Ian LenahanPortsmouth Herald
Before COVID-19, the New Hampshire Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force received an average of 35 to 50 cybertips a month reporting acts of child exploitation. Those numbers skyrocketed during the pandemic.
As people spent more time at home and on screens, cybertips increased to 150 to 200 per month, according to Lt. Eric Kinsman of the Portsmouth Police Department, the commander of the state task force. The tips all point to potential instances of online child exploitation, sexual abuse, and the possession, distribution and manufacturing of child sexual abuse images.
“Many of us, when we were going through COVID, were thinking, ‘Well, we’ve just got to get through COVID and then life will get back to normal,'” Kinsman said. “We thought that once the pandemic was over, once people kind of went back to their daily lives, that the numbers would go back down.”
That hasn't happened. Cybertips have continued to rise, with the task force receiving 180 to 220 reports monthly from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
Not all cybertips lead to charges, but New Hampshire ICAC now typically participates in three to four search warrants a week to seize suspects' technology, Kinsman said. Authorities have taken data storage devices like thumb drives, external hard drives, phones, cameras and computers from suspects and handed them over to forensic investigators.
Parents must be aware children are targets
Kinsman, law enforcement affiliates involved with the New Hampshire ICAC and child advocacy leaders are urging parents and youth to take caution in their internet activity.
“I can tell you that with technology today and with smartphones, there is potentially a predator in every child’s pocket,” said Maureen Sullivan, the executive director of the Child Advocacy Center of Rockingham County. “We are seeing an increase in those crimes.”
As younger kids are exposed to social media and other virtual platforms as technology advances, the threat of child exploitation increases.
“There's more and more ways in which to engage on social media,” Kinsman said. “The other sobering piece is that we're seeing a younger age category (be affected). For the longest time, 12 to 17 years of age was that bracket that seemed to apply to child victims online. But now we're seeing kids as young as 6, 7 or 8 years old online. When you combine now a wider age bracket combined with more social media apps online, it sort of stands to reason why there's that many more cybertips.”
What is NH ICAC? And how is social media used to target children?
The New Hampshire ICAC is one of 61 coordinated task forces across the United States, with over 5,400 members of local, state and federal law enforcement personnel from coast to coast. All fall under the umbrella of the national Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program, which has arrested more than 89,400 people on child exploitation-related charges since it was founded in 1998.
Each state has its own ICAC, though some larger states have multiple task forces.
All electronic service providers in the United States — including social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram and popular apps like Snapchat and TikTok — are bound by federal law to report child sexual abuse material circulating on their platforms. They are mandated to report any instance of a threat, such as the shooting threat that a Berwick, Maine, man made against Portsmouth High School in April 2023 in a Snapchat video.
“Right now the trend is that Snapchat, TikTok and Instagram are kind of rounding off the top three. There’s really seven apps or electronic service providers that are responsible for about 95% of all cybertips,” Kinsman said. “YouTube is popular, Roblox is another one. We get cybertips from Meta, because Meta is Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.”
Almost 100 New Hampshire law enforcement agencies, including many municipal police departments, have signed agreements to be an affiliate of the state task force, pooling resources to investigate, execute search warrants, follow up with victims and families and file charges against suspects.
Niko, an electronics-sniffing yellow labrador, is part of the task force, The dog has helped with roughly 260 warrants, locating hidden cameras and finding devices containing illegal content.
The New Hampshire task force is funded with an annual $355,000 grant provided by the U.S. Department of Justice, which is managed and maintained through the Portsmouth Police Department. The program is also funded by the state with a biennial allocation, most recently $1.3 million.
Dover man sentenced for 'catfishing' exploitation
A 29-year-old Dover man, Evan Gadarowski, was sentenced May 3 by a federal judge to 20 years in prison for possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material.
Gadarowski’s three-year scheme involved him “catfishing” girls by posing online. According to prosecutors, Gadarowski portrayed himself online as a bisexual girl and sought online relationships with high-school age girls, sending, soliciting and receiving sexually explicit content from minors and selling those images online.
“The defendant caused numerous minor survivors unimaginable trauma and pain,” said Jane Young, U.S. Attorney for New Hampshire in a prepared statement. “He used this fictitious persona to gain their trust to obtain explicit images and videos from them. In some instances, when these survivors resisted his demands for more images, he threatened to disseminate the compromising images already in his possession to others.”
Lt. Tamara Hester, commander of the New Hampshire State Police special investigations unit, believes the task force and its affiliates need to continue learning about evolving technology, new social media outlets, the dark web and artificial intelligence to protect youth.
Nearly 1,500 electronic service providers in the United States are required to report child sexual abuse material, according to Kinsman.
“On a daily basis there are new applications and methodologies being employed in order to entice minors in the online world. It’s important that as law enforcement we keep up with the trends,” Hester said. “It's imperative that suspects are held accountable to the fullest extent when they commit these crimes. Harsh penalties will hopefully make others aware that this behavior will not be tolerated."
How can parents protect children from exploitation?
Experts suggest a change in a child’s behavior and willingness to use their devices in front of family could indicate trouble. In presentations to parents, Kinsman challenges them to determine the “baseline” for their kids.
“For example, if your kid normally feels comfortable sitting on the couch in the living room, being on social media or being on their phone, and then you notice that there's possibly a deviation from that, meaning all of a sudden now they're only on their phone when they're in the bedroom or in the bathroom, then listen, don't dismiss it,” he said. “Ask questions. Dig into it (and) find out what's going on with your kid.”
A child victim may also have sudden outbursts, changes in behavior in school or in other social settings, or difficulty sleeping, Sullivan said.
Hester recommends parents maintain an open line of communication with their children about their social media use and online activity, in addition to making the settings of their kids’ virtual profiles as private as possible.
“With evolving technology, it is easier for online predators to share material as well as anonymize themselves in order to attempt to make contact with minors," she said. "With the click of a button, an image or video can be shared to an international audience.”
Kinsman recommends parents acknowledge technology is ever-changing, meaning they’re not going to have all the answers. He suggests parents revert from “scare tactics,” such as threatening to take their child’s phone away after poor behavior, and instead try to create an environment at home where their kids can speak to them if they face trouble online.
“Because unfortunately, the numbers are showing that it's really not a matter of if, it's a matter of when they get themselves into trouble possibly, or possibly make a bad decision,” he said. “We tell parents it's OK to be vulnerable. It's OK to not have all the answers, but be OK with working with your child to figure out those answers, together.”
Kinsman warned of “sextortion” of youth who are interacting with people online, similar to the Gadarowski case.
“If you physically don't know who this person is, and what I mean by physically is that you've met them face to face, and you know that that is who in fact you're talking to, then don't engage,” Kinsman said. “Because right now, the trends are that chances are, it's not a real person. It could be an AI-generated bot that these conglomerates have created, or it's a person with bad intentions. They've created fake profiles, they've created fake profile pictures, and they’re again looking to extort minors out of either more nude material and child sexual abuse material or money.”
Child Advocacy Center of Rockingham County: Average of 300 child victims a year
In some instances, staff members with the state’s child advocacy centers are the first to interview child victims of online exploitation or sexual abuse.
Each of the state’s 10 counties has at least one child advocacy center location. The Child Advocacy Center of Rockingham County has locations in Portsmouth and Derry.
The county center’s staff interview between 280 to 350 child victims a year, according to Sullivan. Statewide, all the New Hampshire child advocacy centers interview approximately 2,000 children a year combined.
In Rockingham County, Sullivan says the center’s average client is a 9-year-old female victim of sexual assault.
For public awareness about child exploitation and abuse to increase, Sullivan believes community members need to stay alert and concerned about the welfare of others, not just family.
“We have lost our sense of community. Sometimes I think we don’t get as involved. I think you have to get involved. If you suspect something, report it,” she said.
At the county advocacy center’s locations, child victims and their families are brought in for a tour of the facility. Victims are never asked why they believe they were abused or exploited, and they are never shown a photo of the incident or their abuser by staff so as not to re-traumatize them.
A family support specialist is offered for wraparound services after the child is interviewed by the county center’s staff, Sullivan added.
“In terms of trauma, we want to make sure kids are growing up to be healthy, contributing members of society,” Sullivan said.
Bills in New Hampshire legislature would combat child sexual abuse crimes
Lawmakers in both chambers of the New Hampshire legislature have proposed several bills regarding the nonconsensual dissemination of synthetic sexual images and crimes regarding child sexual abuse images.
Senate Bill 464 and House Bill 1319 are similar in measure, both targeting artificial intelligence and deepfake technology.
Senate Bill 464 would expand the ban on the nonconsensual dissemination of private sexual images to include synthetic images “that are digitally created and altered to falsely depict the sexual conduct of targeted victims." If passed, the definition of “disseminate” would be expanded to include electronically posting or sharing that nonconsensual content, while a synthetic image would be defined as a photograph “that has been altered or created depicting an individual's image in a realistic, but false representation of the individual.” The bill was referred for interim study by the state House of Representatives.
The same definitions are proposed to be added to statute in House Bill 1319, which was passed by the House of Representatives in March and was recommended ought to pass by the state Senate.
Existing language in state law reads: “A person also commits nonconsensual dissemination of private sexual images when he or she purposely, and with the intent to harass, intimidate, threaten, or coerce the depicted person, disseminates a synthetic image of such person that makes use of and intentionally manipulates or alters a recognizable individual's image or conduct to create a realistic but false image, recording, or digital visualization of the individual’s intimate parts, sexual acts, or sexual activity without the consent of the individual.”
Another bill, Senate Bill 564, would add to the state’s current child sexual abuse images statute. New language inserted to the bill would define a child as anyone under 18 years of age “or something which is portrayed to be a person under the age of 18 and therefore indistinguishable from a child.” The term “indistinguishable” would mean the depiction of child sexual abuse images “is such that an ordinary person viewing the depiction would conclude that the depiction is of an actual child engaged in sexually explicit conduct,” the bill states.
Senate Bill 564 has already passed the New Hampshire House of Representatives and Senate.
The goal is for New Hampshire authorities to be able to charge those found responsible for creating digital child sexual abuse material using artificial intelligence.
“That will allow us to be able to prosecute for that because we do see that whether you have a real face put on a different body, or if you have a completely different, altered person altogether, whatever it might be, we're definitely seeing that,” Kinsman said. “Currently right now we can't prosecute for it, but there will be times when I feel confident that we will be able to.”
Though not in New Hampshire yet, formerly incarcerated criminals charged with manufacturing child sexual abuse images have begun creating artificial intelligence-generated, sexually explicit material, which they cannot be prosecuted for in some states.
“AI is becoming so advanced now that you could have an AI image next to a real image and the difference between the two was almost indistinguishable. It became a real issue,” Kinsman said. “It’s like they were basically laughing in the face of the judicial system, because it's not a real person.”
If the bills are passed, they would take effect on Jan. 1, 2025.
To rescue even one child in distress is a success, Kinsman says. But the goal is for no child to be in that position to begin with.
“When it comes to child sexual abuse material and the possession, distribution and the manufacturing of that material, that’s literally happening every single under our noses right here in New Hampshire and no one’s aware of it,” he added. “That’s why we’re working so much harder now to try and get our message out there and be proactive. To make people aware of it.”
NH ICAC can be reached via Facebook or by calling (603) 629-2758.
