“Authorities actively try to protect children from predators online” |
| Authorities actively try to protect children from predators online Posted: 31 Jul 2010 09:22 PM PDT Posted: Sunday, August 1, 2010 12:00 am | Updated: 11:00 pm, Sat Jul 31, 2010. Many parents might wish they could figure out how a 13-year-old thinks, but it's part of Marc Southland's job. A former software consultant who applied to the FBI shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Southland is a special agent in the bureau's Baltimore field office who regularly operates online, posing as a teen to investigate cases of online sexual exploitation. He travels across the online universe, moving through online chat rooms and social networking sites looking for people trying to trade or acquire child pornography. Trying to understand how a 13-year-old talks, thinks and interacts online can be difficult, he said. Southland picks up tips when he speaks at schools, warning about online dangers, asking the young people what they like, what they're doing, trying to keep up with the latest trends.
Increased effort On May 17, 2006, then-U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales released a letter outlining an increased effort by the Justice Department to regulate and punish online exploitation of children. The letter announced the formal implementation of Project Safe Childhood, targeted at preventing exploitation and abuse of children online. "The Internet is an important and powerful resource that can enrich the lives of all Americans," Gonzales wrote. "But it also poses new and evolving dangers to our children, who are increasingly targeted online by sexual predators, or are sexually abused by those producing pornographic images to share widely through the Internet or other communications technology." The Internet has emboldened producers and consumers of child pornography by giving them a degree of anonymity to do what they do, Southland said. Online predators are very good at focusing on areas of the Web that are new and developing, Southland said. They've shared pictures and videos through e-mails, in online chat rooms and through file-sharing and social-networking sites. "The predators are good at finding tools they need," Southland said. The easy availability of child pornography online and the relative anonymity of the Internet have also made the problem worse by reducing the deterrent effect, according to Rod Rosenstein, the United States Attorney for the District of Maryland. Thirty years ago, anyone who wanted child pornography had to order it and provide a physical address where it should be sent, he said. Now, anyone can go online and find virtually anything they want within seconds. What sometimes gets lost in discussions about child pornography is that the pictures are images of a crime being committed against a child, said Bonnie Greenberg, an assistant U.S. attorney who prosecutes many child pornography cases. Once a picture is on the Internet, it's out there forever, and it can haunt the victim for the rest of his or her life, she said.
Tracking predators Southland said predators typically have an age range of children they're interested in, although most seem to prefer pre-pubescent children. They normally have collections of images and try to add new items to their collections, and that helps law enforcement ferret them out. There are always ways to tell where an e-mail is coming from or whether someone uses a particular account, Southland said. Computers have Internet protocol addresses, and the FBI can work with an Internet provider to track down a specific address, he said. But that still requires a minimum of getting a warrant or court order to get the information that you want. Like any investigation, child pornography cases involve tracing things back to where they came from. Doing that can mean contacting a lot of people, he said. Tracking down the details is essential to prosecuting the cases. Prosecutors' jobs are complicated by the fact that they often aren't initially sure who the defendant is, Rosenstein said. After they're charged, defendants will often claim that someone else had access to their computer and downloaded the pictures, or they mistakenly downloaded pictures while looking for legal adult pornography. Rosenstein said the cases his office prosecutes are usually very clear-cut, so much so that it's extremely rare to see a case go to trial. Defendants almost always have their attorney negotiate a plea deal. Federal law provides a defense if a defendant possessed fewer than three images, didn't allow anyone other than law enforcement to see the picture and promptly took reasonable steps to destroy the image or report it to a law enforcement agency. "I don't think anyone's accidentally downloading child pornography," Rosenstein said.
Working together Project Safe Childhood was developed as officials recognized the scope of the child pornography problem, and placed an emphasis on developing a network of federal, state and local prosecutors and law enforcement personnel who share any leads they come across, Rosenstein said. His office prosecutes around 30 to 40 child pornography cases per year. They also coordinate with local prosecutors to determine which office will handle specific cases. Those decisions are made on a case-by-case basis, said Amanda Costley, a child abuse prosecutor with the Carroll County State's Attorney's Office. If the state gets a case first, personnel will review it to see if they think it's one the federal prosecutors might be interested in, she said. Federal cases usually involve more charges and "known" victims that can be identified and located, as well as distribution or manufacturing of images rather than simply possession. Federal jurisdiction can apply as long as they can prove that there's some interstate involvement in the case, the image is of a child younger than 18 and the activity depicted involves sexually explicit content, Rosenstein said. The local prosecutors maintain contact with their federal colleagues leading up to and even after a case is charged, Costley said. If a case is strong, it often makes more sense to try it federally, where mandatory minimum sentences often apply. There's no federal mandatory minimum sentence for possession of child pornography, but it carries a maximum sentence of 10 years, Greenberg said. If a defendant has a prior conviction, the mandatory minimum sentence is 10 years. By comparison, state sentencing guidelines for a defendant with no prior convictions are probation to six months, said Dave Daggett, Chief Deputy State's Attorney at the Carroll State's Attorney's Office and the legal adviser for the Carroll County Advocacy and Investigation Center. The guideline sentence for a defendant with a prior conviction is six months to three years, he said. Costley said the focus is on making sure the cases get the best outcome, rather than who gets the credit for the outcome. "I feel like everyone ... the Feds and our office and our investigators and the FBI, we're just trying to get the best result. So whoever can get the best result is who's going to take the case." Southland said the same sense of teamwork exists among law enforcement agencies. Child pornography cases are virtually devoid of the turf wars between federal, state and local agencies that can plague other investigations. That's partly because child porn is so prevalent that there's plenty of opportunities for police to get involved. "It's just such an enormous problem that we need all the help we can get," he said. Cases in Carroll Daniel Blake, 32, of Hampstead, was charged in March with 10 counts of promotion or distribution of child pornography and 10 counts of possession of child pornography. Blake was also indicted in June on three counts of sexual abuse of a minor, general sodomy and third-degree sexual offense, two counts of unnatural of perverted practice and five counts of sexual abuse of a minor in two cases. Maryland State Police got information in December from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that someone had uploaded 78 images of what appeared to be prepubescent boys engaged in various sexual acts to a Web address that was ultimately traced to Blake, according to court documents. Blake provided pictures, a cell phone and other electronic items that allegedly contained pictures of children involved in sexual acts. A trial in Blake's cases is scheduled for September. A Florida sex offender arrested in Hampstead July 24 could face charges in Carroll after Carroll County Sheriff's Office detectives recovered a laptop computer, several CDs and other items that contained erotic pictures. Glenn Richard Burch, 54, is also wanted by police in Hanover, Pa., for the sexual assault of two children, as well as officials in Lake County, Fla., for failing to comply with his probation in a prior case by registering as a sexual offender. The electronic items would be reviewed by sheriff's office computer forensics investigators for possible pornographic images, said sheriff's office spokesman Maj. Phil Kasten.
Avoiding burnout Working closely with other law enforcement officers can be essential to keeping abreast of current cases, but it also helps the investigators keep their sanity while looking at images of horrific abuse, Southland said. Spending your days looking at things you don't want to look at can be draining, and there's a high turnover and burnout rate among agents who work cases of crimes against children, he said. But at the end of the day, you just try to remember that the goal is to help youths and put the offenders in jail, he said. Investigating cases involving pictures on a computer often isn't as draining as working a child sex abuse case where there's a tangible victim sitting across from you, Daggett said. The office gets three or four child pornography cases a year, he said. And they're unsettling, to say the least. "The creep factor is a 10," Daggett said. Greenberg said the people who do the work do it because they believe strongly in protecting children. "I think that helps deal with the mental toll of seeing all the abuse," she said. Reach staff writer Ryan Marshall at 410-857-7865 or ryan.marshall@carrollcountytimes.com. Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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