Rise in online child sex crimes prompts bipartisan action

The Renewed Hope Act aims to identify, protect and assist victims of online child sexual exploitation.

The bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, would facilitate the training and hiring of at least 200 additional experts for the Department of Homeland Security to help identify and track child victims whose images are distributed online.

Lawmakers say the bill will also strengthen efforts to bring to justice perpetrators who distribute sexual images of children online.

According to Hector Glynn, president of The Village for Families and Children, about 200 cases of possible child sexual exploitation were reported in Connecticut before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The numbers are growing,” Glynn said. “At The Village, on any given day, we treat hundreds of children who have been sexually abused or exploited.”

One in five girls and one in 14 boys in Connecticut has been sexually abused, Glynn said. Of those numbers, one in seven was under the age of 6.

According to a report from the US Department of Justice, reports of online child sexual abuse material (CSAM) have increased year over year, with millions of images and videos of horrific abuse circulating. report from 2023.

The rise of the Internet has led to an increase in child sexual abuse and child abusers are having to adapt, Glynn said.

“Ten years ago, when reports came in to DCF, or to The Village, the perpetrators were usually known to the family. There were close contacts, because that’s how you build trust,” Glynn said. “That’s not true anymore. Now the grooming is done online, and the speed at which it happens is astonishing.”

According to Dr. Nicole Taylor, chief of DCF’s child behavioral health division, approximately 300 cases of potential commercial sexual exploitation of children are reported to the Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF) each year.

“The majority of youth who are trafficked are just living at home, under the supervision of their parents,” Taylor said. “How do predators reach kids just in their own homes? What’s the number one way predators reach them? Through the internet.”

Tactics may include refining the location of images based on background content or identifying perpetrators based on the distribution of similar images.

“On the internet, they’re often just completely unknown. Identifying the victims, rescuing them, protecting them. Those are the goals,” Blumenthal said. “To do that, we need forensic analysis and experts who can use tools like AI and image blending to analyze who’s behind it and how we can arrest them.”

The Renewed Hope Act would increase resources to hire, train, and assign experts to the Child Exploitation Investigations Unit within DHS’s Homeland Security Investigations. It would also enhance training in new and advanced victim identification technology for federal and local law enforcement.