More protection for children.

Underage people are the most vulnerable group when it comes to human trafficking in Central America, and this is something people do not talk about, although it is considered the third most profitable illicit business in the world. According to experts, human trafficking needs more social awareness to eradicate it.

Also, children are the ones that do not report this kind of acts, this is the reason why some organizations have taken the lead to express what is happening. Lourdes Gutiérrez, UNODC’s coordinator, explained that human trafficking may occur in these scenarios:

• Within the family.
• Parents may exploit the children.
• Organized crime networks.

The most common form of human trafficking is sexual exploitation. However, there are some others among these:

• Working exploitation.
• Mendicancy.
• Illicit organ extraction.
• Sexual tourism.

The UNODC created the Blue Heart campaign trying to create awareness about human trafficking crimes in the region. Crimes where most of the victims are women and girls.

Honduras became part of the Blue Heart.

Honduras’ sign-up in the UNODC’s campaign is aiming to expose human trafficking crimes in all the possible ways and characteristics, as well as creating awareness on different sectors to achieve real consciousness about this crime.

During Honduras’ sing-up, Karla Cuevas, Minister of Human Rights in the country, was present. She declared that human trafficking is one of the most severe human rights violations and it is considered the new slavery, in the XXI century.

Honduras has rescued at least 194 victims of human trafficking during this year, according to the Interinstitutional Comision Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Human Trafficking’s report.

Blue Heart is a campaign created in 2008 —it means the victims’ desolation, the traffickers’ cold heart, and the United Nations’ color—, and its main objective is to prevent this crime, besides encouraging institutions and civil society, so they can denounce, inform, and sensibilize on this scourge, considered the third most profitable illicit business in the world.

The post Human trafficking: Children are the most vulnerable in Central America first appeared on Counter Pedophilia Investigative Unit - Official Site.

27 people arrested only in Brazil

Thanks to an operation deployed simultaneously in several Latin American countries, at least in Brazil, 27 people were arrested for their alleged participation in a network that used the Internet for sexual abuse and exploitation of infants. The number of detainees in the rest of the countries involved is still unknown.

During the operation in Brazil —which corresponds to the fifth phase of the Operation Light in childhood against pedophilia— there was a deployment together with the US embassy in this country, in which 656 agents were mobilized in 11 states of Brazil and Six other countries for the execution of 105 orders to capture and seize files with content related to crimes practiced on the Internet of sexual exploitation against children and adolescents.

In the first four phases of this operation, whose execution began in October 2017, 546 people were captured, some of them in Argentina.

In Brazil, these things are considered criminal acts: The possession of child pornography, whose penalty is 1 to 4 years in prison. The distribution of this type of material, with a penalty of 3 to 6 years. And the production of content linked to sexual exploitation, for which 4 to 8 years in prison.

Porn in a hospital computer

During this international operation, the Argentine pediatrician Ricardo Russo was arrested. He is currently awaiting an oral trial. The Garrahan Hospital’s former pediatrician, accused of pedophilia, after his arrest in 2018, was proved that he had child pornography on his personal computer and in his office computer.

During the first stage of the case, 270 child pornography videos were detected, shared by the pediatrician in the eMule distribution network. Seven of the videos show girls between 8 and 12 years old, in explicit sexual acts or takes of their genitals.

The experts found in the doctor’s possession at least 761 photos and two videos with girls and boys between 6 and 12 years old. It is presumed that some photos (9 in total) were taken in the Garrahan Hospital. This statement is thanks to an intelligent device on November 24, 2015. On these pictures, two girls between 6 and 9 years old are seen showing their genitals to the camera during their pediatric consultation.

The day after the arrest, on November 2018, a search was made in the pediatrician’s office. Investigators found in their work computer child pornography produced inside and outside the hospital. Currently, the pediatrician is under house arrest.

His capture was part of Operation Light in Childhood, whose purpose is to go against child pornography networks and pedophiles. In this case, the concern is in the profession that the perpetrator exercised, since he had direct contact with the children, he gained their trust and produced pornographic material in the same consultations.

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Silicone girls

The dolls have seized weighing approximately 25 kilograms, the weight of a child of 7 years, and its anatomy is very accurate, something that differentiate them from the typical inflatable dolls. These dolls can cost thousands of euros and are being imported into the United Kingdom to be sold through online portals trade, as indicated by the British National Crime Agency (NCA, for its acronym in English).

This operation has been being carried out since March 2016 and, so far, 123 dolls have been intercepted in less than a year. The British government has formally made accusations to the importers of this product; They even jailed a man last month in relation to this disturbing case.

In parallel, while seizures have been made public, the legal proceedings filed against a former director of a primary school is being followed, he also was a former church guard of 72 years, whose appeal was dismissed because he alleged in his defense that the doll acquired by Internet is not obscene. After rejecting the request to withdraw the charges, the accused pleaded guilty of importing this girl looking sex doll.

Also seven men accused of possessing these dolls face charges related to child pornography offenses. Deputy Director of Operations of the Border Intelligence Force relied on this fact to argue that those who buy these dolls -manufactured in China and Hong Kong-, often commit other sexual crimes.

Although the fact of having a doll is not illegal by itself, it is believed that those who acquire these items, in many cases, are involved in other crimes such as production, distribution or possession of pornography, in which the victims are minors.

The agents of the British Border Force enjoy the power to confiscate items that create indecent or obscene, under the customs rules, and those that ship them can be legally prosecuted.

A possible solution or more perversion for pedophiles?

As in the UK, the state of Florida in the United States also has vetoed the sale of these dolls. According to the draft state on the southern US, it is considered that there are parallels between the effects of pornography consumption and use of dolls in people with pedophilic inclinations.

This finding coincides with a study conducted by the University of Ottawa, where it was determined that the frequency of use of pornography was the biggest risk factor for repeat sex offenders.

One of the major manufacturers of these dolls is the Japanese company Trottla, whose founder is the entrepreneur Shin Takagi, who publicly expressed his pedophile tendencies. Takagi says that his “works of art” help people who want to express your wishes legally and ethically.

However, increasingly, the dolls are considered obscene globally. Such is the case of the Australians, who made a formal request to prevent importation in 2016, prompting the Department of Immigration and Border Protection country to conclude that possession of these products is considered a form of child exploitation.

Currently, there is no scientific evidence to suggest that the acquisition of the dolls is an effective psychological therapy for those with pedophile tendencies. Moreover, the price of sexdolls is an indication that pedophilia does not understand classes; high costs presume that those who acquire are people with high incomes. So in order for these people to satisfy their sexual tendencies, they have to spend a lot of money, scandals in the past years indicate the same, pedophiles practices tend to find their ways into high places in the economic spectrum of society.

The post British authorities seized child-like sex dolls first appeared on Counter Pedophilia Investigative Unit - Official Site.

Broken Heart

The OP – christened Broken Heart, taking place between April and May and led by the specialized office against Internet Crimes Against Children—was meant to detect people who produce and distribute child porn, as well as those who consume this type of material, either just by watching it or downloading it.

The OP also targeted pedophiles and people involved in the sexual traffic of minors, who travel the country and foreign lands to sexually abuse children, said the office.

For attorney general Bill Barr, these types of crimes are the most repugnant and victimize the most vulnerable part of the population, which also happens to be the most innocent one. The office’s criteria is that the entire weight of the law should be employed against sexual predators.

The Internet Crimes Against Children’s office (ICAC), the one behind this OP, was founded in 1998. It has a record of 95.000 arrests, for an average of 13 per day. The sentences given to these kinds of crimes in the U.S.A. are generally very strong.

Pedophiles receive between 6 to 20 years behind bars for enticing minors to produce child porn, exploiting a minor or simply possessing these types of images in their electronic devices.

Child porn is considered a profitable business, which has made us witness an epidemic of child exploitation from all social levels, as Ryan Spradlin, the prosecutor in charge of the investigation, says. Afterwards, he added that parental guidance is key, as parents can help children identify the dangers of online predators, become aware and protect themselves.

How is pedophilia discovered online?

Recently, a child porn production and distribution network was discovered in Argentina, thanks to the group effort of several countries’ specialized offices and after an alarm was rang at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Victims (NCMEC).

The center is allied with the United States’ security forces and the most important internet companies in order to monitor the contents shared on the web and thus detect potential situations of child abuse. Thanks to an agreement between Argentina’s prosecutor’s office and this non-profit organization, the foremost receives reports divided in four different categories:

• A child is detected as being abused in a live video.
• A minor is noticed to belong to a familiar environment and all the porn involves him or her.
• When the photographs are of an amateur nature, but familiarity is noted between the child and the pedophile.
• When internet providers provide reports that do not include the country of origin.

To detect child porn, A.I. software is used to analyze great amounts of data. Important companies can track information on the daily, turning the files into 20-character alphanumerical codes. The moment someone copies or spreads this material, a bell is rang.

The OP took place with the support of the Brazilian and Argentinian governments alongside North America’s Homeland Security, with the help of NCMEC in order to dissolve a pedophile ring in Argentina.

The post «Broken Heart»: A U.S.A. OP against pedophiles led to 1.700 arrests in two months first appeared on Counter Pedophilia Investigative Unit - Official Site.