Nixon Joins Project Safe Childhood

The state’s lawyer signs on to the new effort to get rid of those who exploit children through the internet. Attorney General Jay Nixon offers his cybercrime and computer forensics units to Project Safe Childhood, a federal program that steps up efforts to find and prosecute internet exploiters of children. The says changes in technology have brought new challenges to law enforcement–none more heinous than cybercrime that focuses on the sexual exploitation of children. Nixon says technology has left children more vulnerable to pedophiles using chat rooms and instant messages. He says many children have no idea that the new “friend” that they have met on line is actually a predator who wants to hurt them. He says it is imperitive the crimes be aggressively addressed through a coordinated effort of law enforcement agencies at the state, national, and federal agencies. Nixon sys his office already has used its compuer forensic unit to track down sex crimes on the internet. He says the unit recently tracked down a man who used the internet to research statistics on high school athletes…and who then told them he was a college recruiter who needed nude photographs of the students that he said would help them get scholarships.