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{"source_url": "https://www.usnews.com", "url": "https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/new-mexico/articles/2020-01-01/new-mexico-task-force-takes-aim-at-online-child-sex-crimes", "title": "New Mexico Task Force Takes Aim at Online Child Sex Crimes", "top_image": "https://www.usnews.com/static/images/favicon.ico", "meta_img": "https://www.usnews.com/static/images/favicon.ico", "images": ["https://www.usnews.com/static-atlas/assets/img/news/best-states/logos/best_states_logo_2.svg", "https://www.usnews.com/static/images/favicon.ico", "https://www.usnews.com/static/img/usn-logo-large.svg"], "movies": [], "text": "By AMANDA MARTINEZ, The Santa Fe New Mexican\n\nSANTA FE, N.M. (AP) \u2014 Images and videos of child sexual abuse don\u2019t only exist in the dark corners of the internet. They are hiding in plain sight across New Mexico.\n\nFrom January through Nov. 1, there were 977 investigations in the state into reports of adults creating, possessing or distributing images of child sex crimes, and committing other sex crimes against children, over the internet. That number, experts say, is more than double the number from last year. And while every viewing of those images is a crime, prosecutors say it also is a sign that a person might plan to \u2014 or already has \u2014 sexually abused a child.\n\n\u201cThese are individuals that, generally speaking, are extremely dangerous, and a lot of times, there\u2019s this misnomer that these are just images,\u201d state Deputy Attorney General Clara Moran told the Santa Fe New Mexican.\n\nMoran and other prosecutors do not like the commonly used term \u201cchild pornography\u201d because it likens images of abuse to the legal, somewhat regulated industry of adult pornographic content, she said. Moran makes it plain: Many of these images are of children being raped.\n\nWhile some people tend to believe such images involve children in faraway places, almost 90% involve children in the U.S., including New Mexico, said Anthony Maez, special agent and commander of the state attorney general\u2019s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.\n\nThe task force has reviewed about 1,400 cyber-tips received from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, peer-to-peer networks and individuals. Of the five types of crimes investigated by the group, the number involving images of child sexual abuse is by far the largest.\n\nIn 2019, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force received 592 documented complaints about possession of images of child sexual abuse, 304 about distribution of such images and 63 about creation of images, according to data provided by Maez.\n\n\u201cThe number of tips that we see coming in, the volume is very high,\u201d he said, \u201cand unfortunately there isn\u2019t enough law enforcement officers around the state to work these types of tips.\u201d\n\nState law enforcement agencies have ratcheted up their battle against internet crimes against children. About 276 agents across 90 local, state, military and tribal agencies investigate these crimes. Together, they have received 76 documented complaints of child enticement, 21 complaints of a person traveling to meet a child with intentions of abuse, 52 complaints of adults directing obscenities to a minor and 14 complaints of sex trafficking of children, according to data collected by the task force.\n\nMaez points to the ever-evolving world of social media and apps that make it easier to exploit children.\n\nEach month, the task force receives about 110 tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the national clearinghouse for all reports made to the cyber-tip line, as well as reports from social media companies, which monitor their sites for potential illegal activity.\n\nOf those 110 reports in New Mexico, Maez said about 63 percent originated from a person who saw an image on Facebook and reported it or from the company\u2019s detection software.\n\nFacebook\u2019s latest transparency report says the company removed 11.6 million child abuse images worldwide from its social network from July through September of this year. Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, removed about 512,000 images.\n\n\u201cEach time it is shared is a revictimization of that child victim,\u201d said Matt Baca, a spokesman for the New Mexico Attorney General\u2019s Office. \u201cIt is important for people to recognize that the sharing and individual viewing is a reoffense.\u201d\n\nConcerns over the spread of images of child sexual abuse on the internet has prompted smaller police departments to become more aggressive. Roger Jimenez, interim chief of the Espa\u00f1ola Police Department, said his agency recently began working with the task force.\n\n\u201cIt definitely does hit closer to home for some of the officers that actually live in a community where they\u2019re investigating these specific crimes,\u201d he said.\n\nTask force members say the long road to success in prosecuting internet crimes against children is similar to other kinds of sensitive investigations: Extensive interviews and researching a suspect\u2019s past are key before executing a search warrant.\n\nYou get one shot to find evidence in these types of cases, New Mexico State Police Agent Jessie Whittaker said, because once a suspect knows what investigators are looking for, they often will try to destroy or hide devices containing images \u2014 or any trace that they created or distributed them.\n\nWhittaker said he seizes cellphones or other devices while executing search warrants and takes them to the FBI\u2019s forensics laboratory in Albuquerque.\n\nThe internet crimes task force also operates a mobile forensics lab, as well as labs across the state, Maez said, to avoid a bottleneck of cases.\n\nInvestigators say they believe people who view graphic photos and videos of child sexual abuse could be \u2014 and are likely to be \u2014 sexually attracted to children and might physically abuse a child.\n\n\u201cIf someone is sexually attracted to children, it is not something that goes away,\u201d Moran said.\n\nAccording to experts quoted in a New York Times investigation on the psychology of pedophiles, one study of 127 online offenders who had been arrested showed less than 5 percent admitted to having molested a child. During in-depth interviews and polygraph tests, however, another 53 percent admitted to having touched a child.\n\nMoran said this holds true for New Mexico.\n\n\u201cSometimes prosecutors can ask for a polygraph, and what we find is that these offenders oftentimes disclose \u2026 they have been hands-on abusers and just haven\u2019t been caught or that they are planning to put hands on a child,\u201d she said.\n\nProsecutors and investigators say a law passed this year by the Legislature makes it more difficult to prosecute crimes against children.\n\nThe law requires law enforcement to obtain warrants including the specific information they are seeking on electronic devices, as well as the specific person or account targeted. It also requires that any evidence collected under a search warrant that does not fall under the specifications of the warrant be destroyed within 30 days.\n\nThat timeline sometimes does not allow for adequate development of a case involving images of child sexual abuse, Moran said.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s essential to these types of cases for law enforcement officers to be able to comb through all of the images,\u201d she said. In some cases, there can be terabytes of information to sift through.\n\nWhittaker said the tight timelines also can make it difficult to retain exculpatory evidence, which can help establish a person\u2019s innocence if the suspect is arrested and his or her case goes to trial.\n\nPrivacy concerns and data breaches also have pushed social media platforms and apps to use end-to-end encryption, which makes conversations between a sender and recipient private and unable to be seen by a third party. In March, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced plans to introduce the technology on Facebook Messenger.\n\n\u201cIf Facebook decides to encrypt everything and not (see) who is doing what on the site or have that available, the tips will go down, but the exploitation is taking place out there,\u201d Maez said.\n\nAwareness of these crimes, though distasteful, is critical, Maez said. While the majority of investigations by the task force involve cases in which a child has been abused previously, Maez said the group also pursues local tips to stop such abuse from ever occurring.\n\nMaez holds bimonthly training on investigatory techniques, such as how to mimic a person who is posting or responding to online ads for child exploitation, dark web surveillance and the use of cryptocurrency like bitcoin to purchase images of child sexual abuse.\n\n\u201cWe are trying to cover every possible place where an individual may exploit a child,\u201d he said.", "keywords": [], "meta_keywords": ["Associated Press", "New Mexico", "New Mexico News"], "tags": [], "authors": [], "publish_date": "Wed Jan 1 00:00:00 2020", "summary": "", "article_html": "", "meta_description": "SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) \u2014 Images and videos of child sexual abuse don\u2019t only exist in the dark corners of the internet. They are hiding in plain sight across New Mexico.", "meta_lang": "en", "meta_favicon": "/static/images/favicon.ico", "meta_data": {"viewport": "width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.0, user-scalable=0", "description": "SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) \u2014 Images and videos of child sexual abuse don\u2019t only exist in the dark corners of the internet. They are hiding in plain sight across New Mexico.", "keywords": "Associated Press,New Mexico,New Mexico News", "site": "beststates", "zone": "statenews/articles", "fb": {"pages": 5834919267, "app_id": 130063997038366}, "og": {"title": "New Mexico Task Force Takes Aim at Online Child Sex Crimes", "description": "SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) \u2014 Images and videos of child sexual abuse don\u2019t only exist in the dark corners of the internet. They are hiding in plain sight across New Mexico.", "type": "article", "site_name": "US News & World Report", "url": "https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/new-mexico/articles/2020-01-01/new-mexico-task-force-takes-aim-at-online-child-sex-crimes"}, "twitter": {"card": "summary_large_image", "site": "@USNews", "title": "New Mexico Task Force Takes Aim at Online Child Sex Crimes", "description": "SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) \u2014 Images and videos of child sexual abuse don\u2019t only exist in the dark corners of the internet. They are hiding in plain sight across New Mexico."}, "google-site-verification": "owJBuFHD3VHcTSsnPSOYizmUcs3GSBjbx09vBbBi1MM", "msvalidate.01": "A8E47FA91124063A4A9C78AD5273DC0F", "optimizely": "Optimizely is supported by this application but is not enabled for this page."}, "canonical_link": "https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/new-mexico/articles/2020-01-01/new-mexico-task-force-takes-aim-at-online-child-sex-crimes"} |
