SPOKANE, Wash. – As the new school year begins, Washington and Idaho state agencies are alerting families of the many dangers facing their children in the online world, including the unfortunate reality of child sexual exploitation and abuse.
Robert Hammer, the Special Agent in Charge with Homeland Security Investigations’ Seattle office, said online child sexual exploitation is much more common than families might think.
“I could literally shut down my entire office and do nothing but child exploitation cases, and we would still have more work than we know what to do with,” Hammer said. “Just like going onto a playground, they’re coming into a virtual playground and they’re looking to make contact with kids, and then move them off into a more dangerous space.”
In a time when technology is demanding attention and kids are going on social media more and more, the risk of them being targeted by predators is increasing.
“The apps are ever-changing, the kids like to follow the latest trends, so they’re always changing the latest fad and app,” Hammer said. “We deal with way too many investigations and prosecutions related to predators that are looking to take advantage of our children and unfortunately in many cases, have already taken advantage of our children – both through physical abuse as well as virtual abuse, which can be the sextortion, where these kids get into situations where they have fallen into a trap, where they have sent one image of themselves thinking it’s a friend, a boyfriend, whatever, and really it was a monster on the other side.”
Hammer said this abuse can start online very easily; it could be as simple as a 50-year-old man posing as a 12-year-old playing a video game, and as the kids, the victims, are blackmailed, the cycle is hard to break.
The special agent went on to add every child could be a target of exploitation and abuse, no matter their age, gender, ethnicity, family income, etc.
“The minute you make the decision as a parent to put a phone in your child’s hand, they are a potential target of child sexual exploitation,” Hammer said. “And you, as the parent, need to educate yourself about the dangers and steps you can take – simple things, like settings on the kids’ phone that will go a long way towards restricting the ability of an unknown predator out there reaching and contacting your children.”
And it’s not just a problem in Washington. In 2023, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received over 36 million reports related to online sexual exploitation, an increase of 12 percent from 2022.
And this problem extends to Idaho. In the first half of 2024, the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force received 2,424 reports of child exploitation.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Idaho, Josh Hurwit, and his team are fighting to inform communities and protect children across the Gem State.
“It’s really sad, it’s really dangerous, and it’s something that can affect young kids if they’re online,” Hurwit said. “Anyone who interacts with young kids and takes care of them should know about these resources and about these tips.”
Homeland Security Investigations is alerting families and teachers of their public awareness campaign, Know2Protect, as kids head back to school. The goal is to educate and empower children, teens, parents and other trusted adults, as well as policymakers, to prevent and combat online child sexual exploitation and abuse, to show how to report online problems, and to offer resources for victims and survivors.
“Any piece of personal information that your child gives out, these predators are trained to use that back against those kids in order to lay that trap that they cannot get out of,” Hammer said.
If you want to learn more, you can visit the Know2Protect website. And if you have any information for law enforcement about potential predators and other potential threats, you can report it online at tips.FBI.gov.
If you have been victimized by a predator online by being blackmailed to send sensitive images, let NCMEC help get your images down. Visit missingkids.org/IsYourExplicitContentOutThere to learn how to notify companies yourself or visit missingkids.org/gethelpnow/cybertipline to report to NCMEC for help with the process.
