Preventing Child Sexual Exploitation

Child Exploitation

 Most parents are guardians for their children. One purpose in life is to raise your child the best you can. In good health, education, and to become good people. That is the hope of each parent at one time or another. There are people with the criminal mind that will take advantage of an innocent child. They will use this child for cheap labor, sexual purposes, child pornography, and other purposes. It is a sad and real truth to our communities. We will be exploring child pornography.

Child Pornography

 The perpetrators who take the photos are often related to the victims, or otherwise acquainted in some way (Wortley & Smallbone, 2006c). For example, January, 2012, Neng Yang, a school teacher in Clovis, California, was charged with four counts of producing child pornography. He pled guilty to two counts of exploitation of a minor and as part of a plea agreement admitted to using his computer to record, store, and transmit videos depicting the sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12. Yang was sentenced to spend 38 years in federal prison, and a fine of $250,000 (U.S. Department of Justice, 2014).

The fine was just the beginning for Neng Yang and the school where he worked. The victim’s family took a settlement of $2 million dollars. The investigation of was led by the Central California Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, especially with the help of the Clovis Police Department and the Fresno U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), that led to the prosecution of Neng Yang. If not for investigations like these the schools would have more Mr. Yangs (U.S. Department of Justice, 2014).

It is a time when we can’t even send our children to school and worry if they are being taught or being taken advantage of. There is a good chance that Mr. Yangs’ victim did not sue for profit. The trust this child had was most likely taken away. The result of this would be to be home schooled. The victim missed out on the traditional education, being part of a team, and competing and friending other children her own age.

Vulnerability

Children are born innocent. They are exposed to criminality of adults that they are suppose to trust. Children are raised to look up to adults and authority figures. So, when they are told to do something by a teacher, the child will not question it too much, because they think “This is my teacher. I might get trouble for not listening.” 

Children with a stressful home life may also feel that they cannot confide in a parent because the parent is already burdened with so many problems and may not respond well (Murray, L. K., Nguyen, A., & Cohen, J. A., 2014). The child’s confidence is built through time and may not want to cause more problems by telling his or her parents about an inappropriate behavior. The child may think he or she might get in trouble if he or she told. A lot of children now-a-days are told not to tale-tell, that it is not nice, and they start to think in that mind set.

Perpetrators have their own ways on selecting their victims. They go after children who have problems at home or the loner. When a child has problems at home, he or she would be open and trust someone that is giving them the attention they’re looking for. If they are loners, will that would mean they are looking for a friend. Perpetrators go after the vulnerability of a child and play the part that the child is missing and looking for.

Today you see children with tablets, phone, and computers. No matter if it’s to help with their homework, attend classes online, or gaming, you are letting the threat of a perpetrator into you home. The internet provides them with significantly greater access to potential targets along with added anonymity and the ability to keep things secret (Collin-Vézina, D., Daigneault, I., & Hébert, M., 2013). Not only do these devices greatly expand a perpetrator’s reach, but they remove many barriers to perpetration (such as trying to isolate a child or being able to send inappropriate material) (Collin-Vézina, D., Daigneault, I., & Hébert, M., 2013). It turns out that parents, or guardians, are letting these perpetrators into our homes and the lives of our children.

Prevention

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References

Last Name, F. M. (Year). Article Title. Journal Title, Pages From – To.

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• U.S. Department of Justice. (2014). U.S. Attorneys: Eastern District of California, California. Retrieved from: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edca/pr/former-clovis-teacher-sentenced-38-years-prison-producing-child-pornography.
• Wortley, R. K. & Smallbone, S. (eds.). (2006c) Situational Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse. Crime Prevention Sudies, Vol. 19. Monsey, NY: Criminal Justice Press.
• Murray, L. K., Nguyen, A., & Cohen, J. A. (2014). Child sexual abuse. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics, 23(2), 321-337.
• Collin-Vézina, D., Daigneault, I., & Hébert, M. (2013). Lessons learned from child sexual abuse research: Prevalence, outcomes, and preventive strategies. Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health, 7(1), 22.