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FBI
Child Sexual
Exploitation
Threat from Pedophiles Online is ‘Vast and Extensive’
05/10/16
The case of a Tennessee man sentenced last month to 21 years in prison
on child pornography charges serves as an important reminder to parents
and children about the dangers of an online world where things are not
always as they appear and pedophiles may be lurking around many virtual
corners.
Brian K. Hendrix was convicted earlier this year in connection with his
operation of two websites whose sole purpose was to trick children into
engaging in sexually explicit activity that he and his co-conspirators
were secretly recording. An investigation identified more than 300
American children who were victims—some as young as 8 years old—and an
estimated 1,600 other youths who were lured to the websites.
The pedophiles tricked their young victims by creating fake profiles on
social networking sites, where they posed as teenagers to lure children
to their websites. When the youngsters landed on the sites, the
42-year-old Hendrix and his criminal colleagues showed them
pre-recorded sexual videos of prior victims to make the new victims
think they were chatting with their peers.
Once lured to the websites, the criminals—masquerading as teens—used
sophisticated psychological tactics to coerce many of the children to
engage in sexually explicit activity using the cameras on their
tablets, smartphones, and desktop computers—all of which the adults
recorded.
“Hendrix was one of several main members of the conspiracy,” said
Special Agent Paul Cha of the FBI’s Violent Crimes Against Children
Section. “Pedophiles are very active online,” he said. “Their numbers
are vast, and their reach is extensive. They track children’s
activities. When they realized how popular chat sites are with
children, they found a way to exploit it.”
The FBI-led investigation, dubbed Operation Subterfuge, has thus far
resulted in the conviction of eight others besides Hendrix, with
average prison sentences ranging between 18 and 21 years. Cha explained
that most of the children caught up in the exploitation had no idea
they had been victimized.
The majority of the victims were American, but victims were also
located in Canada and several other countries. Because of the large
number of children impacted, investigators enlisted the help of the
FBI’s Office for Victim Assistance to inform parents about the crimes
and to offer assistance. When contacted by the FBI, Cha said, “Many of
the parents were in complete shock.”
The victims and their families came from all social and economic
backgrounds, according to Special Agent Daniel Johns, an Operation
Subterfuge investigator. “There were victims who came from good homes
with very active, stable parents.”
Pedophiles are experts at grooming and coercing youngsters, Johns said,
and sometimes as many as 20 adults posing as teens were on the
websites, manipulating children. “Their coercive tactics—that constant
barrage on a child’s mind—succeeded in breaking down their barriers,”
he said. “These tactics have been perfected by predators to make a
child feel bad. And the adults were all working together. In a lot of
cases, the kids really didn’t stand a chance.”
Johns, a veteran child exploitation investigator, said this case
represented a level of sophistication on the part of pedophiles he has
never seen before. “From creating their own website to giving that
website the ability to record the criminal activity and then to be able
to download it—along with the sophistication, coordination, and
grooming to be able to break down all the child’s barriers—is
disconcerting.”
Increasingly, children of all ages own or have access to devices that
allow them to get online. Johns urges parents to follow a few simple
rules when it comes to social networking sites and Internet usage in
general for children: “Tell your kids that if they haven’t met the
person in real life, they shouldn’t be friends online,” he said,
adding, “Limit your child’s device usage to common areas of the
household, and store those devices in your bedroom at night.”
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