US CyberTipLine tops 500,000 suspected child exploitation/pornography reports
July 10, 2007 by Andy Merrett · Leave a Comment
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) has announced that it’s received its half-a-millionth report of suspected child pornography or child exploitation crime.
The half-million mark comes nine years after the CyberTipline was mandated by the U.S. Congress to serve as the nation’s “9-1-1″ for reporting incidents of child sexual exploitation. NCMEC’s Exploited Child Division (ECD) personnel analyze and develop the leads, which are then referred to law enforcement for investigation and prosecution. Since its creation, the number of reports to the CyberTipline has shown significant increases in many of the reporting categories.
“Here’s what we know, an estimated 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 10 boys will be sexually victimized in someway before they reach the age of 18,” said NCMEC President and CEO Ernie Allen. “The constant growth in reports to the CyberTipline is staggering. Even more disturbing is that these figures don’t reflect the true number of children being victimized because sex crimes involving minors are grossly underreported.”
