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May 12th, 2022category: Feature StoriesBy a Biometrica staffer One-and-a half centuries. Over 400 Indigenous boarding schools run by the federal government, with support from religious institutions. The use of systematic militarized and identity-alteration methodologies in an attempt to 'assimilate Indigenous persons.' Corporal punishment to enforce rules...
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February 9th, 2022category: Feature StoriesBy a Biometrica staffer On Friday, Feb. 4, the Justice Department announced that Aaron Crawford of Maryland had been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison, followed by 20 years of supervised release. Why? For engaging in what Attorney General Merrick B....
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February 1st, 2022category: Feature StoriesBy a Biometrica staffer There's no doubt that combating child sex abuse material (CSAM) is a serious challenge that law enforcement officers, parents, caregivers, and various others involved in or concerned about child safety and protection face. Sample this: Of the 21.7+...
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January 4th, 2022category: Feature StoriesBy a Biometrica staffer At Biometrica, child safety and protection has always been at the heart of what we do. We ended 2021 with a look-back special at various issues surrounding this all-important public safety subject that took centerstage through last year....
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December 6th, 2021category: News Reports
By a Biometrica staffer In July, Biometrica wrote about how human traffickers adapted to the "new normal" after Covid-19 and appeared to be increasingly targeting children online, even as the pool of vulnerable persons who could be recruited by these criminals grew,...
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November 19th, 2021category: Background Check ABCsBy Aara Ramesh Last month, we wrote about some gaps in the child welfare system that can lead to children in foster care being abused. Unfortunately, the reality is that it’s not just those children who can fall prey to abuse. Almost...
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November 17th, 2021category: Feature StoriesBy Aara Ramesh Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, the child welfare system was rife with gaps that made children in foster care extra susceptible to abuse. Like with many other societal problems, however, the pandemic only worsened that situation on a number...
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October 28th, 2021category: Feature StoriesBy Aara Ramesh On Wednesday, Oct. 27, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that a Virginia man, 26-year-old Zackary Ellis Sanders, had been convicted by a federal jury for producing, receiving, and possessing child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The DOJ alleges that...
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October 20th, 2021category: Feature StoriesBy a Biometrica staffer Out of the total federal caseload, child sex abuse material (CSAM) production cases account for only a small percentage. Even so, the expansion of digital and mobile technology has led to a 422% spike in the number of...
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October 18th, 2021category: Feature StoriesBy Deepti Govind One in 10 people aged 18–25 and one in 30 people aged 13–17 experience homelessness each year. To put it another way, in a classroom of 30 students, at least one will experience homelessness this year, which means they...
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October 6th, 2021category: Feature StoriesBy a Biometrica staffer At the end of September, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) released its 20th annual “Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor” report, which analyzed the state of child labor in 131 countries and territories between January and...
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October 1st, 2021category: Background Check ABCsBy Aara Ramesh A year ago, last October, USA TODAY reported in a bombshell investigation that a foster father in Florida had been arrested in 2019 and had pleaded guilty to charges for rape, molestation, and producing and consuming child sexual abuse...
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September 23rd, 2021category: Feature StoriesBy Aara Ramesh The exploitation of children is a real and present problem, one that has only worsened — like many others — as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Children are roped into forced labor; they are trafficked for sex; they...
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August 5th, 2021category: Feature StoriesBy Deepti Govind Just three weeks ago, the Department of Justice said a 53-year old Maryland resident, Jeffrey John White, was sentenced to more than 11 years in federal prison for possessing thousands of files of child pornography. When the case was...
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July 13th, 2021category: News Reports
By a Biometrica staffer An undercover investigation in middle Tennessee ended in the arrests of 18 men accused of seeking illicit sex from minors, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said on Monday, July 12. The operation began on July 8 and...
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June 17th, 2021category: Feature StoriesBy Charlotte Spencer Earlier this year we discussed pending legislation in an article titled, “Pending Hate Crime Legislation in Front of Congress,” published April 22, and a February 4 article titled, “More Legal Firepower Proposed in Battle Against Child Abuse.” More has...
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June 2nd, 2021category: Feature StoriesBy Jan Edwards May 25 was International Mission Children’s Day. Globally, more than one million children are reported missing every year. ICMEC considers any child under the age of 18 whose whereabouts are unknown to be “missing.” This includes children who have...
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June 1st, 2021category: News Reports
By a Biometrica staffer On Monday, May 31, the Center for The Defense of Children’s Rights, published a report in which it said it had uncovered a “disturbing pattern” of child sexual abuse at as many as 18 schools and childcare centers...
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May 11th, 2021category: News Reports
By Aara Ramesh On Monday, May 10, Europol released a new batch of photos as part of its “Trace an Object” program, an ongoing effort to solve child sexual abuse cold cases across the continent. In their public appeal, the agency said that they are particularly looking for details...
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April 26th, 2021category: News ReportsBy a Biometrica Staffer If you talk to any investigator working in child protection, he or she would tell you it is a mentally, emotionally and physically exhausting job, because of the nature of often horrifying crimes they are constantly investigating, the...
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April 19th, 2021category: News ReportsBy Anand Vasu Last week, San Jose-based videoconferencing platform Zoom made a big announcement, which it labeled, “On Academic Freedom for our Higher Education Users.” The crux of the statement was that in the case of Zoom meetings and webinars hosted by...
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April 15th, 2021category: News Reports
By Anand Vasu Cornell D.A. Johnson, of Chicago, was sentenced to 45 years in prison on April 13 for producing child pornography involving multiple minors. Senior U.S. District Judge Michael M. Mihm called Johnson the “ringmaster” of the operation and said that...
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April 12th, 2021category: Feature StoriesBy Deepti Govind If you thought child marriage was a problem that only developing countries faced, think again. It is an equally real, and worrisome, problem in the U.S. too. Read this: Nearly 300,000 minors, under age 18, were legally married in...
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April 7th, 2021category: Feature StoriesBy Kathy Nicholl They meet in an unusual and rather unexpected setting — at a religious gathering. She takes her time and recounts to the judge in her child protection case what her father has done to her. The judge asks if...
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March 31st, 2021category: Feature StoriesHere is a staggering estimate: 75% of victims of child sexual abuse material are reportedly under the age of 12, 63% under the age of eight. Children are more likely to be abused by someone they have a relationship with, either virtual...
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March 11th, 2021category: News Reports
By a Biometrica staffer Michael David Miller of southwestern Missouri was sentenced on March 9 to 20 years without parole, for using a social media app to contact 12- and 13-year-old girls in Canada and induce them to engage in sexually explicit...
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March 4th, 2021category: News Reports
By Anand Vasu The Arizona House passed Bill HB 2889 that will ensure convicted child offenders would not have the option of probation, parole or work release. This means that an individual serving a 10-20 year sentence, would not have the chance...
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February 4th, 2021category: Feature Stories
By Charlotte Spencer The House of Representatives currently has four pieces of legislation before it aimed at better handling child abuse so far in 2021. Of these, one is a reauthorization of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, two are proposed...
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January 28th, 2021category: News Reports
By a Biometrica staffer January 28, 2021 A Texas man pled guilty to conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq, at a hearing in San Antonio on Jan. 25. Jaylyn Christopher Molina, aka Abdur Rahim of Cost, was plotting attacks...
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November 24th, 2020category: News Reports
By a Biometrica staffer A man from Massachusetts was arrested and charged with possession of child pornography, the US Department of Justice said in a statement. Oliver Smith, 45, was charged by criminal complaint and detained pending a detention hearing scheduled for...
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October 1st, 2020category: News Reports
By a Biometrica staffer Ten men from around the US have been sentenced for taking part in a child pornography enterprise and conspiracy, the US Department of Justice said in a statement. Of the ten, three are based in New York, two...
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September 24th, 2020category: News Reports
By a Biometrica staffer A middle school teacher from Fontana, California, was arrested on child pornography charges by special agents with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Josue Gamaliel Vidal Quintanilla, 28, who teaches mathematics at Shandin Hills...
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September 16th, 2020category: News Reports
By a Biometrica staffer A resident of Kansas has been indicted by a federal grand jury on federal child pornography charges, the US Department of Justice said in a statement. The three-count indictment charged Jeffrey Pierce, who lives in Topeka, with producing...
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September 16th, 2020category: News Reports
By a Biometrica staffer A man was sentenced to 35 years in federal prison for repeatedly sexually assaulting a child, producing images of the sexual abuse, and possessing hundreds of images and videos of the sexual assaults. Andres Rafael Viola, an Argentine...
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September 4th, 2020category: News Reports
By a Biometrica staffer Three men from Philadelphia were charged for their roles in a sex trafficking operation that exploited numerous minors from 2016 through 2017 by a federal grand jury, the US Department of Justice said in a statement. Andre Michael...
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August 28th, 2020category: News Reports
By a Biometrica staffer An American man was indicted for exploiting teenage boys in Laos, where he taught English, the US Department of Justice said in a statement. Michael Sebastian, 52, was indicted on three counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct...
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August 12th, 2020category: News Reports
With the covid-19 pandemic keeping many schools shut, children are spending a lot more time online to learn | © Pavalache Stelian - Dreamstime.com By a Biometrica staffer Operation Covid Chatdown led to the arrest of 34 men in Fresno, California, for...
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September 18th, 2018category: Feature StoriesWith the city of San Francisco waterfront in foreground, a container ship sails on San Francisco Bay with the city of Oakland and Port of Oakland in the background. Mt. Diablo looms over the scene. The Bay Area Search And Rescue Council...