Child Sex Abuse Materials (CSAM) & Exploitation

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Dec 18, 2024 -  TAMPA, Fla. — A Florida man has plead guilty to multiple counts of production, possession, and distribution of tens of thousands of images and videos, including using generative artificial intelligence (AI) to create depictions of the sexual abuse of children following an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Tampa. 

Dec 13, 2024 - A Texan who ran a forum on the dark web where depraved netizens could swap child sex abuse material (CSAM), and chat freely about abusing kids, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.

An FBI probe in 2018 identified Robert Shouse, 37, of Houston, as the administrator of a Tor-hidden CSAM exchange on which miscreants could message each other with links to other sites hosting vile images, videos, and erotica. 

Dec 9, 2024 - Thousands of victims have sued Apple over its alleged failure to detect and report illegal child pornography, also known as child sex abuse materials (CSAM).

The proposed class action comes after Apple scrapped a controversial CSAM-scanning tool last fall that was supposed to significantly reduce CSAM spreading in its products.

Oct 13, 2024 - SINGAPORE: Cassie (not her real name) attended school by day, and posed nude in front of leering men on webcams by night. The 12-year-old Filipina was coerced to be an online sex model in Manila by a man who promised her family to pay for her education. If she refused to comply, he would hit and forcibly undress her.

This went on for five years before she was rescued by police and human rights organisation International Justice Mission (IJM).

Oct 9, 2024 -  A federal court case was unsealed Wednesday, revealing a Columbus man who is accused of targeting and exploiting high school girls.  

Oct 8, 2024 - A research company published a report about Roblox on Tuesday, accusing the company of inflating its active user counts and enabling predatory behavior on the platform. Although Hindenburg Research has a somewhat notorious reputation, the report at least raises questions about the platform’s safety and viability. 

Sep 17, 2024 - On one hand I would struggle to know that my abuse material was out there being circulated to even the well meaning authorities. But on the other hand the use of it could help sooo many other children.

These are the words of a victim-survivor of child sexual abuse. They reflect a profound tension regarding the use of photos or videos depicting child sexual abuse for legitimate purposes.

Sep 11, 2024 - Police officials in Malaysia said this week that over 400 children were rescued from alleged sexual abuse situations.

On Wednesday, Malaysian authorities announced the arrest of 171 suspects and the rescue of 402 children following a raid on several welfare homes connected to an Islamic business group. The country's national police chief said that the rescued children were being sexually abused and exploited. The children rescued included 201 boys and 201 girls, with ages ranging from 1 to 17 years old.  

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  Sept 28, 2024 - A mother has been arrested after allegedly making child sex abuse material involving her own toddler after a request from a stranger online, authorities have said.

Florida woman Jenna Ann Hoffmann is accused of one count each of cruelty towards a child by directing or promoting sexual performance, lewd and lascivious molestation of a victim under 12 years of age, possession of sexual performance of a child with intent to promote, and use of a two-way communication device to facilitate felony and larceny, according to Hernando County Sheriff's Office records.

  Sept 27, 2024 -  A former Marines' traumatic experiences in the military did not outweigh the conduct that led to a collection of tens of thousands of child sexual abuse material, according to a federal judge in Lubbock. 

  Sept 25, 2024 -  The son of the man who allegedly attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump at his Florida golf course was arrested on child pornography charges Tuesday, according to court records. 

  Sept 23, 2024 -  Malaysian police said Monday they have rescued 187 more children and raided locations nationwide linked to an Islamic business group that is being investigated for alleged sexual assault of children. 

  Sept 23, 2024 -    More than 200 men and women were sexually abused as children while in custody at juvenile detention centers in Illinois, according to lawsuits filed Monday, the latest in a string of complaints alleging decades of systemic child sex abuse. 

Sept 19, 2024 -   In a significant development for the protection of children in Riverside County, a joint investigation by local and federal agencies resulted in the arrest of a 20-year-old man on charges related to child sexual exploitation. The Riverside County Child Exploitation Team (RCCET) collaborated closely with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) after receiving an international tip-off. 

  Sept 13, 2024 - A Texas man has been charged on federal level with multiple counts of child exploitation offenses. Thomas Henry Lopez, 49, from Spring, Texas, was indicted by a federal grand jury, according to an official announcement by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California. Lopez faces two counts of sexual exploitation of children, one count for allegedly distributing explicit visual depictions of minors, and another for transferring obscene material to a minor.

  Sept 10, 2024 - On Tuesday, former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow, joined by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, introduced the Renewed Hope Act of 2024 on the Capitol lawn.

Tebow said he was joining the fight against “one of the worst evils in the world” with Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Reps. Laurel Lee, R-Fla., and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., to announce the bill, which aims to combat online child abuse, per Fox News.

  Sept 9, 2024 -  More than 200 arrests were made across Southern California for sexually exploiting children on the internet as a result of a multi-agency law enforcement effort, authorities announced Monday.

Through Operation Online Guardian, suspects were arrested for various child sexual exploitation charges, including continuous sexual abuse of a child, lewd acts with a child and contact or attempted contact with a minor for sex.

  Sept 3, 2024 - There was an average of 160 reports of online child abuse every day in the past financial year, according to the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) data.

The annualised figure of 58,503 represents a 43% increase in the number of reports made to the Australian Federal Police-led agency in the previous year.

  Aug 29, 2024 - The rise in child sexual abuse material (CSAM) has been one of the darkest Internet trends, but after years of covering CSAM cases, I've found that few of those arrested show deep technical sophistication. (Perhaps this is simply because the technically sophisticated are better at avoiding arrest.) 

  In every country, abusive adult-child sexual relationships have common dynamics that can be addressed to halt the abuse, an expert says.

Howard Taylor, executive director of the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children (GPeVAC), believes amplifying the voices of survivors is one way to protect children against potential abuse.

Jul 22, 2024 - Generative AI is exacerbating the problem of online child sexual abuse materials (CSAM), as watchdogs report a proliferation of deepfake content featuring real victims' imagery.

Published by the UK's Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), the report documents a significant increase in digitally altered or completely synthetic images featuring children in explicit scenarios, with one forum sharing 3,512 images and videos over a 30 day period. The majority were of young girls. Offenders were also documented sharing advice and even AI models fed by real images with each other.

Sep 24, 2023 -  An Indianapolis woman has been sentenced to 200 months in prison after pleading guilty to advertising and possession of child sexual abuse materials. 

According to court documents, a 35-year-old woman used an adults-only chatroom website to advertise and sell child sexual abuse material from May 21, 2022 until Feb. 4, 2023. 

The DOJ said the suspect uploaded more than 800 "advertisements" selling other users access to images and videos of child sexual abuse material in exchange payments through Venmo or CashApp. 

Sep 14, 2023 -  The Department of Justice’s 2023 National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention & Interdiction highlights efforts, goals, and proposed solutions to prevent and stop child sexual exploitation, hold offenders accountable, and protect victims.  

Aug 9, 2023 -   More than a dozen international law enforcement organizations worked together under U.S. leadership to identify and locate victims of child sexual exploitation in a just-completed operation that officials say is likely the most successful of its kind. 

Aug 1, 2023 - The FBI found 200 sex trafficking victims and more than 125 suspects during a two-week child exploitation operation in July, federal officials said Tuesday. During "Operation Cross County," the FBI located 59 victims of child sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation and 59 missing children. 

Apr 23, 2023 - Last year was the “most extreme year on record” for child sexual abuse online, U.K.-based charity Internet Watch Foundation warned on Tuesday, citing a disturbing rise in explicit materials that predators coerced victims into making—urging tech companies and online platforms to take swift action amid sluggish regulation and rising dangers from artificial intelligence. 

Apr 26, 2022 - The US hosts more child sexual abuse content online than any other country in the world, new research has found. The US accounted for 30% of the global total of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) URLs at the end of March 2022, according to the Internet Watch Foundation, a UK-based organization that works to spot and take down abusive content.  

  Artificial intelligence researchers said Friday that they have deleted more than 2,000 web links to suspected child sexual abuse imagery from a dataset used to train popular AI image-generator tools 

  A federal grand jury in Alaska returned an indictment on Thursday charging an Army soldier with child pornography offenses.

The defendant, Seth Herrera, 34, who is stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, was arrested on August 23, 2024.

According to court documents, Herrera transported, received and possessed files depicting child sexual abuse. Herrera also allegedly used artificial intelligence (AI) to generate child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) depicting minors known to him.

Court documents further allege that law enforcement uncovered tens of thousands of visual depictions of the violent sexual abuse of children as young as infants on cellphones belonging to the defendant. Herrera also allegedly used encrypted messaging applications and network applications to find, receive and download CSAM.

 Telegram CEO Pavel Durov continues to be detained in France in connection with a criminal investigation into the messaging app’s failure to cooperate with law enforcement requests, authorities in Paris announced on Monday. 

 Prosecutors say they launched an investigation last month into a “person unnamed” for violations including the spread of child pornography, peddling illegal drugs and failure to cooperate with authorities in a probe into organized fraud. 

As children across Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast spend increasing amounts of time online, CBS12 News is looking at the risks of online predators.

CBS12’s Amber Raub sat down with the director of a special task force dedicated to taking down online predators and safeguarding our children from these dangers before it’s too late.

The Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) works to tackle this issue daily.

The force is part of a national network with 61 teams across the country, with one location in South Florida.

 TEXAS, USA — Parents are being warned about an app that's becoming increasingly popular and has growing levels of child abuse being shared on the platform, according to those who work to curb human trafficking.

Joseph Scaramucci, director of law enforcement engagement for Skull Games Inc., talked with 6 News about what parents should look out for to protect kids from the online world. He has growing concerns about the app "Telegram Messenger", commonly known as Telegram.

"The biggest thing is the encryption," Scaramucci explained. "That even for parents adds a layer of difficulty to it. It is used for positive things. It's used for communication, but it's also used, as with most apps, for nefarious things."

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is sharing new resources for educators, school administrators, coaches, and others who work with kids and teens to better understand the risks of online child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) and help them stay safe online. For the first time, Know2Protect, DHS’s national public awareness campaign to prevent online CSEA, is providing tips and classroom materials directly targeted for educators, with the goal of raising awareness of the importance of internet safety as part of everyone’s back-to-school routine. These Know2Protect resources are part of a new Back2School campaign that is connecting with dozens of teaching groups, educational associations, youth-serving organizations, and other partners who can reach kids in schools during the academic year. 

 Court documents from a series of lawsuits, in California and across the country, have revealed a systemic pattern of abuse stretching back decades. This year alone, thousands of former juvenile detainees in Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Michigan, Oklahoma and California have come forward with harrowing stories of sexual assault. The U.S. Senate has even launched an inquiry.  

ATHENS, Ala. (WHNT) — The most important thing to a parent: keeping their children safe. The social media takeover has not only made that more difficult, but puts children in dangerous, illegal and unmonitored situations that may not happen in person.

“We used to talk about child pornography, and, what we feel is a better way to talk about this, is to call these images what they are,” National Children’s Advocacy Center Prevention Director Pam Clasgens said. “These are photographs of child sexual abuse, of children being abused. So, the terminology that we use now to describe this is child sexual abuse materials.”

 A Steuben County man who authorities allege used mobile messaging technology to view and exchange some 6,000 photos and videos of child sexual abuse faces three felony counts after his arrest on Wednesday. 

  MINNEAPOLIS — A Twin Cities day care worker is accused of taking nude photographs of some of the young children in his care.

Wednesday, prosecutors charged 39-year-old Eric Allen with having pornography on his computer and phone.

Allen worked at Mount Carmel Child Care Center in northeast Minneapolis. The day care center is part of Mount Carmel Lutheran Church. The pastor there says they terminated the suspect when they were informed of his arrest. The church had no other comment.

Court documents detail how Allen admitted to having images of girls from the daycare on his phone and gave names to investigators.

   Generative AI is exacerbating the problem of online child sexual abuse materials (CSAM), as watchdogs report a proliferation of deepfake content featuring real victims' imagery.

Published by the UK's Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), the report documents a significant increase in digitally altered or completely synthetic images featuring children in explicit scenarios, with one forum sharing 3,512 images and videos over a 30 day period. The majority were of young girls. Offenders were also documented sharing advice and even AI models fed by real images with each other.

   After years of controversies over plans to scan iCloud to find more child sexual abuse materials (CSAM), Apple abandoned those plans last year. Now, child safety experts have accused the tech giant of not only failing to flag CSAM exchanged and stored on its services—including iCloud, iMessage, and FaceTime—but also allegedly failing to report all the CSAM that is flagged. 

 We sit down with Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart to better understand the scale of this exploding segment of crime. "This is not the old days of just a handful of people sharing some photographs via the mail to each other," Dart said. Dart is exasperated. "This is something on the internet that is exponentially gone from about 3,000 photographs a year to about 50 million. It's everywhere, and then, law enforcement is overwhelmed with it," Dart said.  

Police finally had a name — and the suspect was one of their own.

For months, Alberta's Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit sleuthed someone who uploaded two videos showing child sexual exploitation to Snapchat. In late April, investigators learned the suspect's identity: Evan Peacock, a 33-year-old RCMP constable stationed in St. Paul, Alta.

According to new data released by Statistics Canada, cybercrimes in Greater Sudbury increased from 381 reports per 100,000 people in 2022 to 406 in 2023. This rise is partly attributed to an increase in child pornography. 

NOTE: THIS IS A GRAPHIC ARTICLE

 MANILA, Philippines — Two sisters were nabbed in Caloocan City for allegedly engaging in child sexual exploitation online, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said on Tuesday. 

A new report from Bloomberg reveals that there were more than 13,000 reports made by Roblox to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) of child exploitation in 2023. 

OnlyFans says it vets every user and all content to keep children off its porn-driven platform. But a Reuters investigation of U.S. police and court files found complaints that hundreds of sexually explicit videos and images of minors – from toddlers to teens – appeared on the website. "Watch me get super wild," reads one post cited by authorities featuring a 16-year-old. 

 More than 300 million children a year are victims of online sexual exploitation and abuse, according to research.

In the first global estimate of the crisis, researchers at the University of Edinburgh found one in eight of the world’s children has been victims of non-consensual talking, sharing and exposure to sexual images and video during 2023-24, amounting to about 302 million young people.

The US hosts more child sexual abuse content online than any other country in the world, new research has found. The US accounted for 30% of the global total of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) URLs at the end of March 2022, according to the Internet Watch Foundation, a UK-based organization that works to spot and take down abusive content.  

President Joe Biden signed into law the bipartisan Revising Existing Procedures on Reporting via Technology (REPORT) Act, authored by U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.).

This legislation will require Big Tech companies such as Facebook, Snapchat or Instagram to report crimes against children involving sex trafficking, grooming, or the enticement of children for sexual acts to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s (NCMEC) CyberTipline. Currently, criminal law only requires companies to report child sexual abuse materials (CSAM).

 The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is launching a national awareness campaign aimed at educating the public about the threat of child sex exploitation and preventing crimes from occurring.

 Sexual predators are grooming children under six into performing “disturbing” acts of sexual abuse via phones or webcams a charity has warned.

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said it had discovered more than two thousand remotely filmed child abuse images of three to six-year-olds online in 2023.

  The image, posted on social media, shows a young girl sitting in a bathtub. Although she is clothed and not posing in a sexual manner, her facial expression – blank and empty – frames the scene with a sinister undertone.

It’s the sort of image that most people might briefly ponder before scrolling on. Yet for those in the know, this type of post – shared on platforms like Instagram or Facebook – is a discrete invite to a dark underworld of online child abuse.