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Identity Theft Task Force
--Protecting yourself from ID Theft
Internet Crimes Against Children
Computer Forensics
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Related Links

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

South Dakota Internet Crimes Against Children Enforcement Unit

Cybertipline - report crimes online

NetSmartz - Offline activities, games, Internet safety pledges

SafeKids.com - Information and resources for being safe in cyberspace

SOC-UM - Safeguarding Our Children - United Mothers Organization

Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC)

Thanks to a federal grant from the United States Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, this Task Force has implemented the ICAC Program to protect children from the predatory activities of criminals who use the internet to identify, contact, and perpetrate crimes against children.

The ICAC Organizational Chart can be viewed as a PDF document by clicking here.  Adobe Acrobat Reader is needed to view the file and can be download for free at Adobe's website.

Detectives Melinda Gobron and James Williams have been assigned to attack the problem of child exploitation over the internet.  This is a two-pronged attack:

1. Actively working on the internet to identify, arrest, and prosecute offenders; and

2. Education of the public, schoolchildren, and parents as to the perils lurking in the internet.

Internet Safety for Kids

The Key is Parental Supervision & Involvement

• Cyberspace provides many benefits for children, but it also has many hazards.
  
  

• One of the first steps toward keeping your kids safe in cyberspace is to become informed about the various sources of information available to your children through the internet.
  
  

• Don't put the computer in your child's room where he or she can close the door and cybersurf unseen and unsupervised.  Consider this a family activity!  In the majority of cases in which children have been victimized or involved in computer crime, the computer has been located in the child's room.
  
  

• Provide rules, guidelines, and ongoing supervision to make sure their computer usage is healthy and appropriate.
  

What You Should Know About Cyberspace

• Computers are a valuable source of ideas, information, entertainment, and fun--but they can also be very dangerous.
  
  

• The potential for meeting criminals, who are eager to lure your kids into undesirable and illegal activities, is becoming greater and greater online.
  
  

• The internet provides access to no-holds barred sex talk and sources for pornographic materials.
  
  

• Remember that people online may not be who they seem.  Because you usually cannot see or hear the person, it is easy for someone to misrepresent him- or herself.  Someone indicating that "she" is a 10-year old girl could really be a 30-year old man.
  

Do...

...use the internet as an educational tool to research and learn about various topics and issues.

...use the internet to help with schoolwork.

...use the internet to "visit" museums in far away places.

...be careful about talking to "strangers" on the computer.

...respect the privacy of other users on the internet.

...use the internet to learn more about universities and colleges that you would be interested in attending.

...be careful when downloading programs from the internet.

Don't...

...give your password to anyone.

...answer messages that make you feel uncomfortable because they seem improper, indecent, threatening, or just "not right."

...give any personal information, such as your family's address, phone number, credit card or calling card numbers, your school's name, or your picture to anyone on a computer network that you don't personally know.

...never arrange to meet anyone you've met on the internet without telling your parents.

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