Child predator cases on the rise in Charlotte, federal agency says

An increase in time spent online during the pandemic may explain what investigators in Charlotte say has been a dramatic rise in cases involving sexual exploitation and other crimes against children.

Homeland Security Investigations is one of the primary law enforcement agencies in the country that investigates child exploitation, according to Michael Prado, deputy special agent in charge of HSI in Charlotte.

Prado said the agency’s focus in these investigations is finding and arresting those who are victimizing a child, or who are distributing pornographic images of children.

Last year, HSI in Charlotte made 108 arrests in these cases — up from 32 pre-pandemic in 2019.

These child exploitation cases mostly have to do with child pornography and the online exploitation of children.

“Because of the pandemic, we’ve seen an increased migration to the online world by children, often unsupervised,” Prado said. “And that has led to a significant increase in the number of child exploitation cases that we have since opened investigations on.”

Nationally, HSI initiated 5,337 investigations into child exploitation cases in 2020, and 5,393 in 2021. Last year, the agency saw 20% more arrests and indictments in these cases.

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How to keep your child safe online

Predators are less apt to snatch children off the street but instead are using the internet to exploit children and teens within their own homes, according to Shawna Pagano, director of education and community engagement at Pat’s Place Child Advocacy Center.

“What we see when it comes to trafficking and exploitation is people who will create a relationship with your child. And oftentimes that’s done online, but it can be done in person as well,” Pagano said.

Pat’s Place saw an increase in referrals for service in 2020, and continuing into 2021, Pagano said. Part of the uptick in referrals may have to do with the passage of North Carolina’s Senate Bill 162 in late 2018, she said. This law requires victims of human trafficking under the age of 18 to be referred to social services.

This increase coincides with the uptick seen by the Polaris Project’s analysis of calls to the National Human Trafficking Hotline in 2020. Using online means to connect with victims increased 22%, according to the analysis, while there were fewer instances of trafficking that began in places like foster homes and schools.

There was a 125% increase in reports of trafficking victimization on Facebook over the previous year and a 95% increase on Instagram, according to the analysis by Polaris.

Polaris is a nonprofit which operates the hotline, funded in part by the federal government. The organization advocates for trafficking survivors and preventative measures against exploitation and trafficking.

“Anyone who wants to harm a child is really adept at identifying vulnerabilities, and then exploiting them,” Pagano said. “So, you know, we see teens that spend a lot of time online and a lot of time on social media and that access that and kind of the information that they share, really is just a prime opportunity for someone to reach out to that child and then exploit them.”

Pagano said grooming and exploitation is not just happening on one app, and parents should be vigilant about their child’s internet usage.

Some of the tips Pagano offered to parents include using a monitoring app to control and check-on a child’s internet activity, and shutting the internet off past a certain time so they aren’t accessing the internet at midnight.

Pat’s Place offers a training for parents called Online Safety, Pagano said. It provides a high-level overview of sexual abuse and sex trafficking and includes strategies for protecting children and adolescents, while they utilize the internet/social media. Parents can email info@patsplacecac.org to learn more or request training.

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