WHERE HAVE ALL THE CHILDREN GONE?

Sex Addictions - Spacer

By Synthia Esther

WHERE HAVE ALL THE CHILDREN GONE?

Synthia Esther - Poem about Child Exploitation and Crime

INTERNET PORNOGRAPHY, CHILD EXPLOTATION, AND CRIME

The abuse of the innocent is one of the gravest forms of exploitation and violation known to mankind.

Albert Einstein once said, "The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing."

The Innocent Images National Initiative (IINI) of the FBI's Cyber Crimes Program is a proactive, multi-agency investigative operation to combat the proliferation of child pornography and child sexual exploitation.

According to the "National Juvenile On line Victimization (N-JOV) Study" , Nov. 2003 report of "Internet Sex Crimes Against Minors: The Response of Law Enforcement", (Crimes Against Children Research Center, National Center For Missing & Exploited Children, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention): Two-thirds (67%) of offenders who committed any of the types of Internet sex crimes against minors possessed child pornography. 83% of these possessors had images of children between the ages of 6 and 12 and 80% had images explicitly showing sexual penetration of minors. More than 20,000 images of child pornography are posted on the Internet every week (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, 10/8/2003).

Demand for pornographic images of babies and toddlers on the Internet is soaring. More babies and toddlers are appearing on the net and the abuse is getting worse, it is more torturous and sadistic than it was before. The typical age of children is between 6 and 12, but the profile is getting younger (Prof. Max Taylor, Combating Pedophile Information Networks in Europe, March 2003). According to the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), child pornography reports increased 39% in 2004. Ernie Allen, president and CEO of NCMEC, states that the statistics show a significant and steady increase in child pornography reports for the seventh year. My research confirms Mr. Allen's findings.

In the opening statement made by Michigan's 1st District Congressman, Hon. Bart Stupak, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations - April 4,2006, the following statistics were quoted: "One in five children report receiving a sexual solicitation over the Internet. Today there are over 3.5 million pornographic images of American children in circulation on the Internet. The sale of these images over the Internet brought in $20 billion to traffickers in 2004. To compare, music sales Kid Pornover the Internet were just 3 billion the same year. This $20 billion was spent to view photographs and videos of children being raped and tortured.

Since 2004, the child exploitation industry has only grown, the images have become more graphic as video capabilities have expanded, and the content of those videos has become more heinous. Little children make up the vast majority of the victims of child pornography. Over 90 percent of arrested child pornographers possess images of children under age 12; 40% have pictures or videos of children under the age of six; and almost 20% possess images of children less than three years of age. A couple of weeks ago, the Attorney General announced a Customs bust that involved, among other crimes, the portrayal of the rape of an 18-month-old girl. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children will tell us that 80% of all child pornography is produced by parents, other relatives or family friends.

Every American parent should know what we will hear today. Parents need to learn and teach their children tools to protect against these predators". The article release also raised questions concerning the low number of prosecutions (less than 2%), of these voyeurs of child sexual violence in the United States while Australian authorities can put away over 55%.

WHAT DOES OPRAH WINFREY HAVE IN COMMON WITH BILL O'RIELLY?

Bill O'Reilly, Fox News, The O'Reilly Factor boldly states, and I agree, that the punishment for sexual predators should fit the crime. O'Reilly gets straight to the point, "You've got to understand. This thing, this molestation, rape, never goes away. We have an obligation to get rid of them. To put them away so they can't possibly hurt anybody again." Bill is not the only one to push and keep pedophiles off the streets. Oprah Winfrey declares this is the year- 2007, to take a stand for our children. Let Congress know you want the laws changed – now! From her show, "Kidnapped as a Child: Why I Didn't Return", Internet users can go to her site and print and send a letter to their representatives. Pornography has been linked as a impetus to crimes involving sexual abuse and assault, Internet child solicitation/exploitation, child prostitution, Internet child pornography, and trafficking of humans and children for sexual slavery across the world.

LONG TERM EFFECTS OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE

The July 2000 National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) reported the following: 67% of victims of sexual assault were juveniles (under age 18); 34% of sexual assault victims were under age 12; 1 of every 7 victims of sexual assault were under age 6. The impact of child sexual abuse is life long. According to research by Browne & Finkelhor - 1986, "Long term effects of child abuse include fear, anxiety, depression, anger, hostility, inappropriate sexual behavior, poor self esteem, tendency toward substance abuse and difficulty with close relationships. There is the clinical assumption that children who feel compelled to keep sexual abuse a secret, suffer greater psychic distress than victims who disclose the secret and receive assistance and support."

In 1992 - CCPCA reported approximately 95% of teenage prostitutes have been sexually abused. Kenneth S. Kendler, M.D., et al, Medical College of Virginia Commonwealth University, Archives of General Psychiatry 2000;57:953-959, Young girls who are forced to have sex are three times more likely to develop psychiatric disorders or abuse alcohol and drugs in adulthood, than girls who are not sexually abused. Sexual abuse was also more strongly linked with substance abuse than with psychiatric disorders. 50 to 70% of all women and a substantial number of men treated in psychiatric settings have histories of sexual or physical abuse, or both (Carmen et al, 1984; Bryer et al., 1987; Craine et al, 1988). As high as 81% of men and women in psychiatric hospitals with a variety of major mental illness diagnoses, have experienced psychical and/or sexual abuse. 67% of these men and women were abused as children (Jacobson & Richardson, 1987). Women molested as children are four times more at risk for Major Depression as those with no such history. They are significantly more likely to develop bulimia and chronic PTSD (Stein et la, 1988; Root & Fallon, 1988; Sloane, 1986; Craine, 1990).

It was also suggested that sexual abuse may lead some girls to become sexually active at an earlier age and seek out older boyfriends who might, in turn, introduce them to drugs. Nearly 90% of alcoholic women were sexually abused as children or suffered severe violence at the hands of a parent (Miller, Downs 1993). Up to two-thirds of both men and women in substance abuse treatment report childhood abuse or neglect (SAMHSA, CSAT 2000). Teenagers with alcohol problems are 21 times more likely to have been sexually abused than those without such problems (Clark, 1997). Adults that had experienced multiple types of abuse and violence in childhood compared to those who had not, showed a 2 to 4 - fold increase in smoking, poor self-rated health, 50 - plus sexual intercourse partners, sexually transmitted disease, a higher rate of physical inactivity, and severe obesity (Felitti, 1998).

Child sexual abuse can cause brain damage. Research reveals severe and prolonged childhood sexual abuse to underlie damage to the brain structure, resulting in impaired memory, dissociation, and symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Briere, 1997; Van Der Kolk, 1996; Perry,1994). Psychiatric disorders were from 2.6 to 3.3 times more common among women whose child sexual abuse included intercourse, and the risk of substance abuse was increased more than fourfold, according to the results. Family factors - parental education, parenting behavior, family financial status, church attendance - had little impact on the prevalence of psychiatric or substance abuse disorders among these women, the investigators observe. Similarly, parental psychopathology did not predict the association between child sexual abuse and later psychopathology.

INTERNET CHILD EXPLOITATION

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in a June 2005 study revealed that 40% of arrested child pornography possessors were dual offenders, having both sexually victimized children and were in possession of child pornography. Another 15% were dual offenders who tried to victimize children by soliciting undercover investigators who posed as minors on line. Overall 36% of dual offenders showed or gave child pornography to identified victims or undercover investigators posing as minors on line.

Dateline, January 2006 reports law enforcement officials estimate that as many as 50,000 sexual predators are on line at any given moment. The National Criminal Intelligence Service, 8/21/03 reports Internet pedophiles are increasingly adopting counter-intelligence techniques to protect themselves from being traced. Pew Study reported in JAMA, 2001, 89% of sexual solicitations were made in either chat rooms or Instant Messages. Child predators have formed an on line community that openly discuss ways to influence public opinion and legislation on child exploitation. Meeting in on line chat rooms their conversations revolve on how to lure, attract, seduce and groom new victims and their families.

These like minded pedophiles find ways to post websites, webrings, forums and chat rooms that promote their adult-child agendas and love relationships. One large group of audacious pedophiles has even written their own published document called "The Boylove Manifesto", in which they promote and describe boylover men, their relationship agenda, views and their demands! The typical child sex offender molests an average of 117 children, most of who do not report the offense (National Institute of Mental Health, 1988).

CHILD SEX TOURISM

The child sex tourism industry with the advent of the Internet has become an International problem which needs International cooperation in order to successfully combat the abhorrent crimes committed globally against children. Due to the low risk of detection and the lack of protection laws in foreign countries these crimes continue to escalate. The United States has established laws that make it illegal to travel to another country with the intent of using or abusing minors for sexual gratification. This U.S. law, "18 U.S.C. 2423B - Travel with intent to engage in sexual acts with a juvenile", is a vital part in addressing the problem, however, the destination countries must also take responsibility for holding sex tourists accountable. They too must adopt and enforce effective Laws.

Tourism is big business, with generated revenues a priority. Increased tourism brings economic prosperity to most governments around the world. Money talks, as many people look the other way allowing criminals to prosper in their continued commercialism of child-sexual exploitation. Combating Pedophile Information Networks in Europe, March 2003, reports approximately 20 new children appear on the porn sites every month – many kidnapped or sold into sex.

TRAFFICKING OF HUMAN BEINGS AND SEXUAL EXPLOITATION

According to the U.S. State Department it is "estimated 600,000 to 800,000” men, women, and children are trafficked across international borders each year. Approximately 80% are women and girls and up to 50% are minors. The majority of transnational victims are trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation-(http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprtp/2005/46606.htm). Traffickers use ploy tactics of deception, love, marriage, intimidation, isolation, threat, physical force, kidnapping, debt bondage, force-feeding with drugs to control their victims, fake study programs, model or employment opportunities, etc.

Many victims come from poorer regions or developing nations of the world where people are desperate for jobs. Porous borders, the collapse of former Yugoslavia, end of the Soviet Union, and the opening up of Asian markets have provided trafficking opportunity and profit on a global scale. Cases have also involved parents who sell children to traffickers in order to pay off debts or gain income. Increase communication technologies have dramatically contributed to the success and organization of trafficking crimes.

The majority of child trafficking cases are in Asia, although it is seen happening globally. In Thailand, non-governmental organizations (NGO), have estimated that up to a third of prostitutes are children under 18, many trafficked from outside Thailand (http://www.unicri.it/wwd/trafficking/minors/countries.php). In 2000 the United Nations adopted the convention against Transnational Organized Crime, also called the Palermo Convention and two protocols thereto: Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children; and Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air. Amnesty International offers facts and figures on trafficking of women and girls for forced prostitution, as well as efforts to protect victims of people trafficking.

Government and international governmental organizations include:

ADDITIONAL RESOURCE INFORMATION

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION PERTAINING TO YOUR U.S. STATE'S LAWS:

National Association of counsel for Children
Suite 340
1825 Marion Street
Denver, CO. 80218-1125
Toll-Free: 1-888-828-NACC
Telephone: 303-864-5320
Fax: 303-864-5351
http://www.naccchildlaw.org

The National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse
American Prosecutors Research Institute
Suite 510
99 Canal Center Plaza
Alexandria,VA. 22314-1588
Telephone: 703-549-4253
Fax: 703-868-3195
http://www.ndaa-apri.org

*Please Note:
The resourceful information provided is a public service. Synthia Esther Ministries does not endorse, sponsor, promote or provide funding to, nor do we receive funding from any organization, group, website, or persons listed. We are self funding, supported by personal donations to this ministry. To keep Synthia Esther Ministries website on the world wide web and support our global spiritual message of salvation and transformation through Jesus Christ and his word, your donation and support is greatly needed and appreciated. For additional information on how you can became a Synthia Esther Ministry team member please click here.

Sex Addictions - Spacer