An apparent boom in online child exploitation has helped double the child porn caseload of the FBI.
APBNews.com says the bureau is working an initiative aimed at combating the problem. Called Innocent Images, it has already received 1,497 cases this year, compared with 698 in 1998, 301 in 1997, and 113 in 1996, the program's first year, APBNews says FBI officials told law enforcement officials here.
There are several reasons for the striking jump, FBI agent Christopher Avery says, especially the Internet - where pedophiles use it to get pornographic images to and of children. Two thirds of such cases, he says, handle online activities like sending explicit photographs, while the rest deal with "travelers" - adults who travel to meet children to have sex, Avery said.
Making things tougher for police, he continues, pedophiles have turned the Internet into a network to keep the law at bay - they often post Web sites which deal with how to find children and what to do when the law arrives, not to mention monitoring the latest investigating techniques and staying as many steps ahead of the law as they can.
"There are whole Web sites on how to woo a child, how to court them and lower their inhibitions to get them to do things they normally wouldn't do," Avery tells APBNews. "Things like sending them child erotica or Disney characters in erotic poses and also how to keep the child from telling." Not to mention, the security of home computers keeping young children from sensing danger - and the ease with which a pedophile can disguise his identity or his intentions.
Most recently, a high-profile such case involved former Netscape wunderkind Patrick Naughton, who was arrested in mid-September for arranging to meet in person a 13-year-old girl he met online - who turned out to be an FBI agent undercover. Naughton has pleaded not guilty and could face up to 35 years in prison if convicted.
