Ask Dr. Sharon
Would you like to ask Dr. Sharon a question about child safety on the Internet? If so, please e-mail her at : Sharon_Cooper@med.unc.edu.
Dr. Sharon Biography
Dr. Sharon Cooper, MD, FAAP, is the CEO of Developmental and Forensic Pediatrics, PA, a consulting firm that provides medical care, training, and expert witness experience in child maltreatment cases, as well as medical care for children with disabilities. She works regularly with numerous national and international investigative agencies on Internet crimes against children cases.
Dr. Sharon Videos
These videos will help you recognize the challenges and dangers of the Internet. As a parent, you’ll learn what you can do to protect your children from these dangers. You will learn what questions you need to ask your child about his or her Internet usage. You will also have resources to answer any questions you may have about the Internet.
She holds faculty positions at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Medicine at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. She is also an instructor at the Army Medical Education Department Center and School at Ft. Sam Houston, Texas, where she provides multidisciplinary training in all forms of child maltreatment to health care providers, law enforcement, attorneys, judges, therapists, chaplains, and social workers.
The more often a person is exposed to potentially harmful materials, the more normal it seems and
the more desensitized the person becomes.
Dr. Cooper spent 21 years in the Armed Forces, retiring as a colonel, and has for the past several years worked in both the civilian and military arenas in child abuse and developmental pediatrics.
She is a board member of several organizations and is a member of several professional groups including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, the International Association of Forensic Nurses, and the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect.
Dr. Cooper has lectured both nationally and internationally in well over 300 conferences for the U.S. Department of Justice, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and Interpol. She has published chapters in texts, and is the lead author of the first comprehensive text on the medical, legal, and social science aspects of child sexual exploitation and Internet crimes against children.
Dr. Cooper has provided congressional testimony regarding compliant victimization of youths who are exploited through Internet technology. She is also a member of an international expert working group on children and young persons with abusive and violent experiences connected to cyberspace, hosted by the Council of the Baltic Sea States, and the Swedish Children’s Welfare Foundation.
Dr. Cooper also serves as an instructor for both the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children where she teaches about the victim aspects of Internet crimes against children and the sexual exploitation through prostitution of children and youths.
Points of view or opinions of non-NCMEC employees expressed on this website are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the points of view or opinions of the U.S. Department of Justice or The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
