Police & Crime. (Credit: LevittownNow.com)
Do you feel like you’ve been reading about more and more arrests related to crimes against children recently? That feeling wouldn’t be wrong.
The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office leads Pennsylvania in arrests and prosecutions related to Internet Crimes Against Children, District Attorney Jennifer Schorn announced recently.
The office has dedicated what the county’s top prosecutor said is significant resources to build an Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in partnership with municipal police departments. The partnerships have led to more arrests from local police and Bucks County Detectives, who are part of the district attorney’s office.
Schorn called the partnerships a “literal force multiplier” in combating online child exploitation.
“The Bucks County District Attorney’s office has more arrests and prosecutions than any other county in this commonwealth. Sixty-seven counties, including Philadelphia and Allegheny, and we’re leading the state,” Schorn said.
Schorn stated that the nature of child abuse has evolved dramatically with the digital age and created new challenges for law enforcement and child protection professionals.
“Now it’s no longer the known perpetrator, because who’s known to our children has grown exponentially with the digital age and social media,” Schorn explained. “Now, those people are often not known to us, the parents and caregivers, yet our children are unwittingly inviting them into our homes and into their own bedrooms.”
“Stranger danger” no longer solely applies, said Schorn.
The district attorney described the current situation as “literally like drinking from a fire hose because of the number of cases we are seeing as far as online exploitation.”
“We have not only identified cyber tips that turned out to be, in fact, child exploitation and in fact resulted in the arrest and prosecution of individuals committing sexual abuse of children. But we are leading the state,” Schorn said.
The multi-agency task force’s work has uncovered connections between online exploitation and hands-on abuse of very young children.
“Perhaps even more eye-opening, those statistics are that these online exploitations have led to hands-on sexual crimes against the youngest among us. Children who weren’t even old enough to disclose if they even understood what was happening,” Schorn said.
The district attorney stated that Bucks County law enforcement has become well-trained in identifying grooming, child porn sharing, and child sexual abuse.
The office is appreciative of law enforcement, victim advocates, and victims and their families for their work to fight crimes against children, Schorn said.
The U.S. Department of Justice provides the below tips to help protect children:
• Discuss internet safety and develop an online safety plan with children before they engage in online activity. Establish clear guidelines, teach children to spot red flags, and encourage children to have open communication with you.
• Supervise young children’s use of the internet, including periodically checking their profiles and posts. Keep electronic devices in open, common areas of the home and consider setting time limits for their use.
• Review games, apps, and social media sites before they are downloaded or used by children. Pay particular attention to apps and sites that feature end-to-end encryption, direct messaging, video chats, file uploads, and user anonymity, which are frequently relied upon by online child predators.
• Adjust privacy settings and use parental controls for online games, apps, social medial sites, and electronic devices.
• Tell children to avoid sharing personal information, photos, and videos online in public forums or with people they do not know in real life. Explain to your children that images posted online will be permanently on the internet.
• Teach children about body safety and boundaries, including the importance of saying ‘no’ to inappropriate requests both in the physical world and the virtual world.
• Be alert to potential signs of abuse, including changes in children’s use of electronic devices, attempts to conceal online activity, withdrawn behavior, angry outbursts, anxiety, and depression.
• Encourage children to tell a parent, guardian, or other trusted adult if anyone asks them to engage in sexual activity or other inappropriate behavior.
• Immediately report suspected online enticement or sexual exploitation of a child by calling 911, contacting the FBI at tips.fbi.gov, or filing a report with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) at 1-800-843-5678 or report.cybertip.org.
