  Sentinel Safe is the most comprehensive database technology that exists to identify, remove, and block sex offenders from within an online community.

MySpace first partnered with NCMEC in April 2006 to promote online safety through the deployment of NCMEC’s national public service advertisements (PSAs) and has since worked with the organization to develop various safety best practices and programs including AMBER Alerts on MySpace. MySpace is pleased to continue its longstanding relationship with NCMEC by presenting the database to the organization.

Today’s NCMEC donation is part of a multi-pronged approach at MySpace to develop technologies and align with partners interested in finding feasible solutions to improve the safety of the Internet for everyone.

# # #

About the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC)
NCMEC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. NCMEC’s congressionally mandated CyberTipline, a reporting mechanism for child sexual exploitation, has handled more than 419,400 leads. Since 1984, NCMEC has assisted law enforcement with more than 125,200 missing child cases, resulting in the recovery of more than 107,600 children. For more information about NCMEC, call its toll-free, 24-hour hotline at 1-800-THE-LOST or visit its web site at www.missingkids.com.

Retrieved January 29, 2007 from http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/NewsEventServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=3045