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 About INOBTR > Know the Facts
Did You Know… Law, Stats and Facts:
Protecting children online is an issue that impacts everyone and it must be addressed if we are to keep our children safe. The risks are real, and growing.
Stats & Facts
The United States Attorneys’ offices for the Western and Eastern Districts of Missouri have seen annual child sex offense cases triple in recent years. Approximately one-fourth of these cases involve children being lured over the Internet or the actual production of child pornography. According to Family Watchdog (www.familywatchdog.com), Missouri is 8th in the nation when it comes to the number of sex offenders listed in state registries. Click here to find more facts and figures from studies conducted around the nation.
Law
Do you know what the child exploitation statutes are in Missouri? How about the federal statutes? The penalties and punishments are listed below:
Missouri Child Exploitation Statutes Include:
| Section |
Prohibits |
Mandatory
Minimum |
Maximum
Penalty |
566.151 |
Enticing a child where a person 21 years entices a person less than 15 years for the purpose of engaging in sexual conduct, including attempts |
5 years with no parole |
30 years |
573.023 |
Producing child pornography |
5 years; 10 years if the victim is less than 14 years; 25 years without parole if the victim is less than 12 years |
15 years; 30 years if the victim is less than 14 years |
573.025, 573.035 |
Advertising, distributing child pornography |
None; 5 years if victim is under 14 years; 15 years if promoted to a minor |
7 years; 15 years if victim is under 14; 30 years if promoted to a minor |
573.040 |
Furnishing pornography to a minor less than 16 years |
None |
1 year |
Federal Child Exploitation Statutes Include:
Section |
Prohibits |
Mandatory
Minimum |
Maximum
Penalty |
18 U.S.C
§ 2425 |
Transmitting information about a person under 16 with the intent to entice, encourage, or solicit any person to engage in any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense |
None |
5 years |
18 U.S.C
§ 1470 |
Transferring obscene materials to a minor under 16 years of age |
None |
10 years |
18 U.S.C
§ 2251 (d) |
Advertising to receive, trade, buy, or distribute a visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct or to participate in any act of sexually explicit conduct with a minor for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of that conduct |
15 years
(1st offense)
25 years
(2nd offense)
35 years
(3rd offense) |
30 years
(1st offense)
50 years
(2nd offense)
Life
(3rd offense) |
18 U.S.C
§ 2252 (a)(2) |
Receiving or distributing a visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct |
5 years
(1st offense)
15 years
(2nd offense) |
20 years
(1st offense)
40 years
(2nd offense) |
18 U.S.C.
§ 2422 (b) |
Persuading, inducing, enticing, or coercing any person under 18 to engage in prostitution or any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense |
10 years |
Life |
Federal Bureau of Prisons
A recent study of child pornography offenders by Dr. Andres Hernandez, PsyD., Director of the Sex Offender Treatment Program for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, indicates that the majority of the persons in his study convicted of child pornography offenses actually molested significant numbers of children without detection by the criminal justice system. 62 subjects participated in the study, findings include:
- 76% of the child pornographers or travelers (those who travel or intend to travel interstate for the purpose of having sex with a minor) who participated in the study admitted having committed contact sex crimes which went undetected.
- These offenders had an average of 30.5 victims each (child sex victims).
- This group of offenders admitted to molesting a combined total of 1,433 victims without being detected. These are victims, not offenses. If you factor the number of offenses against each individual the number would be significantly higher.
- Findings show the number of undetected sex crimes was significantly higher for child pornographers than travelers.
Missouri ICAC Task Force
Missouri’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, utilizing the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s two groundbreaking studies, Online Victimization: A Report on the Nation's Youth (2000), and Online Victimization: A Report on the Nation's Youth (2006) reports:
- The 2006 survey findings show 1 in 3 children were exposed to unwanted sexually explicit photos, as opposed to 1 in 4 children in the 2000 study.
- The 2006 survey findings show 1 in 25 children received an aggressive sexual solicitation online, as opposed to 1 in 33 children in the 2000 study.
- The 2006 survey finding show 1 in 11 children surveyed were threatened or harassed online, as opposed to 1 in 17 children in the 2000 study.
Produced in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center, these surveys of 1,501 youth aged 10 to 17 documented their use of the Internet and experiences while online including unwanted exposure to sexual solicitation, sexual material, and harassment.
Visit the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children website at www.missingkids.com to learn more about these studies, and additional research done by the organization.
i-SAFE
According to surveys conducted by i-SAFE America, students across the country are engaging in risky behavior online.
- 39% have given out personal information (name, e-mail address, age, gender) online (when entering a contest, playing online games or signing up for websites).*
- 12% have met a new person from the Internet “face to face”.*
- 13% are willing to meet “face to face” with someone new they meet on the Internet.*
- 53% have seen something on the Internet that shouldn’t be on the Internet.**
- 64% know of or have heard about other students who have done something on the Internet that shouldn’t be done.*
* Combined 2003/2004 and 2004/2005 i-SAFE survey of 55,000 students
** 2004-05 i-SAFE survey of 36,000 students
Find out more about the research conducted by i-SAFE, log on to the organization’s website at www.isafe.org
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