WEST DES MOINES – DCI’s Iowa Internet Crimes Against Children division works on cases daily trying to keep children out of harm’s way.
The Commander of the ICAC, Nathanial McLaren says, “I dont believe there’s a way to make it stop, there’s been such an increase and an influx of cases.”
Over the past several years, cyber crimes against children in Iowa have gone up 1000%.
“Just last year alone calendar year of 2018, we received 1,993 cyber tips,” says McLaren.
The investigation into the Urbandale man who solicited sex from 14-year-old online is one of the most recent cases. 20-year-old Joseph Itani was arrested and charged with enticing a minor earlier this week.
“We work very closely with our local partners, those local partners investigate the majority of these cases, find the victims, get the victims the help they need. Find the suspects and bring the suspects to justice,” says McLaren.
Cyber tips can come from anywhere. The thought that children are the main target of trafficking, sex, and porn crimes motivates these special agents to crack codes and solves crimes.
McLaren says “Unfortunately adults that are predators put themselves in like applications, like locations, attempt to mask themselves to befriend these children and they’ll have the same problems, or friend issues, parent issues and groom them through a process to get to know them.”
Investigators say these cases aren’t going away anytime soon.
“I don’t know the future, but with the ever increasing number of children online I would expect it to increase,” says McLaren.
Investigators have some tips for parents on how to keep your kids safe. Number one is communication. It’s important to know what apps they’re using and how to get into them. The second is to have a common area for charging their devices. Lastly, the most important tip they say is to have consequences for breaking rules.