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is just like them. Chat forums on Tor share success stories on successfully grooming children of <br /> all ages. Each offender will attempt to groom hundreds of children using various techniques <br /> beyond just sending a picture or a video. We discuss numerous "in real life" dangers in school <br /> curriculums, yet online grooming is not part of it. <br /> As the New Jersey ICAC Commander, I struggled with the significant increases in <br /> investigations, arrests, and victims we faced each year. For example, in 2015 we received 2,315 <br /> Cybertips and made 125 arrests, and by the end of 2019 we had 8,000 Cybertips and we made <br /> 420 arrests. We understood the importance of trying to keep up, but even creative attempts to <br /> "do more with less" became unsustainable. And this was prior to COVID, when screentime <br /> increased substantially and cemented our children's reliance on apps. These challenges were <br /> frustratingly present with every ICAC task force across the United States. The most staggering <br /> increase we faced was self-generated CSAM cases —children taking sexual images of themselves <br /> as the request of offenders. These were not images of older teens sending photos of themselves <br /> to their boyfriends and girlfriends —we began to see images of 7, 8, and 9-year-olds in sexual <br /> poses. The online landscape is horrifying because offenders know this is where our children <br /> live, and they recognize there are not enough safeguards to keep them at bay. <br /> During one case, I received a call from a Child Advocacy Center in another state. The advocate <br /> told me a mother had just arrived with her 8-year-old daughter after she found sexual abuse <br /> videos on the child's phone. An offender had obtained a sexually abusive video of an 11-year-old <br /> girl, and then used that video to coerce 60 children to share sexually explicit videos of <br /> themselves. This included a video of a 12-year-old girl abusing her 1 1/z-year-old brother. These <br /> child victims were located throughout the United States and Canada and were using a popular <br /> live-streaming app. This is one example of thousands of cases throughout the United States and <br /> the globe.' <br /> The Protect Our Children Act of 2008 created a funding mechanism for Internet Crimes Against <br /> Children task forces that are responsible for 90% of the child exploitation investigations in the <br /> United States. But things have changed in this space since 2008. In 2008 there was an average of <br /> one computer per household. Today, families in the U.S. have an average of 20 Internet-capable <br /> devices, including phones, tablets, laptops, and gaming consoles. And the volume of data <br /> investigators must comb through to find victims has increased significantly. Reactive <br /> investigations take place when law enforcement receives information, such as a CyberTip, that a <br /> crime has occurred. A proactive investigation involves the use of intelligence to try to identify <br /> potential offenders. <br /> Today, law enforcement is often unable to proactively investigate child exploitation cases due to <br /> the volume of Cybertips. As a result of the exponential increase in Cybertips (these tips increased <br /> by 2,800%between 2012 and 2021) law enforcement agencies have been forced to become <br /> 41nL��S;//W vv M: s, (hn 000 imro ,F,s...child... <br />