State adding funds to fight rise in Online child abuse

By: Dustin Recioppi
Trenton Bureau
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... The Murphy administration has included extra funding to support child abuse investigations for the first time amid a spike in reports of Online exploitation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
..... The additional $600,000 for the state's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force was included in Governor Phil Murphy's budget after the Trenton bureau of the USA TODAY Network Atlantic Group reported a 75% increase in abuse tips last year. [2020]
..... The initial budget documents his administration released did not show state support of his proposed force, but a more detailed breakdown of his proposed spending released last week [03/09/2021] included the additional funding.
..... "Governor Murphy was deeply disturbed by reports of increased levels of child abuse during the pandemic," spokeswoman Alyana Alfaro Post said in a statement.
..... "Allocating additional state funding to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force will ensure that law enforcement agencies have adequate resources to investigate and stop Online abuse and keep our children safe," she said.
..... "If Murphy's $44.8 billion budget is approved with the new funding, the task force would receive a total of $1.2 million for the 2022 fiscal year, since the federal government intends to pay $600,000, according to state Treasury Department documents.
.... "The additional funding included in the governor's proposed budget provides ICAC with the resources needed to help protect children from cyber predators and exploitation," said the task force's new commander," Lieutenant Stephen Urbanski.
..... "At a time when people are spending more time Online due to the pandemic, and the number of referrals to ICAC continues to grow, the commitment to Online safety has never been more important," he said.

WHY THE MONEY IS NEEDED:

.... New Jersey's task force is one of 61 nationwide that were created more than a decade ago to investigate child exploitation and abuse.
..... But the federal government has never fully funded the task force, leaving them short-staffed and with hardly enough resources to adequately address the scourge of sexual predators lurking on the Internet.
..... Even before the pandemic, reports of Online abuse rose exponentially: In 1998, for example, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children launched its cyber tip line and there were more than 3,000 reports of child sexual abuse imagery. In 2018 there were 18 million such reports, according to The New York Times.
..... Law enforcement has not been able to keep up with abusive materials Online, and experts say just a fraction of cases are investigated.
..... The task force vet tips received through the national center for exploited children and conduct sting operations as well.
..... Most recently, the task force thwarted an alleged attempt by a Jersey City police officer to sexually assault underage girls in Atlantic City.
..... The officer had chatted on an "incest chat group" with adults who offered him sex with 10- with and 8-year-old girls, according to the attorney general's office, which oversees the task force.

WHAT THE EXTRA AID WOULD DO:

..... The additional state money would boost the task force's investigative capacity by expanding its operations, training members, raising awareness of Internet safety and creating a squad to combat human trafficking.
..... The state funding is a positive first step for the task force, but it would be only temporary.
.... Some states have enshrined funding for their task forces into law or through fees, but New Jersey has not been one of them.
.... The chairwoman of the senate Law and Public Safety Committee, Senator Linda Greenstein, has expressed support for legislation committing annual funding to the task force.

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