Internet Crimes
Internet crimes are being committed against some of our most vulnerable citizens. A survey by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children show one in seven children between the ages of 10 and 17 has received unwanted sexual solicitations online that attempted to contact the child in person, over the telephone or via mail. The survey also indicated that one in three children has experienced unwanted exposure to sexual material on the Internet.
Attorney General Steve Carter is working diligently to protect Indiana’s youth in response to the increasing number of teenagers using the Internet, the proliferation of child pornography, and the heightened online activity by predators searching for unsupervised contact with underage victims.
Attorney General Carter has been committed to protecting youth online since his first term in office as evident in his support to enhance child solicitation laws pertaining to Internet usage in the state of Indiana. He supported the child solicitation law passed in 2002 makes it crime for a person 18 or older to solicit an individual the person believes to be a child under 14 year of age to engage in sexual behavior. This change allows law enforcement personnel to pose as children to catch and prosecute online predators.
In 2008 the Indiana General Assembly passed
the Senate Enrolled Act 258 which prohibits a registered sex offender convicted of certain crimes involving children from knowingly using social networking web sites, instant messaging programs or chat room programs that the offender knows include children. Attorney General Carter was an advocate of this new law and helped legislators craft the language for the state statute. The law will take effect July 1, 2008.
The Attorney General is currently working with the Indiana General Assembly to pass a law that would ban convicted sex offenders from using online social networking sites, chat rooms or instant messaging programs that allow minors to participate. If a sex offender were to break the proposed law, it would be a class D felony, which carries a potential sentence of six months to three years. If the sex offender violates the law again, the charge would be elevated to a Calss C felony, which carries a 2- to 8-year sentence.
The Attorney General is also working with MySpace to boost online social networking safety. MySpace has agreed to take significant steps to better protect children from online predators on its Web site. Under the agreement, MySpace, with support from the attorneys general, will create and lead an Internet Safety Technical Task Force to explore and develop age and identity verification tools for social networking Web sites. MySpace will invite other social networking sites, age and identify verification experts, child protection groups and technology companies to participate.
In addition, the Office is collaborating with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to offer the NetSmartz Workshop (www.NetSmartz.org). This site contains a wealth of tools and resources to help educate youth, parents and educators about Internet Safety.
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