In the past few years a major epidemic of child pornography has surfaced in South Carolina. The Attorney General’s Office this year alone has already had 39 cases of child pornography prosecuted and more charges filed since January 2023.
These materials are being passed among connected child porn networks of men and woman, whom are classified as child predators. An ongoing question in these cases is, “Where is the material coming from?” and “Why can’t it be stopped?”.
Some major critics are linking children agencies such as DSS to this highly underreported crime in South Carolina and the U.S..
Children who have gone missing within State Agencies such as the Department of Social Services (DSS) in and out of foster care programs reappear in the child porn cases, with no explanation of how they ended up there.
Children are perhaps the most vulnerable of victims for such crimes as Human Trafficking’s and Sex Crime’s numbers rise.
Many of these predators are individuals ranging from early 20’s to late 60’s both male and female. Many of them are individuals who you wouldn’t suspect from all walks of life including the Judicial and Law Enforcement areas.
South Carolina joined ICAC (Internet Crimes Against Children) Task Force. The ICAC program is a national network of 61 coordinated task forces representing more than 5,400 federal, state, and local law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies to prevent Internet crimes against children.
The Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, operating through the Attorney General’s Office, is a network of over fifty local, state and federal law enforcement agencies around South Carolina. The ICAC section handles cases involving crimes against children facilitated through the use of technology, including the possession and distribution of child pornography, and criminal solicitation of a minor. The ICAC Task Force also provides Internet safety presentations and training to children, parents, educators, school resource officers, and community groups around the state.
The increasing number of children and teenagers using the Internet, the proliferation of child sexual abuse material, and the heightened activity by predators searching for unsupervised contact with under-aged victims present both a significant threat to the health and safety of young people and a formidable challenge for law enforcement. In response to this problem, the FY 1998 Justice Appropriations Act, Public Law 105-119, directed the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) to stimulate the creation of a national network of “State and local law enforcement cyber units to investigate child sexual exploitation.
”Through this Congressional direction, OJJDP created the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force Program. The purpose of the ICAC program is to help State and local law enforcement agencies develop an effective response to cyber enticement and child pornography cases that encompass forensic and investigative components, training and technical assistance, victim services, and community education.
South Carolina’s Task Force is operated through the Attorney General’s Office and works closely with law enforcement around the state, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), and several other state and federal agencies. In addition to investigating and prosecuting child sexual exploitation, the SC ICAC Task Force also provides statewide training to law enforcement and prosecutors in various practical investigative and forensic areas.