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Online law enforcement officers tackle cyber criminals

By Michelle Cox

The Internet opens the door to an entire world for today’s youth, providing resources for school reports, avenues for staying in touch with far-flung friends and family members, sites to share pictures and video and chat with friends, and easy access to music and video games.

Unfortunately, it also opens the door for a whole new set of crimes and a new class of criminals.

Police Lt. Joe Laramie is intimately familiar with these types of crimes because he is the director of the Missouri Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. His unit is one of 46 task force units that the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention funds.

The Glendale Police Department manages the Missouri ICAC Task Force Program, where Laramie is a police officer. He became involved with the Internet sex crimes issue in 2000 when he attended a training conference on Internet safety at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Va.

After learning about how easily children can be victimized by online predators, Laramie spearheaded the effort to get the original funding for a St. Louis area task force to deal with the issue. That task force spun into a statewide effort via funding from the Department of Justice.

Now, Glendale holds the grant for the Missouri ICAC Task Force, while Laramie is housed at the offices of the Regional Computer Crimes Education and Enforcement Group in Clayton.

In Missouri, there are 70 law enforcement agencies that comprise the ICAC Task Force. Nationally, there are more than 2,000 agencies working together.

“What we do is make sure we’re all doing the right things when it comes to these types of Internet investigations,” Laramie said. “We make sure we’re all going in the right direction, we’re all communicating and we’re all sharing information. We know that, nowadays, the bad guy doesn’t live in one community. The bad guy could live anywhere and still be affecting lots of communities.”

Laramie works closely with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. That organization manages the Cyber Tip Line (cybertipline.com) where individuals can report activities that may involve exploiting children on the Internet. Analysts then examine the tips to determine who has jurisdiction.

If the jurisdiction happens to be in Missouri, the report is sent to Laramie.

“I look at the information they send me and decide which agency in Missouri should handle the investigation,” Laramie said. “We consider multiple pieces of information, such as Internet service provider addresses, whether other areas are having problems with the same person and if there may be cases in other states that involve the same suspect. Sometimes we discover that another state may already be very deep into an investigation involving our suspect, so we coordinate efforts. The bad guys should know that we’re all working together now to catch them.”

Most of the Missouri ICAC Task Force cases involve child pornography, Laramie said.

“These cases involve much more than a 16- or 17-year-old girl lifting her shirt for a picture or a video,” Laramie said. “We’re dealing with child sexual abuse images, and these images or videos usually involve kids under the age of 13 and often under the age of 5.”

Det. Francis Gomez, of the St. Louis County Police Department, who also is part of the Missouri ICAC Task Force, agrees.

“Most of our cases are child pornography,” Gomez said. “Sometimes they come from a tip from the Task Force and other times we discover through another criminal investigation that a suspect is also involved in trafficking child porn.”

The St. Louis County Police Department has three detectives and a supervising officer dedicated full time to investigating Internet crimes. Gomez said it is difficult to determine whether these types of crimes are increasing or whether the proactive efforts of law enforcement simply are uncovering more of the crimes and leading to the prosecution of more cases.

Laramie said there is a direct relationship between the number of investigators dedicated to the issue and the number of arrests made.

“Some agencies have three or four officers working on Internet crimes and some agencies have only one,” Laramie said. “We have more cases than we have people to work them, and if we had more officers, there would be more arrests.”

Laramie said that some of their cases involve adults trying to entice children via the Internet into meeting them for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity, while other cases involve adults talking children into taking their clothes off in front of a Web camera. Still other situations involve kids sending illegal images of themselves to other kids.

“That’s an issue that parents really need to discuss with their kids,” Laramie said. “Most kids understand that it’s wrong for adults to send these types of pictures, but they don’t always realize it’s illegal for them to do so as well.”

Despite all he has seen, however, Laramie said he does not advocate parents using Spyware to monitor their children’s Internet activity. Instead, he suggests frank, open communication with children.

“The best thing you can do to protect your children is to communicate and it has got to be two-way communication,” Laramie said. “Treat the Internet the same way you would treat any other guest your child would have into your home. Step into their world, then step back out. Learn how to text and IM (instant message). Break down the barriers between your world and their world.”

Laramie also reminds parents that technology can be turned off.

“Don’t let the technology control you as a parent,” Laramie said.

Gomez even suggests that parents make sure any computer with Internet access is located in a “public” area of the home versus in a bedroom.

“You’re more likely to know what’s going on if your child is online in the family room than if they’re off in a bedroom behind closed doors,” Gomez said.

Gomez also encourages parents to visit the Web site for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (missingkids.com) for more information on keeping children safe.

The Missouri ICAC Task Force Web site at rcceeg.com/icac.html also provides a host of resources and links for parents to learn more about Internet safety.

Laramie added that the most important thing children need to understand is that the Internet can be public and permanent.

“Two of the most misused words on the Internet are ‘friend’ and ‘private,’” Laramie said. “Many times, the people they are interacting with aren’t their friends and the stuff they post is not private. I remind them that this technology can have a direct effect on their future and they need to be careful to protect their names, identities and reputations.”

‘Sexting’ gains popularity with local teens

By Casey Godwin

Teenagers throughout the country are playing a dangerous game with their cell phones.

A group of classmates at Parkway North High School said they have done it.

“I don’t feel ashamed of my body, what’s wrong with showing it off?” said one of the students, who wished to remain anonymous.

The student, a 15-year-old sophomore, said she posts provocative, sometimes partially-nude photos of herself on social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook. She said she sends similar photos via text messages to her 17-year-old boyfriend.

“Sexting” is a new phenomenon among teenagers across the nation, and is on the rise locally.

Police Lt. Joe Laramie, director of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force of Missouri, said that in the past two months he personally has seen a dramatic increase in this type of activity, although he did not have exact data available. Sexting refers to the use of cell phone text messages to transmit sexually graphic imagery, usually nudity.

Of the group of Parkway students interviewed for this story, none would admit to sending these types of text messages while in school. Parkway School District officials said cell phones are not to be used during regular school hours and that a variety of social networking sites are blocked on all computers throughout the district. The Rockwood School District has the same policy regarding cell phone usage.

Even so, officials for both districts acknowledge the problem and said they have taken steps to address it. For example, both districts hold special workshops for parents on Internet safety, which Laramie presents.

Local officials also remain uncertain about the law enforcement aspect of the “crime” that is being committed. It also is unclear what a juvenile would be charged with and what the punishment and/or penalty would be in such cases.

“Kids don’t think they are doing something criminal,” Laramie said. “And it’s a quandary for law enforcement because we don’t want to criminalize adolescent stupidity.”

However, some states have begun dishing out child pornography charges for teens who send or are in possession of nude texts.

According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, 20 percent of teens in the United States have sent nude texts, with most of those teens living in the suburbs. Thirty-nine percent of teens have sent sexually suggestive messages.

Sexting is not gender specific, either.

Laramie said that it is important for teens to understand that once an image has been uploaded, it cannot be totally deleted.

“They stay out there forever,” Laramie said. “This can impact your reputation, giving you a reputation you don’t want and can even impact your college and job applications.”

Employers and sometimes colleges will research candidates through their personal profiles on networking sites in order to gauge whom they may potentially hire or admit.

Laramie said that parents do not have to feel helpless about preventing their children from posting or sending these damaging images, but they do need to be connected.

“Kids know how to use the technology and often parents don’t,” Laramie said. “Step into the kids' world and learn to text message or join Facebook.”

Starting young also is key to developing an understanding of and respect for the technology.

“A naked picture is gold to a teenager. It has so much value to it,” Laramie said. “If you take a nude photo of yourself and send it to a classmate, the chances of that classmate sending the photo to another friend are very high. That photo could easily fall into hundreds of hands, and if put on the Internet, many more.”