“Thousands of them are doing it every day around the world,” says Raymond Bechard, who says he stumbled up on this while researching a book on human trafficking called “The Berlin Turnpike.”
Here is how it works: child predators create fake profiles to conceal their real identities and then they “friend” one another to trade video and pictures.
“Ben Little, Ben Small, Ben Young, anything that could sound like a name [that] pertains to someone being a little, small child” is usually an indicator, Bechard says.
A Fox 5 investigation found their “likes” to be similar as well. For example, “liking” the book “Lolita,” about a man who has an inappropriate relationship with a young girl, or “liking” Justin Bieber can both be signs.
FBI officials describe illegal photo sharing on social networks as “rampant.” Nickolas Savage, assistant security chief of the FBI’s cyber division, says pedophiles exchanging pictures on social networks can feed a vicious cycle.
“They can meet other people like themselves, and go off and validate their behavior,” Savage says. “When they trade with others there’s always a sense they need more material.”
Child predators even steal innocent pictures of children that could come from their parent’s Facebook profiles and unlocked photo albums.
Stolen or illegal images can be reported to Facebook right on the site. The company removes them. But Bechard thinks the company should do more.
They shut somebody out, but they don’t lock the door,” he says. “They just come back right in as another profile, putting up the same images and trading the same information with other pedophiles.”
That is exactly what Jerry Cannon, a Kentucky pastor, did. He pleaded guilty in April to charges of posting child pornography on Facebook. Police say he used 13 different false profiles to post more than 600 images. Bechard says he reported Cannon to authorities, which is a job he thinks Facebook should be doing.
In response to an enquiry from Fox 5, Facebook offered this statement in an email: “Facebook takes down illegal content as soon as it is reported to us. In the rare case where we believe the content may constitute child exploitative material, we take it down immediately, use our innovative system to block any further sharing of that content, and actually pull it back from any person’s page that it was shared with. More importantly, we share the content with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and then report the person that shared it to law enforcement.”
Law enforcement welcomes tips from the public. You can report illegal images at cybertipline.com or by calling 1-800-843-5678.
Experts recommend that if you post pictures of your children on Facebook, be sure that your privacy settings are set to share with only the people you trust.
SOCIAL NETWORK PRIVACY TIPS
Two settings you need to worry about: the first is for photos and video you post on Facebook in the future and the second is for the photos and videos you’ve already posted on Facebook. You must adjust the settings in two different places to protect your Facebook photos from being shared with the whole world.
1. Log onto your Facebook account.
2. Click on “account” located on the upper right hand side of your computer screen.
3. In the drop-down menu select “privacy settings.”
4. In the middle lower third of the screen click on “customize settings.”
5. Next to “posts by me” click on the drop-down menu and select “customize” this will bring up the custom privacy window.
6. In the custom privacy window, click on the “these people” drop-down menu.
7. You can now select “friends only.” This will share your content with your Facebook friends. Or you can share with an even smaller group by selecting “specific people.” The “specific people” selection allows you to type in the specific people that you want to have see your posts and photos. This setting also allows you to “hide this from” by inputting specific names that you do not want to have see your content.
For photos and albums you’ve already posted you need to adjust these privacy settings as well:
1. Click on “account” located on the upper right hand side of your computer screen.
2. In the drop-down menu select “privacy settings.”
3. In the “things I share” section, click on: “edit privacy settings for existing photo albums and videos.” This will bring up all your albums and photos with a drop down menu beneath each one.
4. You need to now select and set the privacy setting in the drop down menu under each and every album and video.
Remember: The best way to keep pictures totally private is by not posting them on a social network at all.
