The Child Protection eNewsletter

Atlanta new child sex tourist destination…
A new federal law passed in 2003 ensures that American sex tourists landing on foreign soil and hiring prostitutes under the age of 18 can get 30 years in prison. But in Georgia, punishment for pimping or soliciting sex with a girl under 18 is only five to 20 years, according to Deborah Espy, the Deputy District Attorney of Fulton County. http://www.rawstory.com “People are stunned that Atlanta's the No. 1 sex center in the country,” said Cathey Steinberg, executive director of the Juvenile Justice Fund, which funds treatment for abused girls and prevention. The FBI has identified 14 U.S. cities as centers for the sexual exploitation of children. In addition to Atlanta, they are Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, St. Louis, Tampa, and Washington, D.C. In all, an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 underage girls are prostituted in the United States, according to a University of Pennsylvania study.

Homeland Security Official caught in sting…
A deputy press secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was charged with using a computer to seduce a child after authorities said he struck up sexual conversations with an undercover detective posing as a 14-year-old girl. http://hosted.ap.org Brian J. Doyle, 55, the fourth-ranking official in the department's public affairs office, was expected to be placed on administrative leave Wednesday. Doyle found the teenager's profile online and began having sexually explicit conversations with her on the Internet on March 14, the sheriff's office said in a statement. He sent her pornographic movie clips, as well as non-sexual photos of himself, officials said. One of the photos, released by the sheriff's office, shows Doyle in what appears to be DHS headquarters. During online conversations, Doyle revealed his name, who he worked for and offered his office and government-issued cell phone numbers, the Polk County, FL sheriff's office said.

The Homeland Security arrest follows last week’s raid by federal agents on a NASA office in Washington during a child pornography probe. An agency executive is accused of viewing and trading illicit images and videos from his home and work computers, according to a court affidavit obtained by an investigative Web site. http://www.cbsnews.com

In other news...
About 872,000 American children faced abuse or neglect in 2004. About 1,500 of those children died, according to a Department of Health & Human Services report released Tuesday. http://hosted.ap.org The rate of abuse and neglect represents a slight improvement from the previous year. However, the death rate remained essentially the same.

Justin Berry vol4_iss1 testified before Congress on internet predators yesterday. http://abcnews.go.com

A Delaware elementary school teacher accused of having sex with a 13-year-old student has been arrested and charged with multiple counts of rape, authorities said. http://hosted.ap.org She allegedly had sex with the boy 28 times during the last week of March, and on at least one occasion allowed the boy's 12-year-old friend to watch, according to New Castle County Police.

MySpace.com (see vol4_iss11), the fast-growing community website, hugely popular with American teens, has removed 200,000 "objectionable" profiles from its site as it steps up efforts to calm fears about the safety of the network for young users. http://www.msnbc.msn.com

Sexually charged music, magazines, TV and movies push youngsters into intercourse at an earlier age, perhaps by acting as kind of virtual peer that tells them everyone else is doing it, a study said on Monday. http://www.msnbc.msn.com “This is the first time we’ve shown that the more kids are exposed to sex in media the earlier they have sex,” said Jane Brown of the University of North Carolina, chief author of the report. Gee, parents have known that for decades.


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