Internet Safety News

CyberTipline: New Type of Help for Online Kids

by Anne Collier

Parents and teachers should know that there are now six, not five, types of child exploitation that get quick action from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). NCMEC's CyberTipline is the only service of its kind in the world, providing rapid-response, triage-style support for children at risk.

Available on the web at www.cybertipline.com, or by telephone at 1-800-843-5678, the CyberTipline has just added a sixth category. It is "unsolicited obscene material sent to a child."¹

Ruben Rodriguez, director of NCMEC's Exploited Child Unit met with the U.S. Department of Justice's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), and they asked him about the feasibility of a reporting mechanism for obscene, unsolicited spam sent to children. Rodriguez said, "Absolutely."²

The CyberTipline page explains that it is a crime for any person to attempt to or knowingly send or transfer obscene material to another individual who has not attained the age of 16. Whether attached to an e-mail as an image or a link to one, this "obscene material" is defined as "visual depictions of persons engaging in sexually explicit conduct."

"There's always been an issue in the adult porn industry [about them] going after kids," Rodriguez told us. "They say they're not, but these direct-marketing companies are sending blanket advertisements to everybody, including children.... Of course their plea is, 'we're just delivering a service how can we tell [the recipient's age]?' Well, the responsibility is on them.... The U.S. Department of Justice sees this as needing to be addressed and is going after these cases aggressively."³

How the CyberTipline Works

The CyberTipline is unprecedented and helps in these ways.

It is available 7 days a week, 24 hours a day meaning there's always someone there who reviews every report coming in and acts on an emergency immediately.
When an emergency case does come in, the CyberTipline can mobilize law enforcement at local and national, as well as international, levels right away.
The FBI, U.S. Customs, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and now U.S. Department of Justice's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section receives reports simultaneously with the CyberTipline at NCMEC, which is also in close, two-way communication with international law-enforcement agencies and hotlines.

As a call is recieved or web report is submitted, NCMEC staff members immediately prioritize the information. If a child is in imminent danger, the report is categorized as "Priority Level 1." With a Priority Level 1 report, "The FBI gets involved immediately, and we identify and contact the appropriate state and local law enforcement," Rodriguez said.⁴ An example he gave is when a child has been contacted and convinced to meet with a stranger and has left home to do so. (For details on such a case, see "Amy's Story" at NCMEC's NetSmartz web site.⁵) "Priority Level 2" is when there is potential imminent danger a child has been chatting online, the parent or guardian has discovered the communication and feels that there is a threat to the child. "Priority Level 3" examples are child pornography and the obscene e-mail described in the new sixth category of cases NCMEC handles. Rodriguez added that, "Sometimes individuals while 'grooming' a child [for a meeting in person] will send the child pornography that would "up" the priority level."⁶

From an international perspective, the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) recently reported on sex, spam, and children in the UK. About 5 million UK children younger than 16 now use the Internet, the BBC points out.⁷ "And while a new European law limiting bulk, unwanted e-mails is expected next year, it is virtually worthless [for UK and European children], because most are sent from outside Europe."⁸

¹The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's CyberTipline, http://www.cybertipline.com.
²Ruben Rodriguez. Personal communication, September 2002.
³Ibid.
⁴Ibid.
⁵Anne Collier. "Amy's Story." NetSmartz. June 2002, http://www.NetSmartz.org/PARENTS/home/amystory.html.
⁶Ruben Rodriguez. Personal communication, September 2002.
⁷"Children at Mercy of E-Mail Porn." BBC. September 4, 2002, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2233275.stm.
⁸Ibid.

Anne Collier is editor of the SafeKids/NetFamilyNewsletter and president of NetFamilyNews.org, a nonprofit news service for parents and teachers of online kids.