The National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction

ecoveries has increased. In 2006, 16 children were recovered while in 2009, 77 children weresuccessfully recovered through Operation Pickup.4. United States Attorney’s OfficesRecognizing that our nation faced an epidemic of technology-assisted child exploitation crimes,the Department launched Project Safe Childhood (PSC) in 2006. Through a network of federal,state and local law enforcement agencies and advocacy organizations, PSC coordinates efforts toprotect our children by investigating and prosecuting online sexual predators. PSC isimplemented through a partnership of U.S. Attorneys; the Child Exploitation and ObscenitySection of the Department’s Criminal Division; Internet Crimes Against Children task forces;federal partners, including the FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Immigration and CustomsEnforcement and the U.S. Marshals Service; non-governmental organizations such as theNational Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC); and state and local lawenforcement officials.Under PSC, the number of federal child exploitation prosecutions has increased significantly,along with the number of federal, state and local investigations and convictions, and more andmore victims are being identified. PSC’s education and awareness efforts complement this focuson enforcement. In FY 2009, the 93 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices filed 2,315 indictments against2,427 defendants, representing a 40 percent increase over FY 2006. A total of 2,877 victims ofchild pornography crimes have been identified and many rescued, 1,973 of them since the launchof PSC, through enhanced law enforcement coordination and the efforts of NCMEC.5. Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS)The Justice Department’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (“CEOS”), situated withinthe Department’s Criminal Division, consists of approximately twenty attorneys and a six-personHigh Technology Investigative Unit (“HTIU”). CEOS leads the Criminal Division’s campaignagainst the sexual exploitation of children, using its experience in investigating and prosecutingthe most challenging child sexual exploitation cases to shape domestic and international policy,launch nationwide investigations against the worst offenders, and provide guidance and trainingto other prosecutors and agents, both within and outside the federal government. CEOS is ableto leverage a small amount of resources into extraordinary results. For example, in the last threeyears CEOS has spearheaded 18 national operations that have resulted in the investigation ofover 2000 individuals. CEOS targets, among other crimes, (1) the production, advertising,distribution, receipt and possession of images depicting the sexual assault of children (childpornography); (2) the online inducement of children for sexually predatory purposes; (3) thetravel of offenders, or transportation of children by offenders, across state lines for sexuallypredatory purposes; (4) the sex trafficking of children, including the prostitution of children onour city streets; and (5) child sex tourism involving offenders who travel to foreign, oftenimpoverished countries to prey sexually on vulnerable children.Since FY 2001, the caseload of CEOS attorneys has increased every year, and has increasedcumulatively by over 1100 percent. At the end of FY 2009, CEOS’s Trial Attorneys, who alsohandle national policy, legislation, training and outreach, collectively had an active caseload of47