The issue of child sex abuse on the internet is effectively summed up by Dr. Kathie Mathis.
“One of the biggest obstacles I face when I’m out doing training is the response, ‘Those are other countries,’ ” said Mathis, a psychologist who is training director for Vancouver-based National Women’s Coalition Against Violence and Exploitation. “Trafficking and child sex abuse is huge in America. It’s happening in every state, every county, and it’s in your community. We can’t and don’t want to comprehend something like child sex abuse, but we need to mature as a society if we’re all going to be part of a solution.”
Indeed, it is happening everywhere, as detailed in an extensive article by Columbian reporter Jerzy Shedlock. The sexual exploitation of minors is happening in our community, in the shadows where it is difficult for law enforcement to shine a light.
Technology companies last year reported 69.1 million files of images and videos to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a federally designated clearinghouse that works with law enforcement agencies. That was an increase of about 50 percent from the previous year. Meanwhile, the Clark County Prosecutor’s Office has filed at least 22 cases each of the past three years, after prosecuting as few as four in 2010.
An investigation by the New York Times surmised for a series of articles in September: “Twenty years ago, the images were a problem; 10 years ago, an epidemic. Now, the crisis is at a breaking point.”
“It’s hard to see the numbers continue to go up,” Clark County Prosecutor Tony Golik told The Columbian. “As a prosecutor, when we see a troubling trend, we’ll try to move in on it, try to solve it, but this issue seems to be getting worse. There are more and more of these depictions on the internet, and law enforcement seems to be dealing with a never-ending amount of work on these cases.”
With the internet being increasingly accessible to the point where most people carry it on their phones, and with abusers better able to communicate and share videos, law enforcement is perpetually a step or two behind in dealing with the issue. In one recent case, a 62-year-old Vancouver man was sentenced to four years in prison after coercing a 13-year-old girl to send him nude photos. Officers recovered files that stored nearly 3,000 images and 77 videos.
Shockingly, that is a relatively pedestrian example of the child sexual abuse available on the internet. Images, experts say, often depict instances of incest and often involve very young children.
A 2008 federal law presaged much of the issue, but the New York Times investigation found that the federal government has not followed through with many provisions. The Justice Department has produced just two of the six reports required by the law, and a lack of funding has hampered efforts. Francey Hakes, formerly the national coordinator for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction, said nobody “felt like the position was as important as it was written by Congress to be.”
Locally, Clark County has developed a robust response to the sexual exploitation of children, with a team of investigators and prosecutors addressing the issue. But this is a global problem. When abuse is recorded in, say, Tulsa, it does not remain there; images are readily available to pedophiles in Vancouver.
While the Clark County Prosecutor’s Office is doing what it can to combat the issue at the local level, a concerted national effort is required.
