Officials working to secure the Web
By Suzanne E. Wilder
The Winchester Star
July 24, 2006
WINCHESTER — As the Internet has become more of a presence in the lives of teenagers — and society as a whole — law enforcement and government officials are ramping up efforts to crack down on online criminals.
Police departments are assigning officers to Internet investigations, and state and federal legislators are tightening restrictions on sexual predators and offenders. The U.S. Senate passed an act on Thursday to better track sex offenders, with some emphasis on Internet predators.
And the Virginia Attorney General’s Office has created a task force to brainstorm solutions for protecting Internet users and prosecuting criminals who abuse the digital world.
But why focus on sexual predators and other digital misdeeds now, when the Internet has been growing in popularity for more than a decade?
As the Web has become more widely used, studies are beginning to show the widespread use by both teenagers and criminal predators, Virginia Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell said in a telephone interview Friday.
One study, from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, shows that as many as one in four Internet users from the ages of 10 to 17 have received an unwanted sexual solicitation on the Web.
“We did great work in revising the sexual predator laws,” McDonnell said.
Now, the state has to look at how much of a problem predators on the Internet can be, and “how little parents know about what their kids are doing online.”
U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales kicked off a campaign in May to promote children’s safety on the Internet. He estimated that “at any given time, 50,000 predators are on the Internet prowling for children.”
Critics have refuted that number, but that doesn’t stop parents and officials from worrying.
The state task force, which met for the first time on July 14, will focus on three different aspects of Internet safety, McDonnell said.
One group will focus on law enforcement possibilities — what laws need to be created and what tools are needed to catch and prosecute Internet criminals.
Another group will look at how to educate parents, teachers, and children about possible hazards and safety measures.
The third group — with representatives from technology groups — will look at how corporations and Web-based companies can provide better tools for Internet safety.
By December, the task force will compile their results into recommendations for how to meet those goals. Those ideas will be passed on to the state Legislature to create possible new laws, and technology companies to create tools for better monitoring and safety procedures.
Locally, police track some Internet use, like the popular networking Web site www.myspace.com.
The Frederick County Sheriff’s Office has two investigators dedicated to computer crimes, mostly identity theft and stolen financial data. The Winchester Police Department could not be reached for comment on this issue Friday.
Frederick County Sheriff’s Investigator Chris Brown said he is in the process of getting trained to perform computer forensics exams.
Those exams are used to pull data off hard drives, even if the owner has tried to delete pornographic images, stolen identity information, or other criminal data. Right now, the Sheriff’s Office often has to send equipment to other labs to be processed for that information.
The computer-crime caseload for the Sheriff’s Office has become heavier over the last couple years, Brown said, though he did not cite a specific number.
Though the majority of computer crime investigations involve identity theft, investigators have looked into threats, child pornography, and other crimes against teenagers.
And with population growth in the area, the county is faced with more Internet victims and suspects, Brown said. “Our case load keeps increasing.”
— Contact Suzanne E. Wilder at sewilder@winchesterstar.com