Posted Monday, November 2, 2009 -- 10:15 pm
By NBC15's Dana Brueck

Wisconsin's Attorney General calls it a top priority - Internet crimes against children.

Now ... a closer look at how investigators tackle what they call an epidemic - and how you could unknowingly become a part of it.

"They're out there."
"They're looking for it."
"They're lusting after it."
"That's a scary situation. That's the world we live in."
...A world where it's easy to access child pornography from almost anywhere...

"Well... looks like we're in... "

Special Agent Eric Szatkowski hit the road to demonstrate how this hidden world can hit home.

"You wouldn't leave your doors unlocked at night for people to come in and go through your house."

NBC15 went "war driving" with Szatkowksi, a special agent with state's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

"War driving" is accessing unencrypted wireless, and we had no problem!

"In a matter of seconds, I'm in... signal strength is very good."

In August, Anthony Miller of New Richmond, WI, was sentenced for two counts of possession of child porn. Miller admitted to accessing people's wireless from his laptop while on duty as a police officer.

"Now we're in a chat room... notification... we're currently recording IP addresses..."

But if a predator's downloading child porn when "war driving," Szatkowski says people need to understand, it could be their IP address suspected of the crime.

"If you don't have encrypted wireless, you're just looking for trouble."

While "war driving," we watched another crime unfold at our fingertips...

Szatkowski entered an adult, Yahoo chat room, but his profile, that of a 13-year-old girl from Madison!

"This person has asked if I want to look at his web camera."

Within minutes, Szatkowski's profile has multiple requests...

"And there you have it."

... the image of a man masturbating ...

"This could actually develop into an investigation."

Later, the man demands pornographic pictures - even after Szatkowski types, "I'm 13 mom will kill me."

The man says "juss send... i'll b fine."

"Guys that do this with me, they're doing it with other children."

And there's no shortage of them in this chat room.

This user, a 41-year-old man from Canada is told right away he's chatting with a 13-year-old girl.

But still asks if we can see him masturbating via webcam...still asks for pics ... and still tries to call us repeatedly.

This time, Szatkowski's posing as a child. But he could've as easily posed as a man, looking to trade child pornography -- all of his activities leading back to a stray wireless signal.

"Law enforcement could very easily knock on their door."

If this scenario has yet to hit home... Szatkowski, a father himself, says consider this...
"... He taught my daughter and son about things like communion ... "

Szatkowski would, coincidentally, end up arresting a man from his local church...during a sting operation. A man whom he trusted with his own children.

"If it could happen to me, someone who does that kind of work, it could happen to anybody."

Law enforcement has seized tens of millions of images through the years. But studies also show a correlation between viewing child pornography and molesting children.

You can find information about how to protect your child under News Links here at nbc15.com

Part one of this Special Assignment is below.

Posted Monday, November 2, 2009 -- 6: 15 pm
By NBC15's Dana Brueck

The Internet opens up a world of opportunity for children, but it also puts them at risk - one in seven youth online report a sexual solicitation.

And, every week, investigators get thousands of reports of child pornography. But they say it's only a fraction of what's actually out there.

"These are the case files that I've been assigned."

Like many people, Tim Lokrantz spends his work days in front of a computer screen.

"I try to work at least four cases at a time."

His work is careful.

"These are the key words... I'm stepping through... "

It's also, at times, overwhelming.

"Some of them come in with 20 hard drives, 30 hard drives... hundreds and hundreds of CDs."

But it's hardly the volume...

"I don't listen to the volume, I can't."

...that's the toughest part.

"It's bad stuff. There's no two ways about it."

Lokrantz is one of six criminal analysts in Wisconsin's task force for Internet Crimes Against Children.

"We capture just about everything..."

Every day, he digs for evidence of child enticement and child pornography...
"...images, movies, chat sessions..."
...in computers ... stacked floor to ceiling.

"You're talking anywhere from infants to 15-year-old kids, boys and girls."

"I give a lot of credit to those people in our office who deal with this stuff," Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen says, "Because I can't."

Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen says he considered prosecuting a child pornography case himself, as U.S. Attorney.
"I took the materials and started looking at some of the discs..."
He later returned the file to an Assistant U.S. Attorney used to handling such cases.
"I got so sick to my stomach, I couldn't do it."

In 2007, Van Hollen took office as Attorney General. He decided to make Internet crimes against children a top priority, requesting more agents and analysts.

"If it weren't a felony itself, I'd like to show some of the videos in the legislature and say, OK, you tell me that preventing this is less important than anything else."

Since the task force began 10 years ago, investigators have arrested roughly 600 individuals. But the Attorney General calls it a drop in the bucket.

"You talk about the cops being outgunned on the street. We're being out tacked. The bad guys are getting bigger hard drives, faster machines," Lokrantz says.

To put into perspective how widespread the problem - a map of Wisconsin - full of red dots - shows more than 20-thousand IP addresses, suspected of having downloaded child porn last year.

"If police say, well, we don't have the time or the people to track down who owns that car and to try to solve this bank robbery, people would say you gotta be kidding me. But we have that with Internet crimes against children," Van Hollen says.

Investigators, like special agent Eric Szatkowksi, have the leads - the IP addresses - but offenders have an edge by sheer numbers.

"Can you imagine everything that's out there, that we don't know about?"

But Lokrantz also will discover the same images in different cases... the same child, repeatedly victimized with every click of the mouse.

"Your heart skips a beat every once in a while .. you'll see these cases, and ... you want to do your best, to get these people and that's our job," he says.

We have a number of resources to make sure your child is safe - go to News Links here at nbc15.com.

Attorney General Van Hollen’s Internet Safety Tips for Parents

Be an Active Parent. Keep open lines of communications with kids about Internet use. This process should begin as soon as a child gets online.

Prepare Your Children for the Online World as You Do the Real World. Make no mistake, the online world is real, and so are its dangers. Talk to your children about the benefits and dangers of the Internet. You tell your kids not to jump into a stranger’s car alone and why that’s dangerous; tell them why they shouldn’t travel the Internet Highway alone and why that is dangerous.

Watch Internet Use. Internet predators are watching your kids online. You need to be, too. One suggestion: keep computers in common areas.

Use Software Resources. Use filters that block inappropriate websites or online services that are harmful to kids. Consider installing monitoring software, which records everything kids do online, from instant messaging to videos to picture trading.

It’s Not Just the Computer. Find out how your kids are communicating and understand the technology. If you can’t appropriately supervise use, don’t allow it.

Report Online Exploitation. Call local law enforcement or the Wisconsin ICAC Task Force at (608) 266-1671.

Find Out More. Visit the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s “net smartz” websites. www.netsmartz411.org is geared to help parents; www.netsmartz.org includes information for parents, kids, educators, and law enforcement. We use these materials. You should too.