KLAS-TV Channel 8 News Las VegasChild Porn Industry Grew Over 400-Percent Since 2001
The numbers are staggering -- an increase in business of more than 400-percent in the past four years. Child porn is now one of the most profitable businesses online. But every dollar made means another child is victimized.
Fifty-nine-year-old Harold Shaw is southern Nevada's most high-profile child molester and owner of child porn. Investigators found a virtual library of kiddie porn pictures on his computer. And he's not the only one the feds are targeting.
Steve Usiak, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said, "I'd say it's somewhere between 5 and 10 that I know of right now."
Five and ten cases that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is currently working on in Las Vegas. Steve Usiak, the resident agent in charge, says the pictures these sex addicts have are far more than just the innocent photos of a baby in a bath.
Usiak explained, "It's gonna be young teens -- male and female. Maybe, like I say, just standing there or sitting with no clothing whatsoever. Or images with adults or two children together or something along that line."
Usiak says his agency targets those who download child porn from offshore websites, which is a multi-billion dollar business.
Doug Weiss is a nationally recognized expert on sex addiction. He says Americans are some of the biggest customers. "We're seeing more people committing sex crimes than ever before in the history of America."
Usiak says catching the Harold Shaw's of the world is no easy task requiring hi-tech computer work to track down abusers. But the investigations will continue as long as the porn peddlers are pushing their product.
Child porn spans every age group according to a study released August 18th by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Of those arrested with child porn, 83-percent have pictures of kids between the ages of six and twelve, 39-percent have material with children between three and five, and 19-percent have images of infants or toddlers under age three.
There are some ways you can protect your children while they are on the Internet:
It is amazing new technology to protect your children from being kidnapped, and it is now available here in the valley. It is called the "Children's Identification And Location Database." More>>
