Tracking Down Child Predators Online

Wednesday, November 15th 2006, 10:39 am

By: News On 6

The FBI has two special agents in Tulsa dedicated to tracking down kiddie porn, in their Innocent Images Task Force. Tulsa Police also has four online investigators who handle pornography cases.

News on 6 anchor Scott Thompson looks at how they track down a predator. Cybercrimes detectives say they don't have to search for online predators anymore. The predators come to them.

Tulsa Police say people posting or requesting inappropriate pictures of kids are more common than ever, even though investigators are getting better at their jobs. Tracking down the source of illegal pictures used to take from four to six weeks.

Cybercrimes detective Sgt. Tim Stadler says they can now trace the files in anywhere from 2 days to as little as an hour. He can backtrack through web sites; Internet addresses, and service providers to find individuals posting explicit pictures. They often have to get cooperation from other jurisdictions to serve search warrants or make arrests. That's because porn in Oklahoma often originates out-of-state or overseas.

Even the City of Tulsa's e-mail server has been spammed by foreign porn sites. "It's becoming more and more common, and that's a problem. Because it becomes more of a problem about protecting the children. It's a nightmare."