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NEW YORK – Despite highly publicized arrests, law-enforcement officials say that
the sexual exploitation of children on the Internet is growing dramatically. Over
the past four years, the number of reports of child pornography sites to the
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) has grown by almost
400 percent. Law-enforcement officials are particularly disturbed by the increased
number of commercial sites that offer photos of exploited children in return for a
credit-card number. Those fighting child porn say it has become a global
multibillion-dollar industry.

"We are encountering staggering proportions of violators or offenders we would
have never imagined years ago," says Ray Smith, who oversees child exploitation
investigations by the United States Postal Inspection Service. "It is an exploding
problem worldwide, and particularly in the US," adds Ernie Allen, president of
NCMEC.
Efforts to stem the upsurge are taking place on multiple fronts. At the G-8 summit
in Scotland last month, officials said that Interpol, an international police
organization, is putting together a global database of offenders and victims. And
this week, 3,000 law-enforcement officials from around the US are meeting in
Dallas to discuss ways to attack Internet crimes against children.
On the state level, New Jersey and Florida are among those enacting
requirements for sexual predators to wear GPS devices that keep track of their
whereabouts.
One of the biggest pushes against the purveyors is aimed at shutting down the
use of credit cards. NCMEC is currently talking to MasterCard about making it
even harder to subscribe to the commercial sites.
"We're trying to mobilize the financial industry to choke off the money," says Mr.
Allen.
At MasterCard, spokeswoman Sharon Gamsin says her organization is "appalled
people are using our systems for illegal transactions involving child
pornography, and finding a way to stop this is a priority."
Two years ago, Visa International began a program to try to identify child porn
sites allowing transactions with its credit cards. It hired a firm that used retired
federal agents to go through the Internet searching for sites, and it says it's still
searching the Web for illicit sites today.
Good marks for effort
Officials generally give the credit-card companies good marks for their efforts.
"The financial industry is made up of real people with children, and they want this
thing ended for society, too," says Mr. Smith, who has been fighting the illegal
merchandise since 1982.
To try to help credit-card companies and law-enforcement officials identify
websites, NCMEC has hired a consultant to search online for illicit sites. "We
provide the information first to law enforcement and then do reviews to see if
they follow up," he says. "Otherwise, we send a cease-and-desist order to the
method-of-payment services [such as a credit-card company] and try to engage
banks and regulators." Allen notes that he recently met with Asian bankers to
seek cooperation.

' We are encountering staggering proportions of violators or offenders we would
have never imagined years ago.'

Ray Smith, United States Postal Inspection Service