Online child sex abuse reports surge with stay-at-home orders
LOS ANGELES — Law enforcement officials across the country have been overwhelmed in recent months by a surge in tips about online child sex abuse, with social media platforms and other service providers flagging explicit content and suspicious interactions at an alarming rate.
With schools closed, youth activities canceled and kids spending more time online under stay-at-home orders related to the coronavirus pandemic, sexual predators have ramped up their efforts to solicit pictures and videos, officials say.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, a global clearinghouse that disseminates tips to law enforcement, took in 4.1 million reports of child cyberabuse in April, a fourfold increase over April 2019, said John Shehan, head of the center’s exploited children division.
In March, the center received more than 2 million reports, more than double what it received in March 2019.
The surge has slowed in May, Shehan said, but the volume has remained above average.
“It was definitely a huge increase compared to the year prior, and has put a huge strain on law enforcement around the world, who are dealing with a pandemic and all of these reports coming in at the same time,” Shehan said.
The Los Angeles Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children unit, which processes tips from Shehan’s organization for five counties before referring them to local agencies, received nearly 3,000 tips in April, up from 1,355 in March, said Lt. Anthony Cato, the unit commander.
More than half the tips fell under the LAPD’s jurisdiction.
Still, two of the unit’s four investigators were recently redeployed to a special coronavirus task force helping find shelter for people in need. That has hampered the unit’s ability to respond just as reports spiked.
Investigations have continued — the unit makes about three arrests a month — but there’s a growing backlog of tips to review, officials said.
“We’re down detectives, and right now we should be fat with investigators to manage the amount of work that’s coming in,” said Detective Paula Meares, a unit supervisor.
LAPD spokesman Josh Rubenstein said the department has been forced to “shift precious resources” to the coronavirus crisis, but remains “deeply committed to identifying and bringing to justice anyone that would victimize a child.”
“While it is a challenge to keep up with the many clues we are given regarding these troubling offenses, we are accomplishing that task and look forward to the day we can shift our resources back to their original roles,” he said.
Alicia Kozakiewicz, an internet safety expert and advocate for children who survived being abducted nearly two decades ago, said the increased activity is sadly predictable. Children are more vulnerable at the moment because they, like all of us, feel isolated, and predators know it, she said.
“Right now children have no other social outlet, and they are experiencing a wide range of emotions,” Kozakiewicz, 32, said. “What a predator does is they search for those vulnerabilities, they find them, and then they exploit them.”
Offenders lurk on Facebook and Instagram, but also lesser-known chat sites and gaming platforms, sharing images and videos already in their possession but also soliciting new material from young victims. Kids coerced into sending one inappropriate picture or video are often blackmailed into sending more explicit content, officials said.
In recent weeks, would-be predators have been observed on the dark web discussing the stay-at-home orders and how they might target kids who are increasingly going online for their education, entertainment and social interactions, Shehan said. Those who normally traffic children for sex have seen customers lose interest in physical encounters and have shifted to soliciting and selling explicit images of children online.
Others are contributing to the spread inadvertently. Several videos have gone viral, resulting in scores of tips, in part because people horrified by the content have shared them in an attempt to alert others and bring a stop to the abuse, Shehan said.
Victims range from teenagers to toddlers and infants, law enforcement officials and other experts said.