The potential for a sex offender to contact a child through gaming and social media sites like Xbox, Wii, Kik or Snapchat is as real in rural Halifax County as anywhere in the country.
To seek out and prosecute child predators, the Governor’s Crime Commission awarded nine local law enforcement agencies, including the Halifax County Sheriff’s Office, a total of $362,000 in grants for equipment and overtime funds.
“While the internet provides anonymity to sexual predators, these grants pay for equipment that can download evidence necessary for successful prosecutions,” Governor Pat McCrory said. “The best line of defense, however, starts with parents who should know their children’s internet passwords and check their on-line communications.”
Working with the state Internet Crimes Against Children task force, detectives from the Halifax County Sheriff’s Office investigate leads from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, respond to tips from the community and set up their own sites to find predators.
“We have multiple cases ongoing with solicitors,” Halifax Sheriff Wes Tripp said. “Anywhere children have access to the internet, there is ‘stranger danger.’ The internet has given predators easier access to children, but with the blessing of these grants, we in rural North Carolina are able to make arrests.”
Predators target children of all ages, with the most vulnerable being teen girls wanting attention, Lt. Joseph Sealey of the Halifax Sheriff’s Office said. The first profile his office set up was of a 13-year-old girl. In one week, the site drew 60 requests, and 20 of those who responded wanted to meet in person, including one who was willing to drive from Oregon.
“These people are well aware of the age of the juvenile,” Sealey said. “We have six investigators working after hours. Criminals don’t keep office hours. Typically, this is not the first and only time they’ve contacted juveniles. Our cases have led to the discovery of abducted or missing children.
“Kids using video chat sites like ooVoo or Omegle can talk with random people throughout the world. This has made a predator’s quarry much easier to find.”
Internet Crimes Against Children, or ICAC, was developed in response to the increased number of children and teenagers using the internet and the increased activity of on-line predators seeking underage victims for photographs or physical contact. The State Bureau of Investigation has 12 full time employees working on ICAC. More than 150 state and local law enforcement agencies are listed with ICAC, but training is needed. Last year, the SBI received 2,371 cypertips and issued 1,100 subpoenas or court orders concerning the investigation of offenses committed against children.
Sheriffs’ offices in Rockingham, Onslow, Cumberland, Cherokee, Moore, Transylvania, Warren and Wilkes counties and the Gastonia Police Department have also received ICAC grants. Future plans include additional counties.
“Like other counties, we’ve had this problem for a long time,” Sheriff Tripp said. “Prevention is always our goal. Our children are our future.”