CSAM & Predators - Notes of interest from the National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention & Interdiction report to Congress

I reviewed the National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and found the following notes of interest:

Introduction:

* Nelson Mandela said, "There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” Ohio Congressman John Adams commented, “Given the current statistics surrounding child pornography, we are living in a country that is losing its soul" (p.1).

* Ensuring that all children come of age without being disturbed by sexual trauma or exploitation is more than a criminal justice issue, it is a societal issue (p.1).

* ...the threat to our nation’s children of becoming a victim of child exploitation is a very serious one (p.2).

Child pornography offenses present a real threat to children:

* ...knowing that all copies of child pornography images can never be retrieved compounds the victimization. The shame suffered by the children is intensified by the fact that the sexual abuse was captured in images easily available for others to see and revictimizes the children by using those images for sexual gratification. Unlike children who suffer from abuse without the production of images of that abuse, these children struggle to find closure and may be more prone to feelings of helplessness and lack of control, given that the images cannot be retrieved and are available for others to see in perpetuity (p.9),

Child pornographers are increasing their efforts to avoid being identified:

* In the United States, there is no federal statute or regulation requiring providers to keep user IP information for any length of time, or at all. Some U.S. providers only keep the information for a few days. In a 2009 survey of 100 U.S. Internet crimes investigators, 61 percent of the investigators reported that they had had investigations detrimentally affected because data was not retained; and 47 percent reported that they had had to end an investigation because data was not retained (p.23).

Psychological Impact to a Child Pornography Victim:

* ...a child suffers lifelong psychological damage and may never overcome his or her trauma from being a child pornography victim (p.D-12).

* ...children suffer from knowing that their images exist in perpetuity and that even if their abuser is convicted, there are still other child pornography offenders out there viewing their images, offenders that the victims may run into in social settings (p.D-12).

The Effect of the Lack of Internet Regulation on Law Enforcement Investigations:

* ... the lack of Internet regulation has restricted law enforcement investigations and assisted offenders in committing child pornography offenses (p.D-12).

The Link between Child Pornography and Contact Offenses Among NDIC interviewees:

* ...child pornography creates a market for new images of an increasingly graphic and violent nature.

* ...stimulation from child pornography images drive some child pornography offenders to engage in contact offenses with children (p.D-13).

Recommendations:

* Enact longer mandatory minimum sentences for child pornography offenders.

* Require a federal law that mandates all ISPs to establish child pornography filters, regulates their recordkeeping, and obligates them to report child pornography to law enforcement.

* Increase law enforcement capability by allocating more funding, training, and personnel dedicated specifically to child pornography investigations (p.D-14).

* Educate children, parents, schools, and communities on the subject and steps to prevent their children from becoming victims. Initiate a nationwide school-based program on online enticement starting in third grade and continuing throughout high school for all children and finding a way to incorporate parents’ participation in such a program.

* Have parents place home computers in a common space in the house and not to allow Internet access when they are not available to monitor their children’s activity.

* Install tracking software to monitor children’s activity.

* Develop better online enticement reporting and regulation practices for ISPs. (p.D-19).

Source: U.S. Department of Justice. (August 2010). The National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction: A Report to Congress. Retrieved August 9, 2010 from http://www.projectsafechildhood.gov/docs/natstrategyreport.pdf

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Notes from the UNICEF report to the United Nations:

* UNICEF estimates that there are more than four million websites featuring sexually exploited minors. Further, the number of child pornography websites is growing: 480,000 sites were identified in 2004 compared to 261,653 in 2001. More than 200 new images are circulated daily, and UNICEF estimates that the production and distribution of child pornographic images generates in between 3 and 20 billion dollars a year (p.9).

* In July 2009 the United Nations reported that there are approximately 750,000 sexual predators using the Internet to try to make contact with children for the purpose of sexually exploiting them (p.9).
 

Source: United Nations. (2009). Report of the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, Najat M’jid Maalla. A/HRC/12/23. 13 July 2009. Retrieved August 9, 2010 from http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/refworld/rwmain?docid=4ab0d35a2