The National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction

in research were incorporated into a report written by CEOS, entitled “Report to LEPSG on the‘Global Symposium for Examining the Relationship Between Online and Offline Offenses andPreventing the Sexual Exploitation of Children’”. On May 30, 2009, the G8 Ministers of Justiceand Home Affairs issued a declaration titled “The Risk to Children Posed by Child PornographyOffenders” which specifically recognizes the findings made by the experts at the symposium asnoted in the report written by CEOS.Law enforcement officers and prosecutors interviewed for this Assessment overwhelminglyreport discovering contact offenders through the course of child pornography investigations. FBIinvestigations conducted as part of an Innocent Images Operations Unit (IIOU) Initiative 27 havedetermined that mass distributors of child pornography using publicly available file sharingsoftware that allows individuals to establish private “friend” groups were found to havecommitted contact offenses against minors at a very high rate. In fact, FBI analysis of statisticsgenerated through the IIOU Initiative indicated that the software is used for the mass distributionof child pornography by producers and repeat child sex offenders at a higher observed rate thanany other online application. As of January 22, 2010, 102 investigations were initiated from 170IIOU disseminated leads. The 102 cases resulted in 50 new victims of sexual abuse beingidentified and saved, with another 16 previously victimized minors identified. In total, 66 victimsof contact sexual abuse were discovered from these 102 investigations. As of January 22, 2010,eleven (11) of the subjects investigated were found to have been convicted sex offenders, witheight (8) additional subjects previously charged, but not convicted for various reasons, with sexoffenses against a child.Each of these investigations was predicated on the distribution of child pornography with thediscovery of contact offenses made at a later stage in the investigation. An analysis of 1,663federally prosecuted child pornography cases indicates contact offenses were discovered inapproximately one-third of cases. 28 Our review of child pornography case summaries from 2005to 2009 confirms that reporting. 29 United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) data alsosupport the correlation between child pornography offenders and contact offenders. 30 Severalnational child pornography operations uncovered a number of contact sex offenders. 31Law enforcement experts in the area of child pornography report that interactive onlinecommunities for child pornography offenders, which typically include members from around theworld, create a greater risk than ever before. Some online communities are limited to theexchange of images, but others allow the exchange of information, chat, and even surveys for themembers—creating real communities. Offenders effectively validate and normalize each other’sbehavior. 32Law enforcement experts perceive “trading” communities as risky enough; however, when acommunity allows and promotes communications between offenders regarding their sexual27This IIOU Initiative is an FBI online undercover operation targeting subjects who are actively distributing mass quantities of child pornography.28See Appendix B, Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys (EOUSA).29See Appendix D, EOUSA.30See Appendix D, USPIS.31See Appendix A, Operations Achilles, Avalanche, Insider, Falcon, Joint Hammer. 32See Appendix C, Quayle. 20