| Porn
Use Statistics
Wisechoice
is the tool which can put an end to your internet pornography
use.
Most
of us think that we are the exception in our porn use.-
But statistics tell us that 50% of men on the web are accessing
internet porn and the destruction to our homes, our reputations
and our families can be huge. I developed Wisechoice to give
us a way of escape from porn use and the consequences of it.
The following statistics show just what an impact that internet
porn is having in our society.
I
urge you to put a wall between you and internet porn.
We
offer a filter that cannot be bypassed except by telephoning
our support staff and identifying yourself as the primary user.
Wisechoice is also effective for families and guarding children,
it is highly customizable. We also provide accountability reporting
at no extra charge. For more information go to www.wisechoice.net
INTERNET
PORNOGRAPHY
Statistics taken from www.enough.org
- Worldwide pornography revenue in 2006 was $97.06 billion.
Of that, approximately $13 billion was in the United States
(Internet Filter Review, 2006).
- Every second, $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography,
28,258 Internet viewers are viewing pornography, 372 Internet
users are typing adult search terms into search engines,
and every 39 minutes, a new pornographic video is made in
the United States (Internet Filter Review, 2006).
- 79% of youth unwanted exposure to pornography occurs in
the home (Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later,
2006).
CHILD
PORNOGRAPHY
- Child pornography is one of the fastest growing businesses
online, and the content is becoming much worse. In 2008, Internet
Watch Foundation found 1,536 individual child abuse domains.
(Internet Watch Foundation. Annual Report, 2008).
- Of all known child abuse domains, 58 percent are housed
in the United States (Internet Watch Foundation. Annual Report,
2008).
- The fastest growing demand in commercial websites for child
abuse is for images depicting the worst type of abuse, including
penetrative sexual activity involving children and adults
and sadism or penetration by an animal (Internet Watch Foundation.
Annual Report, 2008).
- In a study of arrested child pornography possessors, 40
percent had both sexually victimized children and were in
possession of child pornography. Of those arrested between
2000 and 2001, 83 percent had images involving children between
the ages 6 and 12; 39 percent had images of children between
ages 3 and 5; and 19% had images of infants and toddlers under
age 3 (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children,
Child Pornography Possessors Arrested in Internet-Related
Crimes: Findings fro the National Juvenile Online Victimization
Study.
2005).
- Child pornography has become a $3 billion annual industry
(Top Ten Reviews, 2005).
CHILD
SEXUAL ABUSE
- Of substantiated reports of child abuse in 2005, 23 percent
for teens ages 16 and older involved physical abuse and 17
percent involved sexual abuse. Among substantiated reports
for children ages 0-3, 12 percent involved physical abuse
and 2 percent involved sexual abuse (America's Children: Key
National Indicators of Well-Being. Federal Interagency Forum
on Child and Family Statistics, 2007).
- A New Zealand Internal Affairs study suggests that there
is an association between viewing child pornography and committing
child sexual abuse (New Zealand's Department of Internal Affairs.
Internet Traders of Child Pornography: Profiling Research.
By Caroline Sullivan. October 2005. January 10, 2006).
- The sexual victimization of children is overwhelming in
magnitude yet largely unrecognized and underreported. Research
indicates that 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will be sexually
victimized before adulthood (National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children).
- One in four women reported childhood sexual abuse and in
most cases perpetrated by males (Long-Term Consequences of
Childhood Sexual Abuse by Gender of Victim. Volume 28, Issue
5. The American Journal of Preventative Medicine. June 2005).
MOBILE
PORN
- In 2005, worldwide revenue from mobile phone pornography
is expected to rise to $1 billion and could grow to three
times that number or more within a few years (Bryan-Low, Cassel
and Pringle, David. "Sex Cells: Wireless Operators Find That
Racy Cellphone Video Drives Surge in Broadband Use." The Wall
Street Journal. May 12, 2005.)
- According to IDC, a technology research firm, by the end
of 2004 approximately 21 million 5- to 19-year-olds had wireless
phones.
- Adult content on mobile telephones and other portable devices
is anticipated to hit $1 billion in worldwide revenues during
2005, according to market research firm Juniper Research.
(Juniper Research, "Adult to Mobile: Personal Services," February
2005)
ONLINE
SEXUAL PREDATORS
- Currently, there are over 644,865 Registered Sex Offenders
in the United States; an estimated 10,000 have been lost in
the system (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children,
2008).
- The predominant sex crime scenario doesn't involve violence
or stranger molesters posing online as children; only 5 percent
of offenders concealed the fact they were adults from their
victims. Almost 80 percent of offenders were explicit about
their intentions with youth. In 73 percent of crimes, youth
go to meet the offender on multiple occasions for multiple
sexual encounters (NJOV Study, 2007).
- Teens are willing to meet with strangers: 16 percent of
teens considered meeting someone they've only talked to online
and 8 percent have actually met someone they only knew online
(Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later. 2006).
- Four percent of all youth Internet users received aggressive
sexual solicitations, which threatened to spill over into
"real life". These solicitors asked to meet the youth in person,
called them on the telephone, or sent offline mail, money,
or gifts. Also 4 percent of youth Internet users had distressing
sexual solicitations that left them feeling upset of extremely
afraid (Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later, 2006).
YOUTH
YOUTH
AND GENERAL INTERNET USE
- K-1st grade students access the Internet using various devices
for a variety of purposes, including playing online games
and communicating with other people. Online gaming is increasingly
popular among younger students. (Rochester Institute of Technology,
2008)
- 48 percent of students K-1st grade level interact with people
on Web sites, while 50 percent indicate that their parents
watch them when they use a computer, leaving the other half
of those youngsters more prone to being exposed to predation
behaviors or other threats posed by online strangers or even
persons they know or regard as friends. (Rochester Institute
of Technology, 2008)
- 48 percent of K-1st reported viewing online content that
made them feel uncomfortable, of which 72 percent reported
the experience to a grownup, meaning that one in four children
did not. (Rochester Institute of Technology, 2008)
- 32 percent of teens clear the browser history to hide what
they do online from their parents. (Harris Interactive-McAfee
10/2008)
- 16 percent have created private e-mail addresses or social
networking profiles to hide what they do online from their
parents. (Harris Interactive-McAfee 10/2008)
- 63 percent of teens said they know how to hide what they
do online from their parents. (Harris Interactive-McAfee 10/2008)
- 43 percent have closed or minimized the browser at the sound
of a parental step. (Harris Interactive-McAfee 10/2008)
- 11 percent have unlocked/disabled/ parental/filtering controls.
(Harris Interactive-McAfee 10/2008)
- 52 percent of teens have given out personal information
online to someone they don't know offline including personal
photos and/or physical descriptions of themselves (24 percent).
Double the number of teen girls have shared photos or physical
descriptions of themselves online as boys. (34 percent girls
vs. 15 percent boys) (Harris Interactive-McAfee 10/2008)
- 20 percent of teens have engaged in cyberbullying behaviors,
including posting mean or hurtful information or embarrassing
pictures, spreading rumors, publicizing private communications,
sending anonymous e-mails or cyberpranking someone. (Harris
Interactive-McAfee 10/2008)
- A quarter of teens would be shocked (24 percent), one in
five would feel hurt (19 percent) and 34 percent would feel
offended if they found out their mother was keeping track
of what they do online without their knowledge or permission.
(Harris Interactive-McAfee 10/2008)
- Looking at a general picture of teen internet adoption,
American teens are more wired now than ever before. According
to our latest survey, 93 percent of all Americans between
12 and 17 years old use the internet. In 2004, 87 percent
were internet users, and in 2000, 73 percent of teens went
online. (Lenhart, Amanda and Madden, Mary. Teens, Privacy,
and Online Social Networks. Pew Internet and American Life
Project, April 18, 2007 http://www.pewinternet.org/pdf...rivacy_SNS_Report_Final.pdf
).
- Home computers are still overwhelmingly located in open
family areas of the home; 74 percent of teens now say the
computer they use is in a public place in the home, compared
with 73 percent in 2004 and 70 percent in 2000. (Lenhart,
Amanda and Madden, Mary. Teens, Privacy, and Online Social
Networks. Pew Internet and American Life Project, April 18,
2007 http://www.pewinternet.org/pdf...rivacy_SNS_Report_Final.pdf
).
- A large majority of teens (71 percent) have established
online profiles (including those on social networking sites
such as MySpace, Friendster and Xanga), up from 61 percent
in 2006. (National teen Internet survey was funded by Cox
Communications in partnership with NCMEC and John Walsh and
was conducted in March 2007 among 1,070 teens age 13 to 17.
The research was conducted online by TRU. http://www.cox.com/TakeCharge/...ocs/survey_results_2007.ppt
).
- The risks to children, particularly teenagers, in cyberspace
include exposure to unwanted exposure to sexual material (1
in 3 youth) and harassment -- threatening or other offensive
behavior directed at them (1 in 11 youth). (Online Victimization
of Youth: Five Years Later. 2006. National Center for Missing
& Exploited Children, Crimes Against Children Research
Center, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
December 4, 2006. http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/pdf/CV138.pdf
).
- 31 percent of 7th to 12th-graders pretended to be older
to get onto a website. (Generation M: Media in the Lives of
8-18 Year-Olds. Victoria Rideout, Donald F. Roberts. Ulla
G. Foehr. March 2005. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
17 November 2006, http://www.kff.org/entmedia/up...f-8-18-Year-olds-Report.pdf
).
- Nearly one-third (31percent) of 8- to 18-year-olds have
a computer in their bedroom, and one in five (20 percent)
have an Internet connection there (Generation M: Media in
the Lives of 8-18 Year-Olds. Victoria Rideout, Donald F. Roberts.
Ulla G. Foehr. March 2005. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
17 November 2006, http://www.kff.org/entmedia/up...f-8-18-Year-olds-Report.pdf
).
- Three in four (74 percent) young people have a home Internet
connection (31 percent have high-speed access). Nearly one-third
(31 percent) have a computer in their bedroom, and one in
five (20 percent) have an Internet connection there. In a
typical day, about half of young people (48 percent) go online
from home, 20 percent from school, and 16 percent from someplace
else (Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-Olds.
Victoria Rideout, Donald F. Roberts. Ulla G. Foehr. March
2005. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. 17 November 2006,
http://www.kff.org/entmedia/up...f-8-18-Year-olds-Report.pdf
).
- Among the 96 percent of young people who have ever gone
online, 65 percent say they go online most often from home,
14 percent from school, 7 percent from a friend's house, and
2 percent from a library or other location (Generation M:
Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-Olds. Victoria Rideout, Donald
F. Roberts. Ulla G. Foehr. March 2005. The Henry J. Kaiser
Family Foundation. 17 November 2006, http://www.kff.org/entmedia/up...f-8-18-Year-olds-Report.pdf
).
- One in ten young people (13 percent) reports having a handheld
device that connects to the Internet (The Henry J. Kaiser
Family Foundation Study, March 2005).
- The most common recreational activities young people engage
in on the computer are playing games and communicating through
instant messaging (Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18
Year-Olds. (Victoria Rideout, Donald F. Roberts, Ulla G. Foehr.
March 2005. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. 17 November
2006, http://www.kff.org/entmedia/up...f-8-18-Year-olds-Report.pdf
).
YOUTH AND INTERNET
PORNOGRAPHY
- Of students aged 13 and 14 from schools across Alberta,
Canada, 90 percent of males and 70 percent of females reported
accessing sexually explicit media content at least once. (Thompson,
Sonya. "Study Shows 1 in 3 Boys Heavy Porn Users". University
of Alberta Study, 5 March 2007, http://www.healthnews-stat/com...0&keys=porn-rural-teens
.)
- Of students aged 13 and 14 from schools across Alberta,
Canada, 4 percent reported viewing pornography on the Internet;
41 percent saw it on video or DVD and 57 percent saw it on
a specialty TV channel. (Thompson, Sonya. "Study Shows 1 in
3 Boys Heavy Porn Users". University of Alberta Study, 5 March
2007, http://www.healthnews-stat/com...0&keys=porn-rural-teens
.)
- The study revealed that boys do the majority of deliberate
viewing, and a significant minority now plans social time
around viewing porn with male friends. (Thompson, Sonya. "Study
Shows 1 in 3 Boys Heavy Porn Users". University of Alberta
Study, 5 March 2007, http://www.healthnews-stat/com...0&keys=porn-rural-teens
.)
- Porn has become a major presence in the lives of youth,
and while a majority of teens surveys said their parents expressed
concern about sexual content, that concern has not led to
discussion or supervision, and few parents are using available
technology to block sexual content. (Thompson, Sonya. "Study
Shows 1 in 3 Boys Heavy Porn Users". University of Alberta
Study, 5 March 2007, http://www.healthnews-stat/com...0&keys=porn-rural-teens
.)
- The author of the study, Sonya Thompson concluded that parents
need to improve dialogue with their children and their own
awareness level. They need to be the ones setting the boundaries
in the house. (Thompson, Sonya. "Study Shows 1 in 3 Boys Heavy
Porn Users". University of Alberta Study, 5 March 2007, http://www.healthnews-stat/com...0&keys=porn-rural-teens
.)
- Forty-two percent of Internet users aged 10 to 17 surveyed
said they had seen online pornography in a recent 12-month
span. Of those, 66 percent said they did not want to view
the images and had not sought them out. The survey has a margin
of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. The results
come from a telephone survey of 1,500 Internet users aged
10 to 17 conducted in 2005, with their parents' consent. (Wolak,
Janis, et al. "Unwanted and Wanted Exposure to Online Pornography
in a National Sample of Youth Internet Users." Pediatrics
119 (2007); 247-257.)
- In the survey, most kids who reported unwanted exposure
were aged 13 to 17. Still, sizable numbers of 10- and 11-year-olds
also had unwanted exposure -- 17 percent of boys and 16 percent
of girls that age. (Wolak, Janis, et al. "Unwanted and Wanted
Exposure to Online Pornography in a National Sample of Youth
Internet Users." Pediatrics 119 (2007); 247-257.)
- More than one-third of 16- and 17-year-old boys surveyed
said they had intentionally visited X-rated sites in the past
year. Among girls the same age, 8 percent had done so. (Wolak,
Janis, et al. "Unwanted and Wanted Exposure to Online Pornography
in a National Sample of Youth Internet Users." Pediatrics
119 (2007); 247-25.)
- Overall, 34 percent had unwanted exposure to online pornography,
up from 25 percent in a similar survey conducted in 1999 and
2000. (Wolak, Janis, et al. "Unwanted and Wanted Exposure
to Online Pornography in a National Sample of Youth Internet
Users." Pediatrics 119 (2007); 247-257.)
- Online use that put kids at the highest risk for unwanted
exposure to pornography was using file-sharing programs to
download images. However, they also stumbled onto X-rated
images through other "normal" Internet use, the researchers
said, including talking online with friends, visiting chat
rooms and playing games. (Wolak, Janis, et al. "Unwanted and
Wanted Exposure to Online Pornography in a National Sample
of Youth Internet Users." Pediatrics 119 (2007); 247-257.)
- Filtering and blocking software helped prevent exposure,
but was not 100 percent effective, the researchers said. (Wolak,
Janis, et al. "Unwanted and Wanted Exposure to Online Pornography
in a National Sample of Youth Internet Users." Pediatrics
119 (2007); 247-257.)In 2000, more than one-third of youth
Internet users (34 percent) saw sexual material online they
did not want to see in the past year compared to one-quarter
(25 percent) in 2005 (Online Victimization of Youth: Five
Years Later. 2006. National Center for Missing & Exploited
Children, Crimes Against Children Research Center, Office
of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. December 4,
2006. http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/pdf/CV138.pdf
).
- More than three-quarters of the unwanted exposures (79 percent)
happened at home. Nine (9) percent happened at school, 5 percent
happened at friends' homes, and 5 percent happened in other
places including libraries (Online Victimization of Youth:
Five Years Later. 2006. National Center for Missing &
Exploited Children, Crimes Against Children Research Center,
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. December
4, 2006. http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/pdf/CV138.pdf
).
- According to a New Zealand Internal Affairs study, the largest
single age group viewing child pornography is young people
aged 15 to 19, accounting for a quarter of 202 convicted child
porn users. (New Zealand's Department of Internal Affairs.
Internet Traders of Child Pornography: Profiling Research.
By Caroline Sullivan. October 2005. January 10, 2006. http://www.dia.govt.nz/pubform...text-align:right'/a>
).
- 70 percent have accidentally come across pornography on
the Web (Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-Olds.
Victoria Rideout, Donald F. Roberts. Ulla G. Foehr. March
2005. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. 17 November 2006,
http://www.kff.org/entmedia/up...f-8-18-Year-olds-Report.pdf
).
- Nine out of 10 children aged between eight and 16 have viewed
pornography on the Internet. In most cases, the sex sites
were accessed unintentionally when a child, often in the process
of doing homework, used a seemingly innocent sounding word
to search for information or pictures. (London School of Economics
January 2002).
YOUTH ACTING OUT
- The number of cases in which children received court orders
or warnings for sex offenses has jumped by 20 percent in the
past three years; experts blame the Internet, saying that
the youth behavior has been changed by ready access to sexual
imagery. ("Web Is Blamed for 20 Percent Leap in Sex Attacks
by Children". This is London. 3 March 2007, www.thisislondon.co.uk).
YOUTH, ONLINE
PRIVACY & SOCIAL NETWORKING
- Frequently children in 4th-6th grade levels engage in social
networking activities. In the process they post personal,
potentially exploitable, information about themselves online.
Specifically, and within the last school year: 16% posted
personal interests online, 15% posted information about their
physical activities and 20% gave out their real name. In addition,
5% posted information about their school, 6% posted their
home address, 6% posted their phone number and 9% posted pictures
of themselves. (Rochester Institute of Technology, 2008)
- A majority of teens (58 percent) don't think posting photos
or other personal info on social networking sites is unsafe.
(National teen Internet survey was funded by Cox Communications
in partnership with NCMEC and John Walsh and was conducted
in March 2007 among 1,070 teens age 13 to 17. The research
was conducted online by TRU. http://www.cox.com/TakeCharge/...ocs/survey_results_2007.ppt
).
- Teens readily post personal info online. 64 percent post
photos or videos of themselves, while more than half (58 percent)
post info about where they live. Females are far more likely
than male teens to post personal photos or videos of themselves
(70 percent vs. 58 percent). (National teen Internet survey
was funded by Cox Communications in partnership with NCMEC
and John Walsh and was conducted in March 2007 among 1,070
teens age 13 to 17. The research was conducted online by TRU.
http://www.cox.com/TakeCharge/...ocs/survey_results_2007.ppt
).
- Nearly one in 10 teens (8 percent ) has posted his or her
cell phone number online. (National teen Internet survey was
funded by Cox Communications in partnership with NCMEC and
John Walsh and was conducted in March 2007 among 1,070 teens
age 13 to 17. The research was conducted online by TRU. http://www.cox.com/TakeCharge/...ocs/survey_results_2007.ppt
).
- Teens who have online profiles are generally more likely
to say it is okay to give out certain pieces of personal information
in offline situations than they are to have that information
actually posted to their profile. Teens with online profiles
have a greater tendency to say it is fine to share where they
go to school, their IM screen name, email address, last name
and cell phone number with someone they met at a party, when
compared with the percentage who actually post that information
online. The only piece of information they are more likely
to share online rather than in person with a new acquaintance
is the city and state where they live. (Lenhart, Amanda and
Madden, Mary. Teens, Privacy, and Online Social Networks.
Pew Internet and American Life Project, April 18, 2007 http://www.pewinternet.org/pdf...rivacy_SNS_Report_Final.pdf
).
- Some 23 percent of teen profile creators say it would be
"pretty easy" for someone to find out who they are from the
information posted to their profile, and 40 percent of teens
with profiles online think that it would be hard for someone
to find out who they are from their profile, but that they
could eventually be found online. Another 36 percent say they
think it would be "very difficult" for someone to identify
them from their online profile. (Lenhart, Amanda and Madden,
Mary. Teens, Privacy, and Online Social Networks. Pew Internet
and American Life Project, April 18, 2007 http://www.pewinternet.org/pdf...rivacy_SNS_Report_Final.pdf
).
YOUTH, STRANGERS
& SEXUAL SOLICITATIONS
- 14 percent of students in 10th-12th grade have accepted
an invitation to meet an online stranger in-person and 14
percent of students, who are usually the same individuals,
have invited an online stranger to meet them in-person. (Rochester
Institute of Technology, 2008)
- 14 percent 7th-9th grade students reported that they had
communicated with someone online about sexual things; 11 percent
of students reported that they had been asked to talk about
sexual things online; 8 percent have been exposed to nude
pictures and 7 percent were also asked for nude pictures of
themselves online. (Rochester Institute of Technology, 2008)
- 59 percent of 7th-9th grade victims said their perpetrators
were a friend they know in-person; 36 percent said it was
someone else they know; 21 percent said the cyber offender
was a classmate; 19 percent indicated the abuser was an online
friend; and 16 [ercent said it was an online stranger. (Rochester
Institute of Technology, 2008)
- Nine percent of children in 7th-9th grade have accepted
an online invitation to meet someone in-person and 10 percent
have asked someone online to meet them in-person. (Rochester
Institute of Technology, 2008)
- 13 percent of 2nd-3rd grade students report that they used
the Internet to talk to people they do not know, 11 percent
report having been asked to describe private things about
their body and 10 percent have been exposed to private things
about someone else's body. (Rochester Institute of Technology,
2008)
- 69 percent of teens regularly receive personal messages
online from people they don't know and most of them don't
tell a trusted adult about it. (National teen Internet survey
was funded by Cox Communications in partnership with NCMEC
and John Walsh and was conducted in March 2007 among 1,070
teens age 13 to 17. The research was conducted online by TRU.
http://www.cox.com/TakeCharge/...ocs/survey_results_2007.ppt
).
- While 16 percent of teens say they've considered meeting
face-to-face with someone they've talked to only online, that
marks a significant drop compared to the 30% of teens who
were considering such a meeting in 2006. In 2007, 8 percent
of teens say they actually have met in person with someone
from the Internet, down from 14 percent in 2006. (National
teen Internet survey was funded by Cox Communications in partnership
with NCMEC and John Walsh and was conducted in March 2007
among 1,070 teens age 13 to 17. The research was conducted
online by TRU. http://www.cox.com/TakeCharge/...ocs/survey_results_2007.ppt
).
- When they receive online messages from someone they don't
know, 60 percent of teens say they usually respond only to
ask who the person is. Compared to the 2006 survey, there
was a 10-percentage-point increase in teens ignoring such
messages (57 percent vs. 47 percent). Still, nearly a third
of teens (31 percent) say they usually reply and chat with
people they don't know, and only 21 percent tell a trusted
adult when they receive such messages. (National teen Internet
survey was funded by Cox Communications in partnership with
NCMEC and John Walsh and was conducted in March 2007 among
1,070 teens age 13 to 17. The research was conducted online
by TRU. http://www.cox.com/TakeCharge/...ocs/survey_results_2007.ppt
).
- Approximately 1 in 7 (13 percent) was solicited in 2005,
compared to approximately 1 in 5 (19 percent) in 2000; however,
aggressive solicitations, in which solicitors made or attempted
to make offline contact with youth, did not decline. Four
(4) percent of youth Internet users received aggressive solicitations
- a proportion similar to the 3 percent who received aggressive
solicitations in 2000 (Online Victimization of Youth: Five
Years Later. 2006. National Center for Missing & Exploited
Children, Crimes Against Children Research Center, Office
of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. December 4,
2006. http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/pdf/CV138.pdf
).
- Four percent of all youth Internet users in 2005 said online
solicitors asked them for nude or sexually explicit photographs
of themselves (Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later.
2006. National Center for Missing & Exploited Children,
Crimes Against Children Research Center, Office of Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention. December 4, 2006. http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/pdf/CV138.pdf
).
- In a survey conducted by the Intelligence Group, Dateline
questioned 500 teenagers across the country, ages 14-18, about
their computer habit. When asked if someone they've met online
has wanted to meet them in person, 58 percent said "yes" and
29 percent said they've had a "scary" experience online (Most
Teens Say They've Met Strangers Online, MSNBC Interactive,
April 26, 2006, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12...T/print/1/displaymode/1098/
).
- Half of teens ages 13-18 often communicate through the Internet
with someone they have not met in person (Internet Safety:
Realistic Strategies & Messages for Kids Taking More and
More Risks Online. December 21, 2005. Polly Klaas Foundation.
February 17, 2006. http://www.pollyklaas.org/internet-safety/pkfsummary.pdf
).
- One-third of youth ages 8-18 have talked about meeting someone
they have only met through the Internet (Internet Safety:
Realistic Strategies & Messages for Kids Taking More and
More Risks Online. December 21, 2005. Polly Klaas Foundation.
February 17, 2006. http://www.pollyklaas.org/internet-safety/pkfsummary.pdf
).
- Almost one in eight youth ages 8-18 discovered that someone
they were communicating with online was an adult pretending
to be much younger (Internet Safety: Realistic Strategies
& Messages for Kids Taking More and More Risks Online.
December 21, 2005. Polly Klaas Foundation. February 17, 2006.
http://www.pollyklaas.org/internet-safety/pkfsummary.pdf
).
- 30 percent of teenage girls polled by the Girl Scout Research
Institute said they had been sexually harassed in a chatroom.
Only 7 percent, however, told their mothers or fathers about
the harassment because they were worried that their parents
would ban them from going online" (Girl Scout Research Institute,
2002).
- 86 percent of the girls polled said they could chat online
without their parents' knowledge, 57 percent could read their
parents' e-mail, and 54 percent could conduct a cyber relationship.
(Girl Scout Research Institute, 2002).
PARENTS:
THE FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE
- 58 percent of moms think the government is not doing enough
to keep kids safe online (Harris Interactive-McAfee 10/2008)
- 44 percent said they worry about their teens' safety when
they are online in their bedroom unsupervised, and about one
in four (24 percent) are more concerned about what their children
do online than what they do when they are out of the house.
(Harris Interactive-McAfee 10/2008)
- 58 percent of moms believe teens sharing too much personal
information is a primary concern. (Harris Interactive-McAfee
10/2008)
- About two-thirds of mothers of teens in the United States
are just as, or more, concerned about their teenagers' online
safety, such as from threatening emails or solicitation by
online sexual predators, as they are about drunk driving (62
percent) and experimenting with drugs (65 percent). (Harris
Interactive-McAfee 10/2008)
- 72 percent of mothers have a verbal agreement with their
teen - that is, a discussion of what is and is not allowed
online(Harris Interactive-McAfee 10/2008)
- 48 percent of mothers admitted they don't always know what
their kids do online. (Harris Interactive-McAfee 10/2008)
- 26 percent of moms said they have joined and "friended"
their child on a social networking site, but many moms are
going undercover to monitor their children. (Harris Interactive-McAfee
10/2008)
- 59 per cent said they check their child's browser history
when they are done using the Internet and 15 percent use a
software program to monitor what their kids do online. (Harris
Interactive-McAfee 10/2008)
- Parental awareness of their teens' online activities has
risen significantly. This year, 25 percent of teens say their
parents know "little" or "nothing" about what they do online,
down from 33 percent last year. (National teen Internet survey
was funded by Cox Communications in partnership with NCMEC
and John Walsh and was conducted in March 2007 among 1,070
teens age 13 to 17. The research was conducted online by TRU.
http://www.cox.com/TakeCharge/...ocs/survey_results_2007.ppt
).
- 41 percent of teens report their parents talk to them "a
lot" about Internet safety (up five points over 2006), and
three out of four say their parents have talked to them in
the past year about the potential dangers of posting personal
info. The level of parental involvement is higher for younger
teens and girls, although it has increased across all age
groups and both genders. (National teen Internet survey was
funded by Cox Communications in partnership with NCMEC and
John Walsh and was conducted in March 2007 among 1,070 teens
age 13 to 17. The research was conducted online by TRU. http://www.cox.com/TakeCharge/...ocs/survey_results_2007.ppt
).
- Teens whose parents have talked to them "a lot" about Internet
safety are more concerned about the risks of sharing personal
info online than teens whose parents are less involved. For
instance, 65 percent of those whose parents have not talked
to them about online safety post info about where they live,
compared to 48 percent of teens with more involved parents.
(National teen Internet survey was funded by Cox Communications
in partnership with NCMEC and John Walsh and was conducted
in March 2007 among 1,070 teens age 13 to 17. The research
was conducted online by TRU. http://www.cox.com/TakeCharge/...ocs/survey_results_2007.ppt
).
- Teens whose parents have talked to them "a lot" about online
safety are less likely to consider meeting face to face with
someone they met on the Internet (12 percent vs. 20 percent).
(National teen Internet survey was funded by Cox Communications
in partnership with NCMEC and John Walsh and was conducted
in March 2007 among 1,070 teens age 13 to 17. The research
was conducted online by TRU. http://www.cox.com/TakeCharge/...ocs/survey_results_2007.ppt
).
- The number one media concern for parents has shifted from
television to the Internet, with 85 percent of parents saying
that it posed the greatest risk to their children among all
forms of media (National Attitudinal Poll, Common Sense Media,
June 7, 2006, http://www.commonsensemedia.or...ws/press-releases.php?id=23
).
- According to the NAC parent survey of more than 4,000 respondents,
93 percent of parents stated that they know "some" or "a lot"
about where their children go and what they do on the Internet.
Yet only 42 percent of high school students -- and 62 percent
of middle school students stated that they share where they
go and what they do on the Internet with their parents (Market
Wire. November 6, 2006. i-SAFE Inc. December 12, 2006 http://www.marketwire.com/mw/r...e_html_b1?release_id=180330
).
- 42 percent of parents do not review the content of what
their teenagers read and/or type in chat rooms or via instant
messaging. 58 percent of parents do. (Parents' Internet Monitoring
Study. June 2005. Cox Communications, The National Center
for Missing and Exploited Children and Netsmartz, December
14, 2005, http://www.cox.com/TakeCharge/includes/docs/results.pdf
).
- Teenagers use chat lingo to communicate when Instant Messaging
and parents don't know the meaning of some of the most commonly
used phrases. 57 percent don't know "LOL" (laughing out loud),
68 percent don't know "BRB" (be right back), and 92 percent
don't know "A/S/L" (age, sex, location). (Parents' Internet
Monitoring Study. June 2005. Cox Communications, The National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Netsmartz, December
14, 2005, http://www.cox.com/TakeCharge/includes/docs/results.pdf
).
- 95 percent of parents did not recognize other common chat
room lingo that teenagers use to let people they are chatting
with online know that parents are around including: POS (parents
over shoulder); P911 (parents alert). (Parents' Internet Monitoring
Study. June 2005. Cox Communications, The National Center
for Missing and Exploited Children and Netsmartz, December
14, 2005, http://www.cox.com/TakeCharge/includes/docs/results.pdf
).
- 23 percent of parents have rules about what their kids can
do on the computer. (The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
Study, March 2005).
ADULTS
- 40 million U.S. adults regularly visit Internet pornography
websites, and 10% of adults admit to Internet sexual addition
(Internet Filter Review, 2006).
- 20% of men admit accessing pornography at work (Internet
Filter Review, 2006).
- 70% of women say that they keep their cyber activities secret;
17%of women admit to struggling with pornography addiction
(Internet Filter Review, 2006).
- 9.4 women access adult websites each month, and 13% of women
admit to accessing pornography at work (Internet Filter Review,
2006).
CHRISTIANS AND SEXUAL
BROKENNESS
- Of promise keepers, 53% viewed pornography in the last week
(Internet Filter Review, 2006)
- 47% of Christians say that pornography is a problem in the
home (Internet Filter Review, 2006).
- 50% of all Christian men and 20% of all Christian women
are addicted to pornography. 60% of the women who answered
the survey admitted to having significant struggles with lust;
40% admitted to being involved in sexual sin in the past year;
and 20% of the church-going female participants struggle with
looking at pornography on an ongoing basis (Market Wire. August
7, 2006. ChristiaNet.com. December 7, 2006 http://www.marketwire.com/mw/r...e_html_b1?release_id=151336
).
- One out of every six women, including Christians, struggles
with an addiction to pornography. That's 17 percent of the
population, which, according to a survey by research organization
Zogby International, is the number of women who truly believe
they can find sexual fulfillment on the Internet (Today's
Christian Woman, September/October 2003).
- " ' More than 80 percent of women who have this addiction
take it offline,' " says Marnie Ferree. " 'Women, far more
than men, are likely to act out their behaviors in real life,
such as having multiple partners, casual sex, or affairs'
" (Today's Christian Woman, September/October 2003).
- 51% of pastors say cyberporn is a possible temptation. 37%
say it is a current struggle (Christianity Today, Leadership
Survey, December 2001). 4 in 10 pastors have visited a porn
site (Christianity Today, Leadership Survey, December 2001).
HUMAN SEX
TRAFFICKING
- The International Labor Organization (ILO)--the United Nations
(UN) agency charged with addressing labor standards, employment,
and social protection issues--estimates there are 12.3 million
people in forced labor, bonded labor, forced child labor,
and sexual servitude at any given time; other estimates range
from 4 million to 27 million (Trafficking in Persons Report.
Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, 2006).
- Each year sexual traffickers lure, coerce, trick, drug,
kidnap, and sell millions of vulnerable women and children
into the multi-billion dollar sex trade. In their daily lives
victims of sexual trafficking endure unspeakable acts of physical
brutality, violence and degradation including rape by so-called
customers and pimps; undergo forced abortions; acquire drug
and alcohol dependencies; live in fear of their lives and
in fear for the lives of their family and friends; suffer
acute psychological reactions as a result of their extreme
physical and emotional trauma; and contract sexually transmitted
diseases which all too often bring life-long illness or hasten
death. If they survive, the physical, psychological and spiritual
impacts of these experiences on victims are devastating and
enduring (Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking, Accessed
October 31, 2007).
- UNICEF reports that across the world, there are over one
million children entering the sex trade every year and that
approximately 30 million children have lost their childhood
through sexual exploitation over the past 30 years (Commercial
sexual exploitation position statement. UNICEF UK. 2004, January
28).
- From fiscal year 2001 through fiscal year 2005, the Civil
Rights Division and United States Attorney's Offices filed
91 trafficking cases, a 405% increase over the number of trafficking
cases filed from fiscal years 1996 through 2000. In these
cases, Department attorneys charged 248 trafficking defendants,
a 210% increase over the previous five fiscal years. In addition,
140 defendants of trafficking related crimes were convicted,
a 109% increase over the previous five years (U.S. Department
of Justice, Civil Rights Division. 2006, February).
- Foremost among the health risks of prostitution is premature
death. In a recent US study of almost 2,000 prostitutes followed
over a 30-year period, by far the most common causes of death
were homicide, suicide, drug and alcohol related problems,
HIV infection and accidents - in that order. The homicide
rate among active female prostitutes was 17 times higher than
that of the age-matched general population (Canadian Medical
Association Journal. 2004, July 24).
- Among children and teens living on the streets in the United
States, involvement in commercial sex activity is a problem
of epidemic proportion. Approximately 55% of street girls
engage in formal prostitution (Department of Justice, Child
Exploitation and Obscenity Section. Accessed October 31, 2007).
- Studies indicate that child prostitutes serve between two
and thirty clients per week, leading to a shocking estimated
base of anywhere between 100 to 1500 clients per year, per
child. Younger children, many below the age of 10, have been
increasingly drawn into serving tourists (Department of Justice,
Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section. Accessed October
31, 2007)
- $19 Billion generated annually on the street from human
trafficking (Christine Dolan, The Global Coalition to End
Human Trafficking NOW).
PUBLIC
OPINION
- Eight out of ten Americans (81%) believe federal laws against
Internet obscenity should be vigorously enforced, and seven
out of ten (70%) believe that strongly. A higher percentage
of women support vigorous enforcement of federal laws against
Internet obscenity than men -- 90% versus 72% (Wirthlin Survey,
2002).
- On the other hand, seven out of ten Americans (70%) say
they do not believe these laws are currently being vigorously
enforced (Wirthlin Survey, 2002).
MISCELLANEOUS
- "A study conducted by Microsoft and RT Strategies Inc. http://www.rtstrategies.com
found that while 74 percent of respondents believe they
have the skills to protect themselves online, more than half
(57 percent) are not sure they fully know enough to effectively
protect their information" (Government, Technology and Advocacy
Leaders Launch National Get Net Safe Tour Educate Consumers
About Online Safety, May 16, 2006).
- A seven-day nationwide fugitive roundup led by the USMS
and hundreds of partners from other state, local, and federal
agencies led to the arrest of 9,037 individuals .Among those
arrested during Operation FALCON II were 1,102 violent sexual
offenders, the largest number ever captured in a single law
enforcement effort. Operation FALCON II was conducted from
April 17-23, 2006" (Department of Justice, More Than 1,100
Sex Offender Arrests By U.S. Marshals' "Operation FALCON II"
27 April 2006).
- According to Sex on TV 4, a Kaiser Family Foundation study
(November, 2005), the number of television sexual scenes has
almost doubled since 1998. 70% of all shows have some sexual
content -- averaging 5 sexual scenes per hour compared to
56% and 3.2 scenes per hour respectively in 1998.
- According to Sex on TV 4, a Kaiser Family Foundation study
(November, 2005), among the top 20 most popular shows among
teens, 70% include sexual content and almost half (45%) include
sexual behavior.
- An estimated 204.3 million people, or 74.9 percent of the
U.S. population above the age of two and living in households
equipped with a fixed-line phone, have Internet access (Nielson
Media Research).
- 57% of U.S. Internet users incorrectly believe that when
a website has a privacy policy, it protects their personal
information from being shared with other sites or companies
(Annenberg Center).
- Although no connection between legal porn viewing and criminal
behavior has ever been proven, police have seen a steady increase
in porn associated with crimes (Lt. Matt Bilodeau, spokesman
for the Cache County Sheriff's Department, Associated Press,
10/17/04).
- The adult-film industry is bigger than ever, making some
6,000 movies a year and grossing more than $4 billion - roughly
as much as the National Football League (New York Post, Russell
Scott Smith, 9/25/03).
- Today, there are nearly 600,000 registered sex offenders
in the United States; however, as many as 150,000 are 'lost'
in the system having failed to comply with registration duties
and remain undetected due to law enforcement's inability to
track their whereabouts. (NCMEC, July 26, 2006)
E-Stop
Law Purges Social Networking Sites of Sex Offenders - 12/1/2009
NEW
YORK, NY (December 1, 2009) - Attorney General Andrew Cuomo
today announced that more than 3,500 registered New York state
sex offenders have been purged from social networking sites
Facebook and MySpace in the first database sweep since the state's
new Electronic Securing and Targeting of Online Predators Act
(“e-STOP”) went into effect.
At the same time, many other social networking sites remain
slow at adopting available new protections against sexual predators
online, and Cuomo's office today sent letters urging them to
take action now to similarly purge sex offenders from their
sites.
Under the new e-STOP law, which was authored by Cuomo, Facebook
was able to identify and disable accounts linked to 2,782 registered
New York sex offenders, and MySpace was able to identify and
disable accounts linked to 1,796 sex offenders. Some registered
sex offenders were linked to accounts on both sites, leaving
a total of 3,533 individuals purged from Facebook and/or MySpace
during the sweep. New York State has more than 8,100 sex
offenders who have registered e-mails with the state.
That means over 43% of those sex offenders have identified accounts
linked to Facebook and/or MySpace.
Information about the accounts is now being shared with law
enforcement authorities. To date, Facebook and MySpace
are the only social networking sites that have sought access
to the state's new registry of sex offenders' Internet information
made available through e-STOP.
Under e-STOP - the nation's most comprehensive law to enhance
protections from sexual predators on the Internet - many sexual
predators are banned outright from using social networking sites
on the Internet while on probation or parole. Also, convicted
sex offenders must register all of their e-mail addresses, screen
names, and other Internet identifiers with the state.
That information is then made available to social networking
sites so they can purge potential predators from their online
worlds.
“We created e-STOP to help put an end to sexual predators using
the Internet as a tool to prey on the innocent,” said Attorney
General Cuomo. “Facebook and MySpace are successfully
using e-STOP to help make the Internet safer, and it's time
for all social networking sites to do their part to keep others
from being senselessly victimized.”
WFC
releases study on efects of internet pornography
December
2,2009
Wisconsin
Family Council (WFC) and Family Research Council released
a new study today that comprehensively details the effects
of pornography on marriages, children, communities and individual
happiness.
The
study, “The Effects of Pornography on Individuals, Marriage,
Family and Community,” synthesizes all available research on
the effects of pornography on families and communities.
Pornography
distorts an individual's concept of the nature of conjugal relations,
which, in turn, alters both sexual attitudes and behavior. It
is a major threat to marriage, to family, to children and to
individual happiness. In undermining marriage, it is one of
the major factors in undermining social stability.
Social
scientists, clinical psychologists, and biologists have begun
to clarify some of the social and psychological effects, and
neurologists are beginning to delineate the biological mechanisms
through which pornography produces its powerful negative effects.
Among the study's findings:
- Men who view pornography
regularly have a higher tolerance for abnormal sexuality,
including rape, sexual aggression, and sexual promiscuity.
- Married men who are
involved in pornography feel less satisfied with their conjugal
relations and less emotionally attached to their wives. Wives
notice and are upset by the difference.
- Pornography engenders
greater sexual permissiveness, which in turn leads to a greater
risk of out-of-wedlock births and STDs, which in turn lead
to still more weaknesses and debilities.
- The presence of sexually
oriented businesses significantly harms the surrounding community,
leading to increases in crime and decreases in property values.
- Child-sex offenders
are more likely to view pornography regularly or to be involved
in its distribution.
- Pornography eliminates
the warmth of affectionate family life, which is the natural
social nutrient for the growing child.
“Pornography
addiction destroys the life of the addict, wreaks havoc on marriages,
degrades women and children, destroys relationships with family,
friends, and acquaintances, ruins livelihoods and destroys the
intimacy designed for marriage. We know thousands of Wisconsin
marriages and families have been ruined by this insidious industry.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice's Internet Crimes Against
Children Task Force Unit alone reports almost 200 arrests involving
Internet child pornography in an 18-month period. This is just
one aspect of the pornography business in our state. There are
no winners in this pernicious industry,” said Julaine Appling,
President of Wisconsin Family Council.
Mid-Missouri
Internet crimes unit faces many challenges
Tuesday,
December 8, 2009 | 12:03 p.m. CST
Detective
Andy Anderson explains how each monitor on his desk is tied
to a different computer and how he uses each computer for a
different task such as chatting with someone or for forensic
examination. Detective Anderson is the coordinator for the Mid-Missouri
Internet Crimes Task Force and a 23-year veteran of the Boone
County Sheriff's Department. ¦ Calin Ilea
BY
Tram Whitehurst
COLUMBIA
— The door to the office is closed. A sign next to it reads,
"Evidence being processed. Please knock before entering."
The
warning is meant to keep visitors from stumbling across things
they'd never want to see. Inside, detectives with the Mid-Missouri
Internet Crimes Task Force are sorting through images of child
pornography.
From
2007 to 2008, Internet crime investigations increased 11 percent.
With more than 1,200 hours of training from 2007 to 2009, Mid-Missouri
Internet Crimes Task Force members are working to keep up with
the rise in Internet crime. Hard drives of different capacities
stand on a shelf at the Mid-Missouri Internet Crimes Task Force.
The hard drives are used to copy and back up data in the investigations
of the task force.
Detective
Mark Sullivan (left), Detective Tracy Perkins and Detective
Andy Anderson are investigators for the Mid-Missouri Internet
Crimes Task Force. The task force investigates child pornography
possession and enticement cases. The three detectives pose for
a portrait at the Mid-Missouri Internet Crimes Task Force office
in Columbia .
Detective
Mark Sullivan takes notes while working on a case for for the
Mid-Missouri Internet Crimes Task Force in Columbia . "You
think you've seen just about everything, then you see something
new and you wonder, how can someone do that to a child?"
Sullivan said.
Looking
at such images is just one part of their job. The task force
conducts criminal investigations and provides forensic assistance
to law enforcement agencies across a seven-county region. Its
detectives focus mostly on crimes against children, including
possession of child pornography and enticement.
Since
it was formed in 2007, the task force has conducted hundreds
of investigations, leading to dozens of convictions and to the
identification of 24 child victims.
But
the detectives acknowledge they're only reaching the tip of
the iceberg. Theirs is a daily struggle to keep up with a flood
of material online and not to lose themselves in a world in
which children are constantly victimized.
‘There
is no typical day'
The
four members of the task force — each of whom comes from a local
law enforcement agency — spend hours in front of their computers
each day, looking for leads, writing warrants, chatting with
possible pedophiles and viewing photos and videos of children
being brutalized.
"There
is no typical day," said Detective Andy Anderson, the task
force coordinator. Anderson is the veteran of the group, a member
of the Boone County Sheriff's Department who has worked on crimes
against children for 20 years. Five computer monitors sit on
his desks, clear indications of the nature of his work.
Because
the unit is so small, each of the detectives contributes to
the investigations in any way they can. But they also have their
specialties.
Detective
Tracy Perkins, for example, spends much of her time playing
the online role of a 14-year-old girl. Within minutes of entering
public chat rooms on AOL, Yahoo or MSN, she's inundated with
messages from older men. On some nights, so many people want
to chat that Perkins has to sign off.
She's
not alone. About one in seven youth online receive a sexual
solicitation or approach over the Internet, according to the
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children .
"how
are you tonight?" a 37-year-old married man asks Perkins
in one conversation.
"k
u," Perkins responds in character. She uses two monitors
to keep track of her conversations.
"pretty
good. where in MO are you?"
"
columbia ," Perkins responds. She has a feeling what's
coming next.
"how
old are you?" the man asks. Perkins says most people try
to find out her age right away.
"14"
"cool,"
the man says.
In
more than eight hours of conversation over the next two weeks,
the man compliments the girl on her looks and intelligence,
tries to find out if she will report him and sets up a time
and place to meet — all part of what investigators call "grooming"
the victim.
The
man is arrested when he shows up at the Columbia address Perkins
provided. He is what detectives refer to as a "traveler,"
a suspect who attempts to meet a child in person.
Overwhelming
evidence
The
same factors that make child pornography so easy to access over
the Internet also make prosecuting the cases relatively straightforward.
For every conversation conducted or image downloaded, there's
an electronic record — often significant in size — that detectives
can find.
"Typically,
the evidence in these cases is pretty clear and overwhelming,"
said Boone County Assistant Prosecutor Merilee Crockett, who
works closely with the task force.
The
life cycle of child pornography cases varies. They can be proactive
or reactive and take weeks or months to complete, depending
on the complexity of the case. A man sentenced in August to
eight years in prison, for example, possessed more than 6,000
pictures and 300 videos of child pornography. Detectives had
to sort through all of it.
The
task force can determine if an individual possesses child pornography
by monitoring file-sharing networks, such as LimeWire, where
people trade in illicit images as if they were songs or TV shows.
Once detectives determine that a particular network address
is being used to download or share child pornography, they get
a warrant and seize computers and other devices.
At
that point detectives forensically examine the digital files
— whether they're on computers, external hard drives, cell phones,
CDs or DVDs — and determine the extent of the crime. If the
case goes to trial, detectives must view every picture and video
the defendant possessed to select the handful that will be shown
to the jury.
"It
can be disgusting," Anderson said. "Listening to kids
talk about it after the fact is nothing like watching them on
videos and hearing them scream."
Images
are eventually sent to the National Center for Missing &
Exploited Children, which maintains a database of sexually abusive
images and tries to match and identify victims. The database
has information on more than 2,400 child victims, but fewer
than 10 percent are ever identified, which is the first step
in locating the children.
"We're
not doing a good job identifying victims," said Rodney
Jones, chief of the State Technical Assistance Team of the Missouri
Department of Social Services. His unit also conducts investigations
into crimes against children over the Internet.
‘It's
a dark world out there'
The
arrests and convictions provide momentary relief for the detectives,
who otherwise spend their time confronting issues others would
rather avoid.
"Most
people haven't given a lot of thought to what child porn really
is," Crockett said. "It is probably the most horrible
thing anybody can do to a child, and they spend all day working
on it. I really admire them for that."
The
detectives admit there are certain cases that stick with them,
even years later. For Anderson , it's a case in which a man
molested a 4-year-old girl whom his mother was babysitting.
Perkins recalls a man she talked to online who thought she was
a parent and wanted to pay her to use her daughter for sex acts.
"It's
a dark world out there," said Perkins, who has worked in
law enforcement for 16 years.
The
world of sex crimes against children has a language all its
own. Users enter terms such as "pedo" for pedophile,
and "PTHC" for preteen hardcore, when searching for
or labeling images. Search terms as innocuous as "Helen"
can lead users to a series of pictures and videos of a particular
child who has become so popular online that users know to search
for her by name.
"You
think you've seen just about everything, then you see something
new and you wonder, 'How can someone do that to a child?'''
Detective Mark Sullivan said. "This one I saw a week ago,
I think about it every once in a while when I'm back at (home)."
Adding
to the stress of the job is the fact that the detectives all
have children of their own. Photos cover the walls, desks and
computer monitors in the office, the children's smiling faces
offering a stark contrast to the images normally on view.
The
detectives try to keep the two worlds separate as much as possible,
dealing with the divide in their own ways.
"I
can't take it home with me, and I don't take it home with me,"
Perkins said. Her young children don't know the details of what
she does for a living.
But
the detectives acknowledge that their work does influence how
they view the world and their children's place in it.
"I
know there are individuals out there that harm kids," said
Sullivan, who has a 10-year-old and 17-year-old. "I don't
think I'm paranoid or hanging over them, but I do have that
level of awareness of who can do these crimes." At his
house, the family computer is in the living room.
The
longer the detectives work on the cases, the more they find
themselves trying to get inside the heads of the perpetrators.
It's a challenge they can't — and don't necessarily want — to
master.
The
typical offender the task force encounters is a white man in
his 30s or 40s. The detectives also have started to see younger
offenders in their 20s and even teens. They've investigated
five juvenile cases this year alone.
Most
offenders do not have a significant criminal record before showing
up on the task force's radar. The detectives could not think
of a single enticement case in which the suspect had a criminal
record, and in only a few possession investigations was there
a criminal history. Many suspects were well-educated and had
good jobs.
"People
say 'they seemed like such nice people,'" Anderson said.
"That's what's so scary about it. They can be extremely
dangerous."
Black
humor
Despite
the depressing nature of the job, or perhaps because of it,
the mood in the office is light and the humor often off-color.
"You
can do a serious job and still have some fun," Perkins
said. "You have to."
The
detectives joke around with one another throughout the day,
the bonds between them forged in their shared hardship and the
physical closeness in which they work.
Their
small, windowless, two-room office is in the attic of a nondescript
county building south of town off U.S. 63. It makes it hard
for the detectives to avoid hearing, and chiming in on, other
conversations.
During
one discussion about humor in the office, Anderson interrupted
and said, "Even surgeons cut up once in a while,"
at which point both he and Sullivan broke out in laughter.
"Don't
forget to tip your waitress," Sullivan said in response.
At
other times the detectives strike a world-weary posture that
would be familiar to law enforcement officials in any time or
place.
The
detectives refer to suspects as "knuckleheads" and
make fun of the stories they come up with to explain why they
were trying to meet a 14-year-old or download child pornography.
And instead of the "easy" button present in many offices,
the task force has a "bull—" button that has seen
its fair share of use.
A
constant struggle
Technological
advances only make the detectives' job more difficult. Although
child pornography is not a new phenomenon, the Internet has
led to explosive growth; Anderson started working on Internet-related
cases just 10 years ago.
Peer-to-peer
networks make finding and sharing child pornography as easy
as the click of a mouse, and cheap storage means people can
collect more of it.
"There
is such a craving for this material," Jones said. "And
all people have to do now is turn on their computer and it's
done."
The
newest challenges for detectives are social networking sites
such as Facebook and Flickr, where users post family photos
often without a second thought. If the images are not made private,
they can be accessed by almost anybody.
"Once
you put a photo on the Internet you can't take it back,” Jones
said. “You have to be cautious about what you post online."
A
lot of the material the detectives come across originates in
Russia and Eastern Europe . That's why U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement is one of the agencies with which the task
force works closely. It also partners with federal prosecutors,
the FBI and seven other regional task forces in Missouri .
Yet
for all the agencies working on the problem, the detectives
say there's much more that could be done.
"Child
porn is way out of hand," Anderson said. "We could
do so much more if we had the resources, but we can't. It's
frustrating."
The
task force is funded by a combination of grants and contributions
from local law enforcement agencies. In July, Gov. Jay Nixon
allocated about $195,000 to help pay for detectives' salaries
and additional training.
But
earlier this fall the task force lost a full-time detective
when the Columbia Police Department pulled Mike Lederle from
the office for budget reasons. Lederle specialized in forensic
examinations, and his departure will be a big loss for the unit,
the detectives said.
"Sometimes
you can catch fish a lot faster than you can clean ‘em up,"
Sullivan said. That means the task force can identify suspects,
but they need the special skills of forensic examiners to analyze
computers and other electronic evidence. Capt. Scott Richardson
of the MU Police Department conducts forensic examinations part-time
for the unit.
Although
the detectives realize they will never fully put a stop to the
flow of material over the Internet, they take solace in the
fact that they are making a difference in their small corner
of the world.
"It's
real rewarding to be able to stop this activity," Anderson
said. "For every person we locate and identify, that's
one less person committing crimes against kids."
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2009/12/08/internet-crimes-unit-faces-many-challenges/
***********************************************************************
**********************************************************
-Dartmouth helps fight
child pornography
By Mark Davis
Valley News of Lebanon
Published: Saturday, December 19, 2009
HANOVER — A Dartmouth College researcher has helped develop
a computer program that could remove large amounts of child
pornography from the Internet.
In collaboration with Microsoft Corp., Dartmouth computer scientist
and digital forensics expert Hany Farid developed PhotoDNA,
software that extracts the underlying signature of digital pornographic
images and allows Internet providers to track down the images.
The team recently donated PhotoDNA to the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children, the national clearinghouse for
images of child pornography, and to all Internet service providers,
to allow Internet companies for first time to sift through billions
of digital images to detect which are the most offensive and
commonly redistributed images of child sexual abuse.
Developers say it is a promising tool to combat a massive problem.
The Center for Missing and Exploited Children reviewed nearly
30 million photos and videos of child pornography since 2003,
and currently reviews 250,000 images a week, officials said.
While officials said the software will be made available to
law enforcement agencies, for now, Farid said, the goal is not
to track down users of child pornography, but to remove as many
images from the Internet as possible.
“You can't arrest your way out of the problem,” said Farid,
who specializes in using math and computer tools to determine
whether digital media are authentic. “Child pornography — it's
too big.”
Every digital image has its own identifying traits, like a human's
DNA. With PhotoDNA, the Center for Missing and Exploited Children
will extract the signatures of a few thousand of the most disturbing
images obtained from convicted pedophiles. These images often
are copied widely across the Internet. The signatures, and the
PhotoDNA software, will then be made available to all Internet
service providers, which can use them look for scan millions
of images on the Internet. When they detect a signature that
matches one stored in the Center for Missing and Exploited Children
database, the service providers can remove it from circulation.
PhotoDNA incorporates no major technological breakthroughs,
but was made by possible by two key tweaks to existing technology.
In the past, once a digital image was altered in any small way
— users could crop it, change color or add text — it would change
its signature, making the images virtually impossible to detect.
PhotoDNA essentially extends the signature of a digital image,
to make sure that small changes cannot conceal its underlying
identity.
The second advance allowed developers to overcome a more fundamental
problem — how to sort through billions of images quickly, without
paralyzing Internet service providers.
PhotoDNA, by storing only a few thousand images for comparison,
will be able to act quickly; the software can analyze an image's
signature in 5 milliseconds, Farid said.
It also must be able to distinguish an image of child pornography
from a benign image, like, for example, a family picture of
a baby in a bathtub.
Farid said PhotoDNA is close to foolproof and registers a “false
alarm,” on only one out of every billion images.
Internet service providers are expected to begin implementing
PhotoDNA in the coming months. By law, Internet service providers
must notify the Center for Missing and Exploited Children when
it believes a child pornography image comes through its network.
While Farid said the immediate goal is to remove images from
the Internet, the technology behind PhotoDNA could be used by
law enforcement to target distributors of child pornography.
For instance, Internet service providers already monitor e-mail
for spam and viruses, and could use PhotoDNA to track child
pornography transmitted via e-mail.
“Those are policy decisions that have to be made,” Farid said.
Farid has a longstanding relationship with Microsoft, which
helps fund his Dartmouth lab.
Farid recently made news by declaring that the well-known image
of Lee Harvey Oswald holding a rifle in his backyard was indeed
authentic. Oswald had claimed the photo, which depicts him holding
a rifle in one hand and a Marxist newspapers in the other, had
been doctored, and observers over the years noted what appeared
to be inconsistent lighting and shadows.
***********************************************************************
Two
emergency workers fired in porn- could you be next?
By
Wayne Laepple
The Daily Item
SUNBURY
— Viewing pornography on county computers has not been confined
to the Northumberland County sheriff's department, officials
said Wednesday. Two Northumberland County 911 center employees
have been fired for looking at pornographic materials on their
work computers, The Daily Item learned Wednesday.
Joe
Picarella, county human resources director, confirmed the employment
of the two was terminated. He would not reveal their names.
County
Commissioner Vinny Clausi, who Tuesday leveled accusations that
sheriff's deputies had viewed Internet pornography on their
office computers, confirmed the firings, but also declined to
identify the employees or their positions.
Asked
whether he knew of others who could face discipline for similar
actions, Clausi replied, "No comment."
Clausi
said received more than 100 phone calls Wednesday from residents
who were "outraged and upset" over the allegations
centered on the sheriff's department.
"This
must be resolved," Clausi said. "It's a concern beyond
the pornography. How can (Sheriff Chad Reiner) secure the courthouse
and protect the judges and the court systems when he can't even
secure his own office?"
Clausi
raised the issue of porn-viewing in the sheriff's office while
balking over Reiner's request for a $30,000 increase in his
budget.
Contacted
Tuesday about the concerns, Reiner said county officials could
not prove who was viewing the pornographic Web sites because
his deputies would often leave their computers logged on while
away from their desks. In light of the concerns, the sheriff
said he has ordered his staff to cease all use of the Internet
while on the job.
http://www.dailyitem.com/0100_news/local_story_364225900.html
****************************************************************************
If You
Must Know
What Happens in Sex Rehab?
By Caitlin Duke Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2010
The entrance to the compound of the Gentle Path facility in
Hattiesburg, Miss., where Tiger Woods is allegedly receiving
treatment
Rogelio V. Solis / AP
The calls for Tiger Woods to get help did not go unheeded: on
Jan. 16, after weeks of sordid allegations regarding his extramarital
affairs, Radaronline.com reported that Woods had enrolled in
the Gentle Path program at Pine Grove Behavioral Health and
Addiction Services, in Hattiesburg, Miss., to be treated for
sex addiction. Local television stations later confirmed the
story.
Few people know what actually happens at sex rehab. While those
who treat it say sex addiction is a disease like any other compulsion,
the field is in its infancy: there is virtually no research
on it compared to the vast resources on drug or alcohol addiction.
"You look at ways that your behavior has made your life
unmanageable. That's really the question," says Benoit
Denizet-Lewis, author of America Anonymous: Eight Addicts in
Search of a Life, who has been treated for sex addiction himself.
"That often differentiates a sex addict from a nonsex addict."
Sex addiction is marked not simply poor decision-making in the
face of temptation, but by a sense of powerlessness before one's
own compulsive sexual behavior. There are many different types
of sex addicts, including so-called sexual anorexics who avoid
physical intimacy with their partners and seek it out in fantasies
or with others. Despite the shortage of statistics, researchers
agree that the vast majority — over 90% — of sex
addicts are men. Rob Weiss, the founder and executive director
of the Sexual Recovery Institute in southern California, estimates
that up to 5% of Americans deal with some form of sex addiction,
though he says that there is no real way to know.
(See more about Tiger Woods.)
Rehab length varies from two-week-long outpatient seminars to
inpatient clinics that keep patients for up to six weeks, such
as the one where Woods is staying. Treatment — to address
both the addiction and its underlying causes — involves
a mix of one-on-one sessions, group therapy and family counseling,
with addicts and their partners encouraged to also participate
in supplemental 12-step programs.
The first step in treatment of a sexual addiction is a full
evaluation of a patient's history and any past trauma. "All
the men I've worked with — and I've worked with thousands
of them over the years — have some profound experience
of abuse and/or neglect in childhood," says Weiss. Without
addressing the underlying sexual, physical or emotional trauma
that usually leads to addiction, there is little hope of ending
it.
The second stage of treatment involves confronting patients'
distorted view of reality. Did the addict really believe that
paying for a sensual massage was not the same thing as hiring
a prostitute? Or that he could spend most of the day surfing
the Internet for pornography and that no one would find out?
These questions are not meant to shame a patient, but to force
him to understand what really happened. As Weiss puts it, "We
may not stop the behavior, but we're going to ruin it for you."
(See TIME's sex covers.)
The last stage of treatment is relapse prevention. Therapists
and patients discuss triggers for addictive behavior —
unstructured time alone, for example — and identify ways
to avoid them. Brian McGinness, a senior cost estimator at a
Michigan commercial construction manufacturer, spent the first
nine years of his marriage addicted to pornography. His treatment
was supervised by members of his church, an antipornography
ministry group called XXXchurch, and a neighborhood friend,
who acted as "accountability partners," monitoring
his Internet usage after he decided to get sober. (Sex addiction
shares the use of the word "sobriety," with other
forms of addiction, though definition varies based on an individually
determined level of acceptable sexual behavior.) With the monitors'
help, which he no longer needs on regular basis, McGinness has
not looked at pornography for the past four years.
(See the top 10 medical breakthroughs of 2009.)
A patient's partner also plays an integral role in his or her
treatment. Elin Nordegen, Woods' wife, has already visited him
at Pine Grove. "Recovery is a three-legged stool for a
couple — his recovery, her recovery and healing, and then
the marriage recovery," says Dr. Douglas Weiss (no relation
to Rob Weiss), executive director of the Heart to Heart Counseling
Center in Colorado, who describes himself as being sober from
his own sex addiction for over 20 years. Addicts are encouraged
to disclose the full range of their behaviors to their partners
when confronting their distortions of reality in the second
stage of treatment. If an addict happens to contract an STD
and never tells his wife, "his behavior could kill her,"
Douglas Weiss notes.
Athough Woods may have only signed in for a six-week program,
his therapy is likely to be ongoing. Indeed, at Heart to Heart,
clients are encouraged to come back for annual polygraphs to
test sobriety. According to Maureen Canning, a clinical consultant
at the Meadows Addiction Treatment Center in Arizona, simply
working through the addiction itself could take two to five
years of therapy, enhanced by 12-step programs for both partners;
working through related trauma might take the rest of a lifetime.
"Sex addiction is not about remaining abstinent for the
rest of your life," says Denizet-Lewis. "It is about
learning to have sex in a way that makes you happy again."
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1956517,00.html#ixzz0ditEog7v
Privacy
Policy- Wisechoice does not sell or share
website usage information of any sort without express permission
of the primary customer for accountability purposes. |
