The arrests of several suspects over the past several months has focused an effort by the Oneida County Sheriff's Department on Internet crimes against children.
Captain Terri Hook says in the first five months of the year, the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office has intervened in at least a dozen incidents where children under 18 years old were the intended victim of an adult online who wanted to take the child to a secluded place and have sexual contact with them.
Captain Hook says be careful...
"..Sheriff(Grady) Hartman wants parents to be active in their children's electronic life. Keep an eye on what your kids are doing online. Look in their phones. Parents should be able to access children's phones if there's a passcode on them, the parents should know about that passcode. If they see an app on the phone that they're not aware of what that is they should look into it. If there's anything concerning they should contact law enforcement..."
Hook says they're really concerned about children not realizing the full impact of sending pictures...
"We really want parents to talk to kids about sharing pictures of themselves, showing pictures where they're not dressed. Nude photos and things like that. We're encouraging parents to talk about when you share that picture you never know where it's going to be and whether that picture has really been deleted...."
An emerging crime finds predators blackmailing children. Predators begin a relationship with youth, then convince the child to send one photo of themselves nude. Once they have one nude photo, they use the photo to blackmail the child to send more by threatening to post the photo so that others can see the photo.
The Wisconsin Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Department of Public Instruction have created an online resource for parents about internet safety. We have a linkhere.
