For the first six months of this year, it received 11,000 complaints. The FBI opened 1,500 online child sex cases last year, up from 700 a year before. Businesses, too, are feeling the pinch. To get a better sense of the perils and problems of the Internet, U.S. News sent a team of reporters and photographers across the nation during the week of June 25. What they found is sobering.
Some incidents reveal the naivet of Internet users.
Others astonish with the sheer simplicity of predators' ploys. All illustrate the tremendous power of the Internet in perpetrating a whole range of crimes and misdemeanors and suggest that, for all its marvels, the online world is a place one must navigate with abundant caution. World Report Inc. All rights reserved.