by Ryan Dube
A small blank square and a blinking cursor. A window through which the entire world exists. You only have to say the right word - any word - and your every desire will be delivered.
This isn't some magic genie lamp. It's Google, Bing, and every other search engine on the Internet. We live in a world where every home is tapped into a vast sea of information, images, videos and more. It's an ocean filled with exotic islands, glorious and strange creatures, and even demons and monsters. Traveling to the wrong place can bring very real tragedy and horror to a family, and traveling there is as simple as typing in the wrong word into that little square box.
Then there's the question of those monsters and demons. What are they, where are they, and how dangerous are they? Do parents have enough protections in place to keep children safe, or are children provided with open opportunity every day to walk too close to the dangerous jaws of those beasts - predators just waiting for the right opportunity and for the right child.
During the last decade or so, I've worked as an SEO consultant and have had the dubious pleasure of scouring through some of the words and phrases that people decide to type into that little white box. I can tell you that the experience initially shocked me. It made me realize that the human mind is not as civilized as we would like to believe.
Exploring the Problem of Child Pornography and Predators
When it comes to the problem of child pornography and child predators, things have only gotten worse. According to a University of New Hampshire study published in April of 2012, arrests for possession of child pornography increased by over 30% from 2006 to 2009, a trend that paralleled the growth of peer-to-peer file sharing technologies.
Exploring such a dark issue isn't easy. Poking a stick at the boogie man that lies in wait underneath the bed is one of those things that never turn out good for the protagonist in horror movies. However, in the real world, you don't expect that there will actually be a boogie man under the bed.
Unfortunately, there are lots of boogie men in this world of ours, and by opening this portal - this little white box - into the homes of nearly every family throughout the world, we've provided those boogie men with a perfect pathway into the minds and hearts of children. It's become a dangerous doorway through which far too many children have slipped through, never to return.
How Bad is the Child Predators Problem?
There are more cases of children getting abducted and exploited then you might want to believe.
In 2002 on New Year's Day, 13 year old Alicia Kozakiewicz was abducted by Scott Tyree and held in his sadistic basement lair for four days. She was raped, beaten, and had images of the entire episode spread to other child predators throughout the Internet. After receiving a tip from one man in Florida who had seen her photos online and had heard about the abduction on the news, the FBI eventually located Tyree and burst into his home, rescuing Alicia from her nightmare.
Then there was the case in 2010 of Danielle Wade, a 15 year old girl in rural Virginia who started chatting on her smartphone with a boy who she thought was 16 years old. The "boy" turned out to be 38 year old Edward Bracken, who drove 400 miles to lure Danielle out of her home and abduct her. Police eventually located Danielle at Bracken's home and arrested both Bracken and his girlfriend for unlawful contact with a minor.
In both cases, the girls had been lured into their horrible predicament through a methodical grooming process that sex predators use to capture the interests of impressionable young, teenagers - earning their trust and in some cases even "love", before making the final attempt to abduct the child.
These cases make it into the news every now and then, but how bad is the problem really?
To better understand the reality of this issue, I decided to go straight to the federal agency responsible for investigating these cases - the very heroes that often bust down those doors and save young victims from their captors.
The FBI Story - The Problem is Getting Worse
Greg was immediately helpful. He said that this was a topic that is very important to the FBI right now, and one that they work tirelessly to inform the public about. He immediately put me in touch with Russ Brown, the supervisor of the FBI Cyber Crimes Division in Boston.
Our conversation took place via a conference call in October of 2012.
My first question was the most pressing - what are the 2 or 3 most significant threats to children on the Internet? Russ didn't even pause before answering.
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