Originally aired February 1, 2002

When access to the Internet became more common, new ways to use connected computers became clear. You could research almost anything, so shopping, send and receive important messages. But, as with most things, there were problems. Scams and hoaxes and viruses. Some used the Internet to take advantage of others, even children. Law enforcement had to adjust. The U.S. Department of Justice set up special units to investigate cases of cybercrime across the country.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: •Nebraska State Patrol Internet Crimes Against Children Unit : http://www.nsp.state.ne.us •National Center for Missing and Exploited Children: http://www.ncmec.org

The Nebraska State Patrol started its Internet Crime Against Children Unit two years ago. They investigate cases of adults sexually exploiting children on the Internet. So far they’ve arrested nine people who wanted to meet children for sex. They’ve also made a number of child pornography arrests. But they say they’re barely making a dent in the growing problem. “Statewide’s” Brad Penner reports that investigators say they don’t want to scare parents and kids away from the Internet. But they do want you to be aware of what’s out there.

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TRANSCRIPT

Transcript of Perspective

Reported by Statewide correspondent, Brad Penner.

[Scott Christensen]There's a dark side to the Internet that parents need to be aware of. And the kids need to be aware of.
[Katie]I do meet a lot of older guys. They're pretty much just interested in the fact that I'm fifteen.
[Christensen]In the last eighteen months I've seen the worst stuff I've ever seen in eighteen years of law enforcement. Children being victimized, that's just the nature of what we deal with.
Just typing teen sex in one search engine, there's 515 hits.
Scott Christensen works on the dark side of the Internet. What he's seen on the Internet might shock you. What he knows about your kids might scare you.
[Christensen]They don't think twice about going on-line and talking with people that they don't know, and talking in a very sexually explicit manner.
A regular person would just be floored if they saw what was being said to kids on-line.
Christensen leads the State Patrol's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The three-person team primarily investigates cases involving preferential sex offenders or child pornography.
Preferential sex offenders are men or women who seek out children under the age of eighteen for sex.
[Christensen]Our first case from time of initial contact on-line to the time this person showed up at a designated spot to meet who they thought was a juvenile female for the purposes of sex was three hours. That's scary to us in law enforcement.
We met with the team at the state crime lab in Lincoln. It only took a few minutes to see what they see every day. Investigator Scot Haugaard goes on-line as a teenage girl or boy, instant messages quickly pop on the screen from strangers who want to chat.
[Scott Haugaard]They might look for females in Nebraska. And if they go in and they search for females in Nebraska, they'll come across say one of our screen names showing that we're on-line at the time. And they'll look at our profile and see that we're a pre-teen girl or boy and they'll click on our name and instant message.
[Christensen]We're definitely gonna get a nude picture. Yeah, he's going to send us a nude picture. And he thinks he talking to a thirteen-year-old.
Sure enough, a nude photo appeared moments later.
[Christensen]He just sent that to who he thought was a thirteen-year-old girl. So in five minutes had that been a real girl on-line, she'd have just been exposed to naked pictures of an adult male.
As disturbing as that might be, it's not bad enough to take action.
[Christenen]There's enough out there of people that actually are wanting to meet him in person or people that want to send him child pornography on-line that he just doesn't have time to pursue everything.
[Haugaard]This guy thinks this girl is fourteen-years-old…
Scott Haugaard went to Millard West High School to show students how sexual predators use the Internet.
[Haugaard]He's going to lower her inhibitions so it's easier to prey on her.
He reads them the predator's own words.
[Haugaard]Any interest in older men, Angel.
Sure, I love them. Who wouldn't?
Good girl!
This happens a lot. A lot.
Katie knows what Haugaard is talking about. She's seen the same kinds of messages herself.
[Haugaard]How many girls have been solicited for sex on Instant Messages? Do you ever call anybody?
[Katie]Yeah.
[Haugaard]When? Not to put you on the spot.
[Katie]No, that's all right. Um, I just didn't think it was really that big a deal. I figured there were perverts on the Internet, you know.
[Haugaard]Wouldn't you like to see it stopped though? Was he from Omaha do you think?
[Katie]He said he was from Philadelphia… I don't really know.
Katie says she spends a couple of hours a day on the computer talking with friends using instant messaging.
[Katie]I can talk to ten people at a time, no problem.
At the same time she searches e-bay for her dream car.
[Katie]I think it's a teenage thing.
[Christensen]The kids these days have been raised with computers, they've been raised with the Internet, they're very familiar with it. Parents are not.
[Katie]I've got my buddy list here. I can pick anyone out of my buddy list that's on-line, Instant Message 'em and hope they message me back. Or I can go up here if I'm really bored and do a find-a-buddy by name, address or common interest. I could chose cars and sometimes it'll give you somebody, sometimes it won't.
But others can find Katie, too.
[Christensen]Instant Messages are the way kids talk any more. They use Instant Messages; Instant Messages are a great way for kids to talk. But if the kids have a profile attached to their screen name, they put a target on their back.
Her own on-line profile is a little bit provocative.
[Katie]It's um… kind of courageous to put that kind of stuff on a profile because a lot of people do read it. But I mean I don't give any real information about who I am. I just… I like the attention; it's kind of fun.
It does attract attention from older men.
[Katie]They'll usually start out with just, Hi. I'm blah-blah-blah. And then they'll be like, Yeah, hey baby. Blah-blah-blah can I call you, you know. That's when you've just gotta tell them to go away. I just kind of laugh at 'em.
[Haugaard]You name it and you can track it down.
But it isn't always funny. Katie learned something at school that affected her attitude.
[Katie]It makes me a little bit more aware that those people might be more dangerous than I think they are.
[Haugaard]It's very easy to trace an e-mail, an Instant Message, you name it.
Haugaard tells students to keep all personal information out of their profiles. He describes how sexual predators who may seem harmless on-line find out enough information to track down victims.
[Katie]That's really scary to think that I… every time I get on this Internet like everybody in the world could figure out who I was if they wanted to.
Katie says she doesn't put personal information in her on-line profile, but admits she'll tell someone her age if asked.
[Haugaard]To disguise where they're coming from…
Haugaard tries to convince students they need to take action when they're pursued on-line.
[Haugaard]If you people don't pick up the phone and tell police what is going on, somebody's going to get molested over and over again before we find out.
[Katie]If the guy knew how old I was and it seemed pretty apparent to me that that's why he was interested, I might report him just because I wouldn't want somebody else to have to get in trouble because of that.
When the Internet Crimes Against Children Team gets a tip, they begin to pursue the suspect on-line. In cases involving sexual predators, they wait for the suspect to set up a meeting. Then they make an arrest and begin gathering evidence of on-line conversations.
[Christensen]And the nice thing is once they say it, it is saved on their computer whether they think it or not. And when our case comes to termination and search warrants are served and computers are seized Tracy is able to go back into that computer and recover a lot of that chat.
Tracy Butler is a computer forensics specialist. Her computer can copy a suspect's confiscated hard drive.
[Tracy Butler]Everything that's on their hard drive is on here.
Once the copy is made, she uses specialized software to search for evidence.
[Butler]They generally ask for pictures, any child pornography pictures. E-mails, chat logs, usually a lot of its deleted found in the slack space and unallocated.
It gives me the whole layout of the hard drive.
Most of her cases involve child pornography.
[Butler]I've had one case where a guy was running a file server from his house, trading child pornography. I had, I believe, over eight hundred images.
There's not a whole lot I haven't seen.
[Haugaard]You know it disgusts me. Why someone would take a picture of a thirteen-fourteen year old kid, we've had as young as infants, child porn, child rape, you name it and they have it.
Members of the team check up on each other to make sure they don't get overwhelmed by things they see. A psychologist is available if they need to talk.
[Butler]It was hard to imagine that somebody could do that to a child. I think after awhile you kind of detach yourself from the situation and it makes me feel better thinking that I'm actually having a part in getting these guys off the street, these people responsible for doing this.
[Haugaard]The incentive is somebody's going to get to go to jail. Bare roots, I'm still a cop. I thrive to go arrest somebody for sending things like this.
Scott Christensen says his team could pursue more cases if they had more people and more time. Right now there's a six-month backlog of computer forensics work that needs to be done. Christensen believes the perceived anonymity of the Internet makes sexual predators more likely to act on their urges.
[Christensen]I don't think the Internet created the tendency. It was there, it's just enabled them to go out and anonymously take the first step that they never would have taken before. And that's my personal opinion, it's just that before they would actually had to walk up to a child and talk to 'em.
These cyber cops may bust bad guys on the New Frontier of the Internet, but the message for parents and kids is essentially an old one. Don't talk to strangers.

Reporting for STATEWIDE, I'm Brad Penner.