Agencies face huge task in fighting predators of children

THE ISSUE U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo has announced a cooperative effort in Hawaii to find and prosecute sexual predators of children.

NBC-TV's "To Catch a Predator" has no trouble finding a steady stream of online sexual solicitors of children, but that has hardly made a dent in the widespread volume of perverted criminal conduct. The number of predators caught trying to solicit children has soared in recent years, requiring an increased response by law-enforcement agencies in Hawaii and elsewhere.

U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo was joined by city Prosecutor Peter Carlisle and state Attorney General Mark Bennett last week in announcing their cooperation in combatting exploitation of children on the Internet. The effort should require a media campaign to alert parents to the problem and a beefed-up effort to bring the offenders to justice.

Four men in Hawaii were accused last year of trying to lure children for sex and 10 were charged with crimes related to child pornography, according to Kubo. Nationally, the number of cases investigated by the FBI grew from 113 in 1996 to 2,402 in 2005. Cases investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service rose from 190 in fiscal year 1997 to 495 in fiscal 2005. Federal prosecutions for such offenses have more than quadrupled in the past decade.

The Hawaii coalition is part of the Justice Department's Project Safe Childhood, announced a year ago. It focuses on prosecuting online predators, people downloading or otherwise involved in child pornography and convicted sex offenders who fail to register.

A recent study indicated that 78.6 percent of Americans go online and nearly two-thirds use the Internet at home. A 2001 University of New Hampshire survey of 1,500 regular Internet users ages 10 to 17 found that 20 percent had received an unwanted sexual solicitation online.

Online child pornography is just as heinous, accurately described by a Justice Department report as "images of child sexual abuse." The child is further victimized by every viewing. "No doubt child pornography does to these pedophiles what gas does to fire," Kubo said.

Despite the effort by law-enforcement agencies, parents will continue to be most responsible for keeping their children away from online predators. Families are advised to keep the home computer in a common area, tell children which Web sites they can access and consider installing anti-porn software.

Even those measures might not suffice. Perverted Justice, an anti-predator foundation, identified more than 900 pages of registered sex offenders during a recent two-week period on Myspace, which quickly deleted them upon being given the information. Other Web sites might not be as diligent.