NEW JERSEY COPS n MAY 2014
49
iGuardians vs. Predators: ‘Think before you click’
n BY JOSHUA SIGMUND
In a world, filled with criminal activity… one group of heroes
emerges to save our nation’s children.
This may sound like a preview for this summer’s latest superhero blockbuster, but it’s actually the introduction to the U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Project
iGuardian, a first-of-its-kind national cyber safety campaign to
give law enforcement agencies a way to get ahead of the issue
of children falling victim to online sexual predators.
As part of initiating this crime-fighting strategy, ICE agents
have been going out to schools talking to educators and students about cyber safety.
“We all have children and we all know that getting involved is
the absolute key to keeping them safe, aware and educated,”
said Harold Ort, Public Affairs Officer for ICE in Newark. “It’s also
a fact that the internet has become the preferred playground for
child sex predators seeking innocent young victims.”
ICE Deputy Director Daniel Ragsdale related the grave state
of the matter: “The online sexual exploitation of children has
reached epidemic proportions. Increasingly, these incidents
involve young people who are self-producing explicit images
and sending them over the internet. We can’t arrest our way out
of this problem; raising awareness about the risks that lurk in
cyberspace is key to helping keep kids safe.”
In the first major offensive of this epidemic, ICE
put together superhero-style characters – the
iGuardians – complete with official trading cards
developed expressly for the initiative. Cards offer Internet safety tips as well as bios of each of the
heroes and villains. ICE agents have
been making visits to schools,
speaking to students ranging
from fifth grade through high
school during the school day,
and presenting to parents in the evenings.
“Whether a parent or not, all of us in law enforcement have
to step up to the plate,” implored Ort. “Emphasize that parents
should know their children’s passwords and monitor their
online activity.”
The following statistics shed a disturbing light on this epidemic:
• While only 18 percent of children use chat rooms, the
majority of internet-initiated sex crimes against children
are initiated in chat
rooms.
• In 82 percent of
online sex crimes
against minors, the
offender used the
victim’s social networking site to gain
information about
the victim’s likes and
dislikes.
• One in seven kids