California Teen Who Pimped Out Younger Girls Gets 13 years

Marc Benjamin of The Sacramento Bee writes:

An 18-year-old Hanford woman was sentenced to 13 years in prison for her role in the pimping and human trafficking of younger girls.

Hanford police detectives arrested Jelinajane Bedrijo Almario in May 2016. Though a juvenile, she was tried as an adult for human trafficking, sending threatening emails to a family member of at least one of the girls and making terrorist threats.

The following is by Dr. John A. King

Please read the entire article; it is eye-opening.

A case we are involved with, spanning the last 9 months, includes dozens of female recruiters targeting hundreds of others through social media and recruiting parties. We know of one circle of people responsible for the abuse/trafficking of nearly 3000 girls and boys, many of them underage. When this group holds their parties on national holidays, the recruiters go into overdrive needing to supply hundreds of guests with young people to for sex. Not all ‘guests’ need their services as many bring their own ‘party favours’ to share and trade out for the evening. I know these numbers sound outrageous to people many don’t believe they could be true, they are. They have all we received them from the recruiters who are now in protective custody waiting to testify against the individuals involved.

To read the testimonies of the recruiters is horrific. Stories of their own abused laced with guilt-ridden confessions of trafficking others. Accounts of forced group sex and bestiality. Forced pornography and a range of other activities I don’t I feel comfortable writing about in a public document.

People often ask us how they can make a difference:

1) Share this post with your social media contacts.

2)  Support us as we run seminars around the country raising awareness with community groups, first responders and college students. You support is tax deductible.

3) Organise an event with Give Them A Voice Foundation in your area.

4) Attending a viewing or hold a screening of the multi-award winning documentary Stopping Traffic.

Everything counts and everything helps.

Dr John A. King

Study: Most abductions happen when a child is going to or leaving school

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Do your children know what to do if they are approached by someone without a parent around? News Channel 8 looked into where children are the most at risk, and what you should conversations parents and children should be having.

According to a study done by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, attempted abductions happen most often when a child is going to and from school, or school related activities.

St. Pete Police Officer Mark Williams says typically the abductor is not a stranger.

“More often than not, we find it is individuals that are abducted, are abducted by someone they know, so we want to make sure they understand there is a need to be aware of anyone and everyone who comes up to you and offers you something,“ he said.

Officer Williams suggests parents and children have a code word, something anyone picking up your child would know, so the child knows it is safe to go with them. If the person doesn’t know it, the child should get away, fast.

“The child should definitely turn and walk away, and we hope that if children are out they are with a partner or with a buddy. that is the main way we can keep our kids safe.”  said Officer Williams.

By Amanda Ciavarri

Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner Introduces the CyberTipline Modernization Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner introduced a bill aimed at reforming the CyberTipline Reporting Requirements. The bill will provide much needed updates to better reflect the current operations of the CyberTipline and the process of sending, receiving, and handling the millions of reports expected each year.

The CyberTipline was first launched in 1998 by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).  The CyberTipline provides the public and the technology industry with the ability to report online (and via toll-free telephone) instances of child sexual exploitation including child pornography, online enticement of children for sexual acts, child sex tourism, and child sex trafficking. The initial statute was last updated in 2008.

The CyberTipline Modernization Act will continue the initial work of the NCMEC by adding updated provisions to ensure the protection and safety of reports citing suspected exploitation. This common sense bill makes clear the requirements NCMEC and providers must follow in order to ensure these crucial protections are not needlessly subjected to outdated government regulations.

Congressman Sensenbrenner: “The modernization of this bill would be a significant step forward in the fight to reduce the sexual exploitation of children online. It’s imperative we improve safety standards so we can be actively engaged in preventing the victimization of children and efficiently process and investigate all reports of child sexual abuse.”

Residential Child Abduction Cases

Child abduction stirs significant fear among people throughout the United States. And, this emotionally charged crime can overwhelm law enforcement agencies quickly, particularly those with limited resources.

Even more alarming, kidnappers sometimes remove children from inside their homes, rousing the anxiety of families, communities, and nations. The disturbing reality is that children are not necessarily safe in their residence.

1 However, the infrequency and sensationalism surrounding these crimes may have led to incorrect assumptions by the public and even law enforcement agencies about this unique type of kidnapping.

2 Recently, the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit–3 (BAU–3), which addresses crimes against children, analyzed 32 cases of residential child abduction, “the abduction of a child from the interior of a residence by a nonparental offender who did not have legitimate or permissible access to the residence at the time of the offense.”

3 The findings offer insight to law enforcement officers who handle these cases and initially must consider all potential scenarios, including those involving an intruder. BAU–3’s analysis may help agencies narrow the focus and scope of their investigations.

4 Observations and Findings
Members of the law enforcement community may assume that offenders carefully plan residential child abductions because of the high level of risk. On the contrary, BAU–3’s analysis determined that most perpetrators were unorganized during the crime. For example, many failed to prepare for the kidnapping, and most did not consider forensics while in the home. These findings indicate that such abductions may be more impulsive than planned. When overlaid with the high frequency of sexual motivation, they further suggest that offenders act to immediately satisfy their desires.

Investigators instinctively may have questions about residential child abductions. For instance, with many options available to offenders wanting to take a child, why would they choose to enter an occupied residence—often at night—to do so, considering the risk? Also, how do these kidnappings initially go undetected, thereby resulting in the perpetrator’s success?

Various factors may influence an offender’s decision making process and lead to the successful removal of a child from a residence.

Compared with adults, children are weak, vulnerable, and easier to physically control.

Offenders possessing poor social and interpersonal skills may find a sleeping child easy to mentally and emotionally manipulate.

Guardianship becomes compromised when adults living in the home are asleep or absent.

Recent substance abuse by perpetrators lowers their inhibition of trespassing in an occupied dwelling.

An offender may feel comfortable entering and navigating residences as a result of committing prior burglaries.

Offenses:

Most offenders studied by BAU–3 covertly entered an unsecure residence through the front door. Seventy percent of these incidents occurred between midnight and 8:00 a.m. Nearly three-quarters of victims were asleep, and most offered little to no resistance. In most cases, other children—typically siblings—occupied the same room as the victim at the time of abduction. In half of the cases, the other children detected the perpetrator.

A dog was present in over one-third of the incidents. Surprisingly, in most cases, the animal did not alert anyone of the intruder. One offender reported walking past sleeping dogs.

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Project Safe Childhood Fact Sheet - Department of Justice

PROJECT SAFE CHILDHOOD

Project Safe Childhood is the Department of Justice initiative launched in 2006 to combat the proliferation of technology-facilitated crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children.  The threat of sexual predators soliciting children for physical sexual contact is well-known and serious.  The danger of perpetrators who produce, distribute and possess child pornography is equally dramatic and disturbing.  There is often an international dimension to these crimes – for example, some offenders travel to victimize children outside of the United States or view live video streams (in addition to recorded still and video images) of children being abused in foreign countries.

The department is committed to the safety and well-being of every child and has placed a high priority on combating sexual exploitation of minors.  Through a network of federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies and advocacy organizations, Project Safe Childhood attempts to protect children by investigating and prosecuting offenders involved in child sexual exploitation.

The department expanded Project Safe Childhood in May 2011 to encompass all federal crimes involving the sexual exploitation of a minor, including sex trafficking of a minor and crimes against children committed in Indian country. Failure to register as a sex offender offenses now also fall within the ambit of Project Safe Childhood.

Project Safe Childhood is implemented through partnerships with numerous stakeholders,  including: U.S. Attorneys’ Offices (USAOs) and the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys; the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task forces; federal law enforcement partners, including the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS); advocacy organizations such as the National Institute of Justice; and state, local, tribal and military law enforcement officials.

READ THE  PROJECT SAFE CHILDHOOD FACT SHEET

Make a CyberTipline Report (NCMEC)

In March 1998, using hardware, software, and programming assistance donated by Sun MicroSystems, NCMEC launched the CyberTipline® to further NCMEC’s mission of helping to prevent and diminish the sexual exploitation of children. The CyberTipline provides the public and electronic service providers (ESPs) with the ability to report online (and via toll-free telephone) instances of online enticement of children for sexual acts, extra-familial child sexual molestation, child pornography, child sex tourism, child sex trafficking, unsolicited obscene materials sent to a child, misleading domain names, and misleading words or digital images on the Internet. NCMEC continuously reviews CyberTipline reports to ensure that reports of children who may be in imminent danger get first priority. After NCMEC’s review is completed, all information in a CyberTipline report is made available to law enforcement.

In furtherance of NCMEC’s mission, the CyberTipline allows NCMEC to engage with the Internet industry on voluntary initiatives to help reduce the proliferation of child sexual abuse images online. NCMEC uses the information submitted to the CyberTipline to create and tailor NCMEC’s safety and prevention publications that are provided to educators, parents and the public to help to prevent future victimization.

More than 12.7 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation have been made to the CyberTipline between 1998 and June 2016.

Members of the public are encouraged to report information regarding possible child sexual exploitation to the CyberTipline.

21 arrested across Columbus in online child predator sting

COLUMBUS, Ga. — An undercover sting to root out child predators ended early Monday morning with a total 21 men behind bars.

Operation Hidden Guardian is an initiative by state and local investigators to use fake social media and phone app profiles operated by officers to root out predators.

Columbus Police Department Chief Ricky Boren says all 21 suspects agreed to travel to or around Columbus to meet who they thought were underage kids for sex.

Boren’s release says the operation first initiated when the GBI’s Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit (CEACC) and the Georgia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) first contacted local law enforcement back in August to organize a sting.

Hidden Guardian started on November 9 and over the course of the investigation, more than 600 messages were exchanged between undercover officers and online profiles.  The release says around 400 of the exchanges were initiated by predators seeking a child and steering conversations towards sexual topics. The release says at times the adults exposed the “minor” to obscene, pornographic images or asked the “child” to take nude photos.

Over the past five days, the 21 suspects who either lived in Columbus or traveled to the area for sex with a minor were arrested.

Boren says the suspects range from 22 to 55 with all kinds of professions — from a local car wash attendant to a school custodian all the way from North Carolina.

“There is no profile, there is no standard child predator,” says Debbie Garner, the commander of the Georgia ICAC.

Garner says it’s not uncommon for such predators to have inappropriate encounters with children in their past, even if they have no prior convictions.

“Most often they admit to prior sexual contact with children in the past. As the commander of the task force, that’s very important to me. It tells me we are actually arresting the people who are preying on children and so that these operations really do work,” she says.

“You know there was one person who basically admitted that they had been thinking about touching children and that they felt as though that would have happened in the future. They were almost happy that they were caught.”

Garner suggests parents utilize resources like NetSmartz.Org, an site operated by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The site features tips to keep children’s information safe and signs to watch out for to avoid predators. NetSmartz.Org even has videos from survivors who tell their terrifying encounters with online predators.

Some of the tips include not talking to anyone you don’t know in real life, even if their profile age seems similar to your own.

“It may look like they are a 16-year-old boy or a 16-year-old girl and that’s not actually who they are. you know a lot of times kids will say well they’re a kid too and they’ll accept their friend request,” Garner says. “All they have to do, all a child predator has to do is get one kid to accept their friend request and then the other kids see that they’re friends with them, and then they accept their friend request, so it’s things like that we try to teach kids.”

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DELHI - LITTLE TO CELEBRATE AS CITY YET TO ENSURE SAFETY OF KIDS

New Delhi

As the nation celebrates its 53rd Children's Day on Tuesday, child safety in national capital paints a worrisome picture. While 17 children are reported to be missing every day, three children are sexually violated in Delhi daily, as per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data of 2015.

In the past five years (2012 to 2017 till October 31), 478 cases under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act have been registered and 40,404 children have gone missing.

Entire country was shocked when a Class II student of the Ryan International School in Gurugram was murdered on September 8, raising questions on the safety of children in their second home-school.

While the nation came to term with the horrid crime, within 24 hours, a five year-old girl was raped by her school peon in East Delhi's Gandhi Nagar.

Delhi Police officers claimed that ample measures have been taken to curb crimes against children in the city. There are trained officers who work round the clock to ensure safety and security of children.

Special Commissioner of Police Traffic and Chief spokesperson of the Delhi Police and Special CP (Traffic) Depender Pathak said, “Safety and security of children is of utmost importance for the Delhi Police. Steps have been taken to put a stop to the cases. Officers, who handle cases pertaining to minor children, have been instructed to be polite to the victims. Over the few years, cases have reduced.”

As per the 2015 data of the NCRB, 9,489 cases of crime against children were reported. This contributes as 10.1 to the cases across pan India. 56 lakh was the estimated population of children in the Union Territory. 169. 4 per cent of the cases were taken as cognizable offences.

There were 56 murder cases of children which included 54 victims. The rate of murder cases accounted to 60 per cent. Similarly, 927 rape cases of children were reported in the national Capital where in 928 children became victims. The rape cases accounted to 16.6, as per the NCRB data.

On the other hand, as per the data available with the Delhi Police, 73 cases pertaining to child sexual abuse were registered under the POCSO Act while 5,464 cases of missing children while four children were rescued under the Bonded Labour Act in Delhi.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Police on Monday said that that to ensure that children become aware of cyber bullying and other cyber-related crimes, the computer teachers in schools have been made partners in spreading cyber safety awareness among schoolchildren by organising workshops on cyber safety awareness for the teachers.

“The Delhi Police aims to harness the school computer teachers and computer centres in communicating the importance of cyber safety and how the young, school going kids can protect themselves from cyber crimes. The teachers will also act as eyes and ears for police in recognising the new challenges that the young children are likely to face,” said Suvashish Choudhary, Additional CP (Economic Offences Wing).

The Delhi Police has concluded its fifth Workshop on Cyber safety Awareness for school computer teachers. These Workshops have been attended by more than 723 computer teachers from over 577 schools spread across Delhi.

Parents reunite with missing opioid-addict children after seeing them on CNN

A news report on the opioid crisis has reunited the parents of two different addicts with their previously missing children.

Billy Donovan, 31, was living on the streets of Boston in the grip of an addiction to heroin. “I know I’m going to die from it,” Donovan told CNN’s Gary Tuchman. Donovan says he started with prescription drugs as a teen and eventually got hooked on heroin, a cheaper alternative to opioids like oxycontin.

Friends of Donovan found him after seeing the report and told his mother, Kristina Barboza, where he was. “If my son were to die, I just don’t know how I would go on,” she said in a follow-up story.

Donovan, who’d gone to rehab several times and relapsed, agreed to try again and checked himself into a detox facility.

Meanwhile, 30-year-old Meghan DiGiacomo, also homeless in Boston, was reunited with her parents, who saw the report. Her father, Paul DiGiacomo, has sworn to live beside her on the street until she agrees to enter a drug treatment program.

“I’m never giving up on Meghan,” says her mother, Julie Chandler. “She won’t die. She can’t.”

The story of these two families ravaged by drug addiction is one only too common in America today. The so-called opioid epidemic, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, claims the lives of 90 Americans a day, by some estimates.

DiGiacomo dreamed of getting sober and starting a family one day with her boyfriend, who was also a heroin addict. They both overdosed, but only she survived.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 15,000 Americans died in 2015 as a result of opioid overdoses. And the costs are not just in human lives.

The CDC says opioid addiction takes a $78.5 billion toll on the U.S. economy each year because of the cost of “healthcare, lost productivity, addiction treatment, and criminal justice involvement.”

The problem is getting more severe, with synthetic opioids like fentanyl, which is 100 times more potent than heroin, hitting the market. Police in Arkansas recently warned the public that they could overdose just by touching the handle of a shopping cart if it had fentanyl residue on it.

Aly Raisman on alleged abuser Larry Nassar

In an interview with 60 Minutes, three-time Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman said a longtime USA Gymnastics doctor accused of sexually abusing her and other women gained her trust by bringing her desserts or gifts.

Raisman, the captain of the 2012 and 2016 Olympic teams, told 60 Minutes that she first realized Larry Nassar had abused her after being interviewed by a USA Gymnastics investigator in 2015.

“I was just really innocent. I didn’t really know. You don’t think that of someone, so I trusted him,” Raisman said in the interview with 60 Minutes, which aired Sunday night.

“He would buy me little things, so I really thought he was a nice person,” Raisman said. “I really thought he was looking out for me. That’s why I want to do this interview. I want to talk about it. I want people to know that just because someone is nice to you, and just because everyone is saying they are the best person, it does not make it OK for them to ever make you uncomfortable, ever.”

Filling the Empty Nest (With Money)
Raisman declined to detail the abuse during the interview but said it started when she was 15. She also describes the alleged abuse in her book, Fierce, being released this week.

“You don’t want to let yourself believe, I am a victim of sexual abuse,” Raisman said in the interview. “It’s really not an easy thing to let yourself believe that.”

Raisman is the second member of the Fierce Five squad that won gold at the London Olympics who has said Nassar abused her.

Last month, fellow Fierce Fiver McKayla Maroney came forward to say Nassar abused her for several years, beginning when she was 13.

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Facebook identifies alleged child rapist; Bothell man arrested

Thomas Mahoney, 24, appeared by video in a Snohomish County courtroom Wednesday afternoon, hours after being booked into the Snohomish County Jail in Everett --- on suspicion of child rape and communicating with a minor for immoral purposes.

According to Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office documents, Mahoney met a then-13 year old girl on Facebook last year.

In September 2016, “when she was 14 years of age, she met with him in Bothell, and they had sex” at his home, according to investigators.

The documents reveal the girl’s family moved out of state, so “Mahoney travelled to California” in May and August of 2017, when he allegedly raped her again.

According to investigators, “Mahoney videotaped” the encounters.

Those videos - and explicit Facebook messages between Mahoney and the girl - are now evidence.

In court, Judge Tam Bui ordered Mahoney’s bail be set at $150,000 and issued a protection order to keep him away from the girl should he bail out.

“I’m not going to specifically delineate the kinds of contact, whether it be electronic, person, phone, whatever method,” Judge Bui told Mahoney.

“It is no contact.”

Mahoney has no criminal history.

He claimed in documents the girl told him she was 19 years old. 

However, the girl's mother told KIRO 7 Mahoney always knew the girl's real age and pursued her anyway.

Facebook has turned over to investigators messages where Mahoney allegedly refers to the girl as “this hot little 14 year old” while describing their sexual contact.

The mom says her daughter has been traumatized by the rapes. 

Mahoney has not yet been charged.

Roswell Missing 15-Year-Old Girl

The Roswell Police Department are searching for a 15-year-old girl who has been missing for two days.

Salma Bounajra is a tenth grader at Centennial High School who was last seen walking to the school bus Friday morning around 8 a.m.
Her parents say the girl did not board the bus and did not appear in school.

She was last seen wearing a black jacket, blue jeans, and red Nike sport sandals while walking on the 1200 block of Terramont Drive in Roswell.
The family released the following statement:

"We still do not know what happened to our daughter, why it happened, or where she is now. The only thing we do know is that we want Salma home as quickly and safely as possible. If anyone know anything about daughter's whereabouts, please come forward. We beg you."

Individuals with information regarding this case can contact the Roswell Police Department. The family representative Mohammed Elhammani can be reached at (404) 992-1557, or call Edward Ahmed Mitchell at (404) 285-9530.

Times Of India - Child rights week to be observed from Nov 14 to 20

Thiruvananthapuram: The social justice department, child rights commission and district child rights protection unit will jointly observe Child Rights Week from November 14 to 20. The week will be observed upholding the motto 'Society shapes children and child's protection is society's responsibility'.

The declaratory procession as part of the district level programmes in Vizhinjam will begin from PTM VHSS Maruthoorkonam, Kottukal on Monday at 11am. Kottukal was recently declared as a child friendly panchayat. The students of PTM VHSS will stage a drama focussing on liquor consumption, gender discrimination and drugs. Skits and study classes will be presented in various schools at Venganoor, Kottukal, Mukkola and Kottapuram.

Competitions will also be held in high school and higher secondary categories in essay, drawing, elocution and debate. The procession will be given reception on November 16 at St Mary's Higher Secondary School ground from 8.30am to 10.30am.

As part of the reception, the students of the social works department, National College will conduct a poster exhibition. Public convention, distribution of prizes and street quiz will also be held as part of the reception. Students of MSW department, Loyola College will present various cultural programmes. M Vincent MLA will inaugurate the public convention being organized in connection with art procession reception. ADGP B Sandhya will be present on the occasion.

Facebook and New Zealand Police Team Up to find Missing Children

Facebook and New Zealand Police are teaming up to launch a system for finding missing children.

The Amber Alerts system will be activated if a child is missing, and considered at serious risk of harm.

Once it's activated, people in the targeted search area will receive a notification at the top of their Facebook news feed, which they can also choose to share with their friends.

The alert will include a photo of the child, and any important information about the circumstances in which they went missing.

Facebook director of trust and safety Emily Vacher said all it took for police to activate the alert was sending an email to a dedicated Facebook email address that was monitored 24/7.

"As soon as we get the alert from the police, we prepare the notice.

"People care so deeply about the children in their communities, that really, this was just something that Facebook could assist with by building a tool."

Vacher was an FBI agent on the child abduction team, before leaving to work for Facebook.

She said Facebook was the perfect way to deliver messages that could be life-saving.

"We wanted to create a tool where the maximum number of people who would be able to help could access the information.

"So rather than sharing by individual people, it's a more formal system."

Police commissioner Mike Bush said that child abductions were rare in New Zealand, but child regularly went missing from home and were considered at serious risk of harm.

"Having the Amber Alerts system means we now have another useful tool to quickly contact the public in emergency situations.

"If we can use it to help save even just one child, then it is a system worth having."

It's a tool Robyn Jensen wishes had been available when her 14-year-old daughter went missing in 1983.

Kirsa Jensen rode her horse to the beach at Awatoto, Napier, on September 1, 1983.

She never returned home and, despite extensive police inquiries, has never been found.

Robyn said the story might have been different if a tool like the Amber Alert had existed then.

"Ensuring people quickly learn about a missing child is of utmost importance.

"[This] is a wonderful way to spread the word and widen the circle of people watching out for a missing child.

"To lose a child is devastating but what makes it extraordinarily hard is just not knowing what has happened.

"I remain locked into that moment in time when Kirsa went missing."

The new tool was launched at 10am today at Police National Headquarters in Wellington.

The issue of Bullying for Children With Autism:

The issue of bullying for children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) article - http://t.co/y60dkQkT http://t.co/0lKrg2ip -- Brett Fletcher (@TrinityMount)