U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention 

January 2002

A Message From OJJDP

Children have embraced the Internet

with remarkable alacrity, as they go

online to learn, play, and communicate

with their friends. The Internet clearly

influences how a growing number of

children discover and interact with the

world around them.

Unfortunately, cyberspace is not always a safe place for youngsters to

visit. Some sex offenders use the privacy and anonymity of the Internet to

prey on vulnerable children and teenagers, whose Internet access is often

unsupervised. In exchanging child pornography or seeking victims online,

sex offenders may face little risk of

interdiction of their criminal activities.

To combat computer-facilitated sex

crimes, the Office of Juvenile Justice

and Delinquency Prevention funds

the Internet Crimes Against Children

(ICAC) Task Force Program, which

protects children in cyberspace.

Although apprehending sex offenders

who use the Internet to facilitate their

crimes presents significant challenges,

the ICAC Program can help State

and local law enforcement agencies

to develop an effective response to

online enticement and child pornography cases. Included in this response

are community education, forensic,

investigative, and victim service

components.

We encourage parents, policymakers,

and practitioners to use the information

provided by this Bulletin to help create

an Internet environment in which children can safely play, learn, and grow.

or research online. A United Kingdom survey (NOP Research Group, Internet Surveys, United Kingdom, June 24, 1999) found

that teenagers and children hold Internet

users in high social esteem. Both youth

who used the Internet and those who did

not described Internet users as “clever,”

“friendly,” “cool,” and “trendy.” Given the

growing reliance on the Internet for commerce, information, and personal fulfillment, it will probably continue to be an

important factor in how children learn and

grow. Indeed, some educators believe that

children who become familiar with online

technology while growing up will lead

fuller lives and compete more successfully

for careers in the Information Age.

A more sinister aspect of Gibson’s premise has alarming implications for parents,

educators, and law enforcement. Gibson’s

concept of cyberspace contains dark corners and back alleys where criminal activity flourishes and electronic actions can

entail physical repercussions. In the Internet of today, the electronic actions of the

unwary and vulnerable can lead to stalking, theft, and other malicious or criminal

actions. In the worst instances, children

and teenagers can become victims of molestation by providing personal information and developing relationships with offenders who lure them from their homes

for sexual purposes.

Protecting Children

in Cyberspace: The ICAC

Task Force Program

by Michael Medaris and Cathy Girouard

With remarkable foresight, William

Gibson, in his 1984 novel Neuromancer,

predicted that society’s increasing reliance on computers and information technology would create an electronic virtual

universe that he called Cyberspace. Seventeen years later, cyberspace has become

much more than a premise in a science

fiction novel—it is the equivalent of a

gold-rush boomtown. Every second, six

new people sign on to the Internet, which,

with astonishing speed, has become commonplace in daily life and increasingly

vital to learning and communication.

Not surprisingly, youth constitute one of

the fastest growing Internet populations.

In cyberspace, young people are a mouseclick away from exploring America’s greatest museums, libraries, and universities.

Encouraged by parents and teachers to

take advantage of the Internet’s incredible

educational and recreational opportunities, nearly 30 million children and youth

go online each year to research homework

assignments and to learn about the world

they live in. Youth also use the Internet to

play games and meet friends. According to

a survey conducted by Family PC Magazine

(Johnson, 2001), youth ages 12–17 are

spending a substantial amount of time

on the Internet: 66 percent spend 1–5

hours each week surfing the Web, 79 percent spend 1–5 hours e-mailing, and 75

percent spend 1–5 hours doing homework
2

Incidence Rates of Sexual Offending Involving

Contact Crimes

In 1990, the Federal Bureau of Prisons established the Sex Offender Treatment

Program (SOTP) at the Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, NC. This voluntary program, in which participants do not receive special privileges or reductions

in their sentences, uses a variety of cognitive-behavioral and relapse prevention

techniques for male sex offenders, of whom the majority are Internet offenders.

In the interest of examining incidence rates of sexual offending involving contact

crimes (e.g., child sexual abuse, rape), the Federal Bureau of Prisons conducted a

study of participants in the SOTP program, including inmates who were convicted

of offenses involving child pornography but who had not been convicted of sexual

contact offenses. Inmates were classified into three categories, depending on their

offense:

◆ Child Pornographer/Traveler: 62 inmates convicted of an array of child pornography offenses, including the luring of a child and traveling across State

lines with the intention of committing child sexual abuse.

◆ Contact Sex Offender: 24 inmates convicted of sexual molestation, abuse, or

assault of a child or an adult.

◆ Other: Four inmates convicted of nonsexual crimes, such as bank robbery or

drug trafficking.

Information from Presentence Investigation (PSI) Reports was examined and data

were extracted on the documented number of sexual contact crimes the perpetrator was known to have committed before entering SOTP. Additional information

was gathered on the number of offenses involving any type of sexual contact crime

against a child or adult that the perpetrators subsequently self-reported over the

course of participation in SOTP but that were not documented in PSIs. Although

the study revealed that all three groups disclosed sexual contact offenses in

addition to those documented in their PSIs, further examination of the data unexpectedly revealed that after participation in the program, inmates in the Child

Pornographer/Traveler and Other groups disclosed an inordinate number of previously undocumented sexual contact offenses involving children and adults. Surprisingly, offenders in the Child Pornographer/Traveler group (excluding 15 participants who divulged no additional sex contact crimes) committed the highest

number of sexual contact offenses, with a rate of 30.5 victims per offender. The

Other group averaged 15.5 victims per offender, while the Contact Sex Offender

group averaged 9.6 victims per offender.

Child Pornographer/ Contact Sex

Traveler Offender Other

Number of Offenses (n=62) (n=24) (n=4)

Based on PSIs 55 49 2

After SOTP 1,434 232 62

Source: Self-reported contact sexual offenses by participants in the Federal Bureau of Prisons’

Sex Offender Treatment Program: Implications for Internet sex offenders, by Andres E. Hernandez, Psy.D., Director, Sex Offender Treatment Program, Federal Bureau of Prisons, FCI Butner,

P.O. Box 1000, Butner, NC 27509. Presented at the 19th Research and Treatment Conference of

the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, San Diego, CA, November 2000.

offender to have power over the victim

throughout the molestation. When the

offender loses interest, pictures of the victim are often used as blackmail to ensure

the child’s silence, and when these pictures are posted on the Internet, they

become an enduring and irretrievable

record of the victimization and a relentless, shame-inducing violation of that

child’s privacy.

This Bulletin discusses the emerging

online threat to children and teenagers

and the efforts of the Office of Juvenile

Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s

(OJJDP’s) Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force Program. The

ICAC Program is designed to enhance the

response of State and local law enforcement to child pornography and enticement offenses.

Background

Large numbers of young people are encountering unwanted sexual solicitations

that, in the most serious cases, involve

being targeted by offenders seeking children for sex. Research conducted by the

University of New Hampshire and the

National Center for Missing and Exploited

Children (NCMEC) disclosed that one in

five children ages 10–17 received a sexual

solicitation over the Internet in the past

year (Finkelhor, Mitchell, and Wolak, 2000).

One in thirty-three received an aggressive

solicitation—that is, the solicitor asked to

meet them somewhere, called them on the

telephone, or sent them regular mail,

money, or gifts.

Unfortunately, the Internet is a nearly perfect medium for offenders seeking children

for sex. It provides privacy, anonymity, and

a virtually unlimited pool of unsupervised

children and teenagers who may be susceptible to manipulation. Cloaked in the

anonymity of cyberspace, sex offenders

can capitalize on the natural curiosity of

children, seeking victims with little risk of

interdiction. These offenders no longer

need to lurk in parks and malls. Instead,

they roam from chatroom to chatroom

looking for vulnerable, susceptible

children. 

Today’s Internet is also rapidly becoming

the marketplace for offenders seeking to

acquire material for their child pornography collections. More insidious than the

exchange of sexually explicit material

among adults, child pornography often

depicts the sexual assault of a child and

is often used by child molesters to recruit,

seduce, and control their victims. Although not all molesters collect pornography and not all child pornography

collectors molest children, significant consensus exists among law enforcement officers about the role pornography plays in

recruiting and controlling new victims.

Pornography is used to break down inhibitions and validate sex between children

and adults as normal, and it enables the

The debate about the role child pornography plays in triggering actual victimization

continues. Many in the law enforcement

community believe that the validation and

nearly constant stimulation afforded to sex

offenders by the Internet put minors at

greater risk for sexual exploitation. By

creating a demand for new material, the

Internet also creates a demand for more

victims, and it may cause some individuals
3

regarding the sexual exploitation of children (see figure 2, page 5). Currently, more

than 9 out of 10 reports to NCMEC are

entered online at www.cybertipline.com,

where specially trained analysts review

and verify the information prior to forwarding it to the appropriate law enforcement agency. Many of these reports have

launched successful investigations through

which offenders have been arrested and

victims rescued. CyberTipline II, an enhanced CyberTipline, is up and running as

a result of the Internet Service Providers

(ISPs) Mandatory Reporting Law, 42 U.S.C.

§ 13032(b)(1), which requires ISPs to report any apparent child pornography to

NCMEC. CyberTipline II can handle a

much higher volume of online traffic than

CyberTipline and can accept information

such as photographs, videos, and other

materials involving children that appear

to be sexually explicit. Law enforcement

agencies can now view these materials

immediately upon receipt of a CyberTipline II report.

NCMEC also offers two courses for law

enforcement agencies interested in improving their response to online crimes

against children. The week-long Protecting

Children Online (PCO) course features

modules pertaining to investigative techniques, interview strategies, and offender

behavioral characteristics and provides

important information about additional

Federal resources that are available to

assist officers investigating cases of child

pornography and online enticement. The

Protecting Children Online—Unit Commander (PCO UC) course focuses on managers and executives from law enforcement

agencies who are interested in improving

their response to these offenses. Held

monthly at NCMEC, the 21

/2-day course discusses liability issues and provides model

policies and procedures to encourage agencies to develop a comprehensive response

for their community. 

Regional ICAC Task Forces

Regional task forces throughout the country are designed to provide forensic, prevention, and investigation assistance to

parents, educators, prosecutors, law enforcement, and those professionals working on child victimization issues. OJJDP

provides funds for personnel, training,

to move from voyeuristic activities to acting out their fantasies with live victims. In

fact, findings from a recent Federal Bureau

of Prisons research project (see sidebar

on “Incidence Rates of Sexual Offending

Involving Contact Crimes”) appear to indicate that the number of sexual contact

victims per sex offender may be grossly

underestimated and that these offenders

may be more physically active than suggested by the perceived passiveness of

trading or possessing child pornography

(Hernandez, 2000).

The Internet Crimes

Against Children Task

Force Program

The increasing number of children and

teenagers using the Internet, the proliferation of child pornography, and the heightened activity by predators searching for

unsupervised contact with underage victims present both a significant threat to

the health and safety of young people and

a formidable challenge for law enforcement. Recognizing this challenge, OJJDP

created the ICAC Task Force Program

under the authority of the fiscal year (FY)

1998 Justice Appropriations Act, Public

Law 105–119, and continued funding the

program with successive appropriations

in FYs 1999, 2000, and 2001. The purpose

of the ICAC Program is to help State and

local law enforcement agencies develop

an effective response to cyberenticement

and child pornography cases that encompasses forensic and investigative components, training and technical assistance,

victim services, and community education. As of September 2001, 30 regional

task forces (see figure 1, page 4) and

43 investigative satellites (see sidebar,

page 5), involving the efforts of 160 State

and local law enforcement agencies in 39

States, are participating in the program.

National Center for Missing

and Exploited Children 

Under a separate appropriation, NCMEC

supports the ICAC Task Force Program

with a wide range of activities to protect

children in cyberspace. The CyberTipline,

a one-stop reporting point for citizens

concerned about suspicious activity on

the Internet, is designed to provide pertinent lead information to Federal, State,

and local law enforcement agencies for

investigative followup. The CyberTipline,

which began operation in March 1998,

has received more than 40,000 reports

ICAC Task Force Program in Action

◆ A citizen contacts NCMEC’s CyberTipline to report that an adult male is using

the Internet to locate minors for sex. CyberTipline analysts forward the information to ICAC Task Force officers, who begin an inquiry into the subject’s online

activities. The subject forwards nude photographs as he schedules a meeting

with the undercover officers. Upon arresting the offender, the officers learn that

he had previously victimized four children who were ages 8–11.

◆ A middle-aged male sends child pornographic photos and a video to an undercover officer posing as a 13-year-old boy. He invites the “boy” to his house to

watch some other child pornographic videos and later admits his sexual intent.

A search of his home reveals more than 1,000 pornographic videotapes (many

of them containing child pornography), hundreds of photographs of child pornography, and numerous magazines and calendars depicting children in sexually explicit positions.

◆ Task Force members execute a search warrant at the residence of a registered

sex offender and seize his computer. An examination of the computer locates

three additional victims living more than 2,500 miles away whom the suspect

had abused for years.

◆ A Task Force undercover operation results in the arrest of a middle-aged man

after he drives nearly 1,000 miles to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex. Following his

arrest, the officers seize an axe handle, shovel, and several gallons of gasoline

from the trunk of his car. The suspect’s house includes a dungeon outfitted with

torture instruments and an extensive collection of serial killer videotapes.

◆ Parents notify Task Force investigators of their concerns about a chatroom relationship their 14-year-old son has developed with a stranger. Officers assume

the boy’s online identity and, within 2 days, the suspect makes arrangements for

a sexual encounter with the boy.
4

Maine

Vermont

New Hampshire

Massachusetts

New York Rhode Island

Connecticut

Pennsylvania

New Jersey

Delaware

Maryland

Virginia

West 

Virginia

Ohio

Michigan

Wisconsin

Indiana Illinois

Kentucky

North Carolina

South Carolina

Georgia

Tennessee

Florida

Arkansas

Alabama

Louisiana

Oklahoma

Texas

Iowa

Mississippi

Missouri Kansas

North Minnesota

Dakota

South

Dakota

Nebraska

Montana

Arizona New Mexico

Idaho

Colorado

Utah

Nevada

Oregon

Washington

California

Wyoming

Alaska

Hawaii

Starting operations in spring of 1999 were the Bedford County, VA, Sheriff’s Department; Broward County, FL, Sheriff’s Department; Colorado 

Springs, CO, Police Department; Dallas, TX, Police Department; Illinois State Police; New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services; 

Portsmouth, NH, Police Department (including Maine State Police, New Hampshire State Police, and Chittendon County, VT); Sacramento 

County, CA, Sheriff’s Office; South Carolina Office of the Attorney General; and the Wisconsin Department of Justice. 

Starting operations in spring of 2000 were the Delaware County, PA, District Attorney; Michigan State Police; Seattle, WA, Police Department; 

Utah Office of the Attorney General; Nebraska State Patrol; Connecticut State Police; Massachusetts Department of Public Safety; Las Vegas, NV, 

Metropolitan Police Department; Maryland State Police; and the Knoxville, TN, Police Department.

Starting operations in summer of 2000 were the Alabama Department of Public Safety; Cuyahoga County, OH, District Attorney; Hawaii Office of 

the Attorney General; North Carolina Division of Criminal Investigation; Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation; Phoenix, AZ, Police Department; 

Saint Paul, MN, Police Department; San Diego, CA, Police Department; Sedgwick County, KS, Sheriff’s Office; and the Wyoming Division of 

Criminal Investigation.

Note: The agencies shown are those participating in the program as of September 2001.

and specialized equipment and encourages agencies to adopt multidisciplinary

and multiagency responses to conduct

prevention and enforcement activities. 

Investigative Satellite

Initiative 

To enhance the geographical impact of the

ICAC Task Force Program, OJJDP recently

created the Investigative Satellite Initiative

(ISI). Under ISI, agencies lacking sufficient

personnel resources to commit to forming

full-time task forces can still receive funding to acquire specialized equipment and

training. To participate in this program,

agencies must meet the following criteria:

◆ Be a State or local law enforcement

agency.

◆ Agree to comply with the ICAC Task

Force Operational and Investigative

Standards.

◆ Agree to accept and act on referrals

from ICAC Task Force agencies and

NCMEC’s CyberTipline.

◆ Participate in the annual National ICAC

Task Force Training Conference.

◆ Successfully complete NCMEC’s PCO

UC course prior to application. ISI

agencies agree to make referrals to

other agencies participating in the

ICAC Task Force Program, when appropriate, and to receive referrals

from these agencies.

Figure 1: Law Enforcement Agencies Participating in the ICAC Task Force Program
5

Arkansas

Homer Police Department

California

San Francisco Police Department

Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office

Vacaville Police Department

Walnut Creek Police Department

Colorado

Douglas County Sheriff’s Office

Connecticut

Milford Police Department

Florida

Seminole County Sheriff’s Office

Illinois

Chicago Police Department

Indiana 

Indiana State Police

Louisiana

Gonzales Police Department

New Orleans Police Department

Massachusetts

Berkshire Office of the District

Attorney

Boston Police Department

Northwest Massachusetts Office of

the District Attorney

Michigan

Glendale Police Department

Saginaw County Sheriff’s Office

Minnesota

Hutchinson Police Department

Missouri

State Technical Assistance Team

Nevada

Washoe County Sheriff’s Office

New Hampshire

New London Police Department

New Jersey

New Jersey State Police

Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office

New Mexico

Office of the Attorney General

New York

Bronx County District Attorney

Colonie Police Department

Clarkstown Police Department

Erie County Sheriff’s Office

Rockland County Sheriff’s Office

Ulster County Sheriff’s Office

North Dakota

Office of the Attorney General

South Dakota

Pennington Sheriff’s Office

Texas 

Austin Police Department

Bexar County Sheriff’s Department 

Corpus Christi Police Department

Garland Police Department

Virginia

Albemarle County Sheriff’s Office

Fairfax Police Department

Washington

Kennewick Police Department

Office of the Pierce County

Prosecuting Attorney

Spokane Police Department

Washington State Patrol

Wisconsin

Oconomowoc Police Department

Agencies Currently Participating in the Investigative Satellite Initiative 

For contact information, visit the ICAC Task Force Web site at www.search.org/training/icac/units.asp.

ICAC Task Force Board of

Directors

Activities of the regional task forces and

investigative satellites are coordinated by

the ICAC Task Force Board of Directors.

Composed of law enforcement managers

and prosecutors appointed by agencies

participating in the regional task force

program, the Board meets quarterly and

plays a very important role in reviewing

enforcement proposals, formulating policy

recommendations, and assessing training

and technical assistance needs for OJJDP.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),

U.S. Customs Service, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and NCMEC serve as technical advisors, and the U.S. Department of

Justice, Criminal Division, Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) provides counsel as legal advisor.

ICAC Task Force Training

and Technical Assistance

Program

SEARCH Group, Inc., of Sacramento, CA,

conducts a wide range of training and

technical assistance activities for OJJDP

that build on the NCMEC PCO curriculum.

Using a mobile computer laboratory,

SEARCH Group, Inc., offers the Investigation of Online Child Exploitation course

on a regional basis throughout the country. Featuring a hands-on training environment, this week-long course provides

frontline personnel with information about

advanced investigative strategies for responding to child pornography and cyberenticement cases. As of summer 2001,

SEARCH Group, Inc., also offers Media

Management, a course that is designed to

enable investigators to pinpoint the location of evidence on electronic media. 

Challenges of

Cyberspace Policing

Over the past 2 years, agencies participating in the ICAC Task Force Program have

accomplished the following (statistics

submitted by ICAC Task Force members

for the March 2001 Monthly Performance

Measures Report):

◆ Arrested more than 550 individuals for

child sexual exploitation offenses.

◆ Seized approximately 850 computers.

Figure 2: CyberTipline Citizen

Reports, July 1, 1998,

to June 30, 2001

4%

Child pornography (n=37,192)

Child prostitution (n=779)

Child sex tourism (n=426)

Total Reports: 44,303

Child sexual molestation (n=1,880)

Online enticement (n=4,026)

84%

9%

1%

2%
6

◆ Served 627 search warrants and 1,338

subpoenas.

◆ Conducted forensic examinations of

more than 1,500 computers for task

force investigations and other law

enforcement agencies. 

◆ Provided direct investigative assistance

in more than 1,000 cases at the request

of other law enforcement agencies.

◆ Provided advice in 1,622 instances to

other law enforcement agencies.

◆ Provided training for more than 1,443

prosecutors and 12,500 law enforcement officers.

◆ Reached thousands of children, teenagers, parents, educators, and other

individuals through publications,

presentations, and public service

announcements about safe Internet

practices for young people. 

Based on these statistics and the experience of administering the ICAC Task Force

Program over the past 2 years, OJJDP

makes the following observations:

◆ Although awareness appears to be

growing, many children, teenagers, and

parents are not sufficiently informed

about the dangers and possible repercussions of releasing personal information to or agreeing to meet individuals

encountered online. In one instance, it

took just 45 minutes for a task force officer (posing as a teenager) to arrange 

a meeting with a 13-year-old girl living

in his jurisdiction. She returned home

after the officer spoke with her and her

parents about safe online practices.

◆ Awareness of the CyberTipline needs 

to be increased. There have been several task force cases in which suspects

went on to victimize other minors after

being warned off by a vigilant parent

who was not aware of the CyberTipline.

◆ The Internet challenges traditional

thinking about law enforcement jurisdiction and renders city, county, and

State boundaries virtually meaningless.

Nearly all (95 percent) ICAC Task Force

investigations involve substantial communication and coordination between

Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies. Toward this end, in a

major achievement of the program,

OJJDP developed the ICAC Task Force

Program Standards (hereafter “Standards”) to facilitate interagency referrals

of child pornography and cyberenticement cases. Developed through a process that combined the perspectives of

prosecutors, investigators, and law

enforcement executives from Federal,

State, and local agencies, the Standards address investigative techniques,

evidence collection, prevention efforts,

media relations, and management

practices. 

◆ Most investigations are initiated in

response to a citizen complaint rather

than undercover operations in which

officers pose as minors in chatrooms.

This finding dispells the belief that

these cases are usually manufactured

by undercover officers. Another reality

is that these cases often involve multiple victims. 

◆ The Internet places new demands on

forensic resources. Computers are piling up in evidence rooms across the

country because the existing forensic

capacity is inadequate to meet the

needs of investigative efforts.

◆ A generation ago, officers beginning

their law enforcement careers would

be issued a uniform, service weapon,

and notebook. Those items rarely

changed during a 20-year career. Today,

changes in equipment and software occur seemingly overnight, and officers

are hard pressed to stay current not

only with technological changes, but

also with a motivated offender community eagerly adapting new advances to

exploit children. OJJDP sponsors an

annual ICAC conference where investigators and managers can learn about
7

emerging trends and changes in technology that affect their investigations.

Conclusion

If children are to thrive in today’s world

and compete in tomorrow’s workplace,

they must be able to safely play, learn,

and grow in cyberspace. Challenges exist,

but the work of the ICAC Task Force Program and its Federal agency partners is a

vital step in protecting children in the

Information Age. 

For Further Information

To obtain further information about the

Internet Crimes Against Children Task

Force Program, contact:

Ron Laney

Director

Child Protection Division

Office of Juvenile Justice and 

Delinquency Prevention

810 Seventh Street NW.

Washington, DC 20531

202–616–3637

202–353–9093 (fax)

laney@ojp.usdoj.gov

Cathy Girouard

Program Manager

Child Protection Division

Office of Juvenile Justice and 

Delinquency Prevention

810 Seventh Street NW.

Washinton, DC 20531

202–353–9244

202–353–9093 (fax)

girouard@ojp.usdoj.gov

Additional Resources

Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section

Criminal Division

U.S. Department of Justice

1331 F Street NW., Sixth Floor

Washington, DC 20004

202–514–5780

202–514–1793 (fax)

202–305–4320 (fax)

The Child Exploitation and Obscenity

Section (CEOS) of the Criminal Division,

U.S. Department of Justice, has supervisory responsibility for Federal statutes

covering obscenity, child exploitation,

child sexual abuse, activities under the

Mann Act, sex tourism, missing and abducted children, and child support recovery. Created in 1987, CEOS is a specialized section composed of attorneys with

broad expertise in prosecuting obscenity,

child exploitation, and child abuse. CEOS’s

jurisdiction is limited to the enforcement

of Federal statutes. Section attorneys work

with U.S. Attorneys on child services.

They also provide training, both domestically and internationally, for prosecutors,

judges, attorneys, law enforcement agencies, and victim services systems. CEOS

attorneys advise task forces on missing

and abducted children, child abuse, sex

offender recidivism and registration, and

youth placement. CEOS works with victimwitness offices of the U.S. Attorney’s

offices.

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Innocent Images National Initiative

Baltimore Division

11700 Beltsville Drive

Calverton, MD 20705

301–586–4519 (8 a.m.–4 p.m.)

301–586–4500 (noon–4 p.m.)

www.fbi.gov/contact/fo/balt/major.htm

Innocent Images National Initiative identifies and develops prosecutable cases

against individuals who use bulletin board

systems to victimize children. FBI agents

and task force officers, who pose as young

children or sexual predators, go online to

investigate those individuals who recruit

minors into illicit sexual relationships, electronically distribute pornographic images

of children, or post illegal images on the

Internet. Additionally, the FBI has special

agents serving as Crimes Against Children

Coordinators. These agents receive special

training and are able to access FBI resources to assist local law enforcement.

National Center for Missing and 

Exploited Children

Charles B. Wang International Children’s 

Building

699 Prince Street

Alexandria, VA 22314–3175

800–THE–LOST (800–843–5678)

703–274–3900

www.missingkids.org

www.missingkids.com/cybertip

(CyberTipline)

A clearinghouse of information on missing

and exploited children, NCMEC operates a

24-hour hotline and child pornography

tipline and provides a wide range of free

services, including technical case assistance, link and pattern analysis on cases,

forensic assistance, training programs,

and educational material and publications. NCMEC also offers the CyberTipline

(see page 3). Parents or children can file

a report by completing and submitting

an online form that is reviewed by an

Exploited Child Unit information analyst

and submitted to law enforcement, including the FBI, the U.S. Customs Service,

and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

U.S. Customs Service

Cyber Smuggling Center

11320 Random Hills Road, Suite 400

Fairfax, VA 22030

703–293–8005

www.customs.treas.gov

The Cyber Smuggling Center’s main focus

is to patrol the Internet for signs of the illegal importation and proliferation of child

pornography or of the sexual exploitation

of children. The center conducts all Internet investigations from a central location.

The U.S. Customs Service also maintains

child exploitation coordinators in its regional offices who may be contacted for

assistance in these types of investigations.

U.S. Postal Inspection Service

475 L’Enfant Plaza West SW.

Washington, DC 20260

202–268–4286

www.usps.com/postalinspectors

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, often

working with agencies such as CEOS and

NCMEC, conducts undercover operations

to investigate individuals who use the

Internet or a bulletin board service to exchange pornography or who correspond

with others who do the same. In some

undercover operations, postal inspectors

contact suspects via computer networks

and the Internet. Individuals who use the

U.S. mail for the actual exchange of material or for initial contact are subject to

investigation and prosecution.

SEARCH Group, Inc.

7311 Greenhaven Drive, Suite 145

Sacramento, CA 95831

916–392–2550

www.search.org

SEARCH Group, Inc., is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the criminal justice system through better information management and the effective

application of information and identification technology. Located in Sacramento,

CA, SEARCH Group, Inc., offers several

training courses to assist law enforcement officers to effectively respond to

online crimes against children.

References 

Finkelhor, D., Mitchell, K., and Wolak, J.

2000. Online Victimization: A Report on the

Nation’s Youth. Arlington, VA: The National

Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Washington, DC 20531

Official Business

Penalty for Private Use $300

Bulletin NCJ 191213

PRESORTED STANDARD

POSTAGE & FEES PAID

DOJ/OJJDP

PERMIT NO. G–91

Hernandez, A.E. 2000. Self-reported contact sexual offenses by participants in the

Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Sex Offender

Treatment Program: Implications for Internet sex offenders. Presented at the 19th

Research and Treatment Conference of the

Association for the Treatment of Sexual

Abusers, San Diego, CA, November 2000.

Johnson, S.K. 2001. Digital Research

Online Survey, Family PC Magazine

(February).

This Bulletin was prepared by Michael Medaris,

Senior Program Manager of OJJDP’s Child

Protection Division, and Cathy Girouard,

Program Manager of OJJDP’s Child Protection

Division.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency

Prevention is a component of the Office of

Justice Programs, which also includes the

Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Bureau of

Justice Statistics, the National Institute of

Justice, and the Office for Victims of Crime.

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