Advice for Parents
Stay Connected
- Know your children's ID's and passwords to all devices, apps, email and social media accounts. Randomly check the accounts and be up front with your child about your access and reasons why.
- Talk to your child about online sexual victimization and potential online dangers.
- Keep your child's computer in an open area, not in your child's bedroom. Do not allow your child to hide computer activity from you.
- Spend time with your children online; know their online friends and habits, and do not allow them to create a personal profile online or otherwise give out identifying information.
- Set rules for computer use for your children, discuss them and make sure that they are followed.
- Monitor the amount of time your children spend online. Excessive use, especially late at night, may indicate a problem.
- Instruct your children to never arrange a face-to-face meeting with someone they met online.
- Review what is on your child's computer. If you don't know how, ask a friend, co-worker, relative, or other knowledgeable person. Pornography or any kind of sexual communication can be a warning sign.
- Use Caller ID to determine who is calling your child, as well as who your child is calling.
Protect your Wi-Fi
- Always make sure your wireless signal is password protected, and can only be accessed by those in your home.
- Unsecured wireless signals can be exploited by predators. To investigators, illegal activity would appear to come from your residence. You would have no idea that someone was using your Internet signal.
Report it
- If you witness or experience cyber bullying, inappropriate posts or messages, or any other behavior that makes you or your child feel uncomfortable, notify law enforcement.
- To create a cybertip with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), go to cybertipline.com, and click "make a cybertipline report". Include all pertinent details: screenshots, usernames and dates. After the cybertip is submitted, if the incident occurred in Ohio it will be forwarded to Ohio ICAC or the closest affiliate.
If An Adult has Contacted My Child Online
- Do not retaliate or respond to posts, emails or multi-media content.
- Gather evidence and document the incident, including photographs of the screen or cell phone.
- Do not delete anything.
- Do not conduct your own investigation. All evidence should be turned over to law enforcement.
- Make a NCMEC cybertip, noting which police department you have contacted.
Source: Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force
A sexual abuse case involving a Springboro boy and girl led investigators to a Mason man who now faces charges alleging he distributed pornographic photos of one of the teens on the Internet.
The case is the latest effort as local law enforcement race against technology to curb online pornography involving children.
According to the 2010 Youth Internet Safety Survey by The Crimes Against Children Research Center, about 1 in 11 children using the Internet received an unwanted sexual solicitation
“These are children being victimized. It is a serious crime,” said Detective Isaiah Kellar, the region’s officer affiliated with the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force.
The Ohio ICAC task force is part of a federal initiative designed to bring together law enforcement from around the state to identify, arrest and prosecute cases in which the Internet is used to lure children into sexual relationships or produce, distribute or solicit child pornography.
From 2009 to 2013, the state task force has conducted 7,079 investigations around the state.
Since 2008, Kellar, a Montgomery County sheriff’s deputy also assigned to the sex offender registry task force, has worked with other agents based in Cleveland and headed by Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty. Kellar is called in when cases that involve multiple jurisdictions reach the Miami Valley.
Child pornography is stored and readily available on a mix of websites and peer-to-peer networks around the world, Kellar said.
“A lot of them are made overseas,” he said. “The laws are not as stringent over there. But a lot are made in the United States, unfortunately.”
While offenders can be prosecuted, images remain available through the Internet.
“These are children being victimized over and over again,” Kellar said. “Once it’s on the Internet, it never goes away.”
Contacted via text
Some cases are prosecuted in federal courts, where sentences can range from probation to 30 years in prison.
In the case involving the Springboro girl, James Morger, 27, is charged in Warren County Common Pleas Court in Lebanon. He faces a felony charge of endangering children as well as charges of disseminating materials harmful to juveniles, illegal manufacture of drugs and possession of criminal tools and drugs. The endangering children charge carries a possible sentence of two to eight years.
Morger and his lawyer, Greg Howard, could not be reached for comment.
Sgt. Larry Cornett, the Clearcreek Twp. police officer who worked the Springboro case, said he is working with federal authorities to have child pornography charges filed against Morger in federal court.
The case began in March during an investigation into an allegation of sexual abuse between a boy under the age of 16, and girl under 13, who met at school in Springboro, according to police. The boy was ultimately sentenced to detention on a rape charge.
After pulling data from the girl’s phone, Cornett found evidence that she had been approached via text message and other digital messaging services “by unknown subjects requesting nude pictures and sexually explicit conversations. The victim sent nude and sexually explicit photographs electronically to the unknown subjects,” Cornett said in a search warrant affidavit.
An FBI agent subpoenaed for a phone number that led to Morger, according to the affidavit.
On July 8, the girl told Cornett she sent nude photos of herself to someone “known to her as Jay” via Morger’s number, according the warrant.
“She denies meeting Jay in person. However, she was requested to come babysit his children,” Cornett wrote.
On Sept. 15, Morger was indicted in Warren County on the drug and child pornography charges. He is free while awaiting trial, although Cornett said he is being monitored electronically by the court.
Predators are ‘ruthless’
Earlier this month, Cornett said he was working another case involving alleged child pornography and expressed concern about the safety of children in the digital world.
“These Internet predators that are out there talking to these kids are very ruthless trying to coerce them to do whatever they want,” he said.
Warren County Sheriff Larry Sims declined to answer questions about how his office assists investigators with child pornography cases, citing concerns it could reveal investigative techniques. The FBI office in Cincinnati did not respond to questions about its involvement in the Morger case.
Kellar predicted child pornography on the Internet would worsen with advances in technology.
“The way technology is, it’s not going to go away,” he said. “Things are only going to get more high-tech. These criminals are going to find better ways to mask what they are doing.”
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