Child Porn Exploitation Growing On The Internet
The comment followed the arrest of a 42-year-old sailor, who is a member of a Navy Seal team in Hawaii.
The sailor was arrested after he reportedly sent a camera after a girl he believed to be 13 said she would send him sexually explicit pictures.
It was a set up. The 13-year-old is a Seattle Police Detective, Shanon Anderson.
Anderson has been a member of the vice squad for three years. She told KOMO 4 News: "I don't have to find them. They come and find me!"
Anderson has a whole series of Internet profiles. Sometimes she's a 12-year-old girl. Sometimes a 45-year-old man looking for kiddie porn.
On one recent morning she signed on, there was an immediate message from a man.
"He asked me how old I was and where I was. I told him I was 13," Anderson said. "He immediately sent me a picture of himself. I said 'You're kind of cute.' He immediately sent me a nude picture of himself -- at 7 in the morning."
Last year, Detective Anderson and other local Internet cops investigated 267 cases. This year in February, the number is already over 100.
She admits it's disgusting, and often disturbing. But this is the job she wants, because she can make a difference.
She says one key is for parents to watch their kids' computer activity: "Remind your kids that people don't have to tell the truth on the Internet. And if you don't know who your kids is talking to, it's a stranger. And check the history on the Internet, there are programs out there which can tell you what your kid is doing on the Internet."
As for the sailor she reportedly entrapped, he is jail. A grand jury is expected to indict him later this month.