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Press
Release
NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN JOINS WITH
FEDERAL AGENCIES TO LAUNCH INNOVATIVE INITIATIVE TO TACKLE CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
The Dallas Crimes Against Children Conference to Serve as Host Site
for First-Ever Victim Identification Lab
WASHINGTON, DC -- August 23, 2006 -- The National Center
for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) Child Victim Identification
Program (CVIP) is partnering with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention’s (OJJDP) Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces
(ICAC) to launch the first-ever U.S.-based Victim Identification Lab.
Law enforcement officers and prosecutors from across the country, who
are participating in the Crimes Against Children Conference in Dallas,
Texas this week, will participate in this U.S. initiative to potentially
generate new leads to aid in the identification of child victims. The
Victim Identification Lab will feature 50 images that have been sanitized
and the graphic material removed. The exposed parts of the photos are
potential clues to where the picture was taken and where the child is
located.
“The goal of the Victim Identification Lab is to be proactive in
identifying child victims of sexual exploitation without sacrificing the
dignity of the child,” said Ernie Allen, president of CEO of NCMEC.
“These are very difficult cases to crack. This is the first step
in an ongoing effort to collaborate with law enforcement and prosecutors
across the nation to aggressively track down and rescue children that
are being abused in this country and the world.”
The Victim Identification Lab is the U.S. law enforcement response to
tracking child pornography and was created in cooperation with the 46
ICAC Task Forces, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S. Postal
Inspection Service (USPIS) and Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE).
There is no child pornography in the Lab and all content was agreed upon
by all partnering law enforcement agencies. The computers for the Lab
were provided by the ICAC Task Forces.
As part of the Lab, participants will be able to view the sanitized images
and contribute comments and clues related to the images. These comments
will be available to everyone in the lab through a real-time message board.
NCMEC staff will analyze and compile all comments during and after the
conference and then distribute leads to the appropriate law enforcement
agency to assist in the investigation.
Due to the highly sensitive nature of this type of crime, the consideration
of the child victim’s dignity is of the utmost concern. For this
reason, only law enforcement investigators and prosecutors who are registered
for the Crimes Against Children Conference and are actively working these
types of cases will participate in the Lab.
NCMEC houses the Child Victim Identification Program and its Exploited
Child Unit serves as a technical and informational resource for law enforcement.
Because investigating child-sexual-exploitation cases may require specialized
technical skills outside the scope of usual investigation methods, analysts
are available to assist in any child-sexual-exploitation case. The Victim
Identification Lab will evolve into a permanent secure database where
trained law enforcement investigators will be able to remotely examine
additional images.
About the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) is a
501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works in cooperation with the U.S.
Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
NCMEC's congressionally mandated CyberTipline, a reporting mechanism for
child sexual exploitation, has handled more than 413,200 leads. Since
its establishment in 1984, NCMEC has assisted law enforcement with more
than 122,600 missing child cases, resulting in the recovery of more than
104,900 children. For more information about NCMEC, call its toll-free,
24 hour hotline at 1-800-THE-LOST or visit its web site at www.missingkids.com.
CONTACT:
Communications Department
NCMEC
703.837.6111 |
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