The United States Department of Justice

New Campaign to Keep Young Girls Safe from Online Predators

Project Safe Childhood is a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. In Missouri, federal prosecutors are forging a stronger partnership between law enforcement agencies and community organizations, including children’s advocates, victim service providers, educators, non-profits and social service agencies. A unique public outreach and awareness campaign will also deliver the message of Internet safety to parents and children.

Nationally and in Missouri, federal prosecutors have seen an alarming rise in child sexual exploitation cases involving the Internet. The United States Attorneys’ offices for the Eastern and Western Districts of Missouri have experienced a tripling of annual child sex offense cases between 2002 and 2005. Approximately one-fourth of these cases involved children being lured over the Internet or the actual production of child pornography.

Among the strategies of Missouri’s Project Safe Childhood initiative:

Increase the number of child exploitation cases prosecuted each year
Increase the number of investigators dedicated to child exploitation cases
Expand undercover enticement operations targeting predators attempting to meet children online
Increase the number of law enforcement agencies affiliated with the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force to leverage federal, state and local resources to maximize the number of cases that can be investigated and prosecuted in an effort to take advantage of the new Adam Walsh Child Protection Act (ICAC Fact Sheet)
Quickly investigate every lead from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Conduct extensive law enforcement training at multiple sites throughout the state to aid in the identification and successful prosecution of child pornography cases
Partner with children’s advocates, educators and social service providers to educate parents and children to the dangers online
Launch a public outreach and awareness campaign. The goal of INOBTR (I Know Better) Missouri’s Coalition to Delete Online Predators, is to teach every child to know better than to be the next victim of one of these predators - INOBTR Frequently Asked Questions