Sex predators using cyber bullying tactics to exploit children

The feds call it a disturbing trend: predators using the Internet to lure children into their world of online pornography and abuse, sometimes leading to molestation and rape.

When Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced a series of arrests in a crackdown on Internet child sex crimes, it was just the latest in an ongoing campaign.

“With more than 250 individuals arrested in five weeks, it’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to child predators on the Internet,” says Andrew Munoz, in the Seattle office of Customs Enforcement.

The Internet Crimes Against Children task force reports more than 1,600 arrests this year. This latest effort identified or rescued 61 child victims, three in Washington.

Once a predator hooks a child, Munoz says the abusers use coercion to force kids to send obscene images of themselves.

“What they’re doing is using cyber bullying tactics, threatening kids who have sent photos, threatening that they will distribute those photos to their friends at school,” says Munoz.

It’s sexual extortion, known as “sextorting.” Evidence seized in these investigations is used to identify and rescue victims, but the amount of material is staggering.

“For our investigators and our computer forensics analysts it can take hours, it can take days, sometimes years to get through this evidence,” he says.

Munoz says parents must be vigilant with children’s computer activity. “Before we go to sleep, we lock our doors. We make sure our kids our safe. But we can never forget the technology has provided a back door into the bedrooms of our children.”