PROJECT SAFE CHILDHOOD CONFERENCE

CLOSING SPEECH
PROJECT SAFE CHILDHOOD CONFERENCE
WASHINGTON, D.C.

December 6, 2006

Ernie Allen, President and Chief Executive Officer
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children


On Monday you heard from Attorney General Gonzales, who sent a loud, clear message that even in this time of national concern about terrorism and so many other problems, the protection of children is a top priority. He told us that America’s children are “under siege every day,” and that that we have to do more to target those predators who “hide in the shadows of the Internet.”

In what I believe is a clear profile in courage, General Gonzales has taken this message across the country, speaking in tough, vivid, often graphic terms, describing the atrocities being committed against children so that people really understand. His goal is to spur the nation to act, and clearly, those of you who are here today are the frontline of that effort.

These are issues and problems that good people do not want to think about and regarding which there is an overwhelming sense of denial. For example, I submit that most Americans still do not understand a fundamental fact: that kids are the single most victimized segment of our population. They are the victims of violent and personal crime at a rate twice as great as the rest of the population. They are the primary victims of the nation’s sex offenders. And the challenge is growing.

Here is what we know:

Leading scholars and researchers tell us that on the most conservative basis, 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 10 boys will be sexually victimized in some way before they reach adulthood, and just 1 in 3 will tell anybody about it.

As of December 1, 2006, there are 593,000 convicted, registered sex offenders in the US. At least 100,000 of them are noncompliant with legal requirements, many of them actually missing.

According to Justice Department data, 2/3 of the victims of reported sexual assault are kids. One out of every three victims is under age 12.

A study by the National Center for Victims of Crime estimated that 61% of rape victims are less than 18, 29% less than 11.

It is daunting but it is not hopeless. We are making progress. The federal government is doing more on these issues today than at any time in the nation’s history. We have an Attorney General who is committed and cares. With the enactment of the PROTECT Act in 2003 and the Adam Walsh Act in 2006, there is new law, new prosecutorial tools and significant new federal penalties. We have more investigative resources than ever before: 47 Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces, an expanding Innocent Images National Initiative at the FBI, a CyberCrimes Center at ICE, dedicated investigators at the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, a new effort headed by the U.S. Marshal’s Service and mandated by the Adam Walsh Act to track down America’s noncompliant sex offenders, new specialized units within state and local law enforcement across the country, and much more. There are many exciting, effective new programs to educate parents and kids and to prevent child victimization via the Internet, and there is a greater commitment to collaboration and cooperation than ever before.

Yet, as the Attorney General told us Monday, we are not doing enough. There are more offenders than any of us thought possible. There is a lack of consistency and uniformity of law among the states. There is a lack of awareness about the nature and severity of this problem among policy makers and the general public.

How can we impact problems which are so large and complex? Let me briefly focus my comments on two key areas:

(1) Online Enticement of Children – According to our recent study, one in seven youth aged 10 to 17 who are regular Internet users are sexually solicited online. That translates to millions of kids, and it suggests that there are thousands of offenders whom we have not yet identified and brought to justice.

The Attorney General told us on Monday that we must use whatever law is most effective, whatever law generates the largest number of convictions and the longest sentences.

Under federal law, online enticement is a felony punishable by a minimum prison term of 10 years and a maximum of life imprisonment. However, while all 50 states consider the online enticement of a child for sexual activity a crime, the penalties vary widely from state to state and may range from a simple fine to life in prison.

In 34 states, adults who entice children for sex via the Internet may spend less than a year in jail.

Fifteen states permit misdemeanor penalties in some cases, particularly if the victim is 14, 15, 16 or 17 years old. This is a huge problem because these laws fail to protect those who are the most likely to be solicited online: teenagers.

Nineteen states classify online enticement as a felony, but grant judges statutory discretion to sentence offenders to less than a year.
In fifteen states, judges have statutory discretion to sentence offenders to simply pay a fine in lieu of serving time in prison.

We believe that these disparities create loopholes for criminals. They allow sexual predators to find states with the most lenient laws and to carry out their illicit activities from those locations. Further, inconsistent laws have little deterrent effect, because they send mixed messages.

To better protect children from online predators, we urge states to use the federal law as the model and make the sexual enticement of children a felony in all cases—even when the victims are older teens, and follow federal sentencing guidelines.

We also recommend that laws stipulate that offenders must be prosecuted, even in cases involving law enforcement enticement stings. In too many instances we still hear, “it wasn’t really a child.” The offender didn’t know that. These law enforcement officers are often the buffer between the offenders and real children.

We need a unified front against online predators. To be effective, state online enticement laws must be tough and consistent and penalties must include prison time that recognizes the severity of the crime.

(2) Child Pornography – In 1982 the Supreme Court of the United States said that child pornography is not protected speech, it is child abuse. Law enforcement responded and child pornography disappeared from the mails and the shelves of adult book stores. Ten years ago, we felt that the battle was nearly won. Yet, with the advent of the Internet, this problem has exploded. We have been stunned with the sheer number of people who are accessing and distributing this insidious content. It far exceeds what we thought possible.

A 2001 survey conducted by ECPAT International and the Bangkok Post estimated that there were 100,000 child pornography web sites.

In 2003, the National Criminal Intelligence Service in the United Kingdom estimated that child pornography web sites had doubled worldwide.

Economic research organizations tell us that today commercial child pornography is a multi-billion dollar industry.

In one case that I cite frequently, at the time of their arrest, two husband and wife child pornography entrepreneurs had 70,000 customers, paying $30 per month and using their credit cards to access graphic images of young children being sexually assaulted. Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said it best:

if people were purchasing heroin or cocaine and using their credit cards, we would be outraged and would do something about it. This is worse.

It is clear that the sexual exploitation of children is no longer the exclusive province of fixated pedophiles, trading images with each other, it is now big business, a profit center for organized crime, extremist groups and various entrepreneurs. Children have become a commodity.

In a recent article, the Russian publication Pravda cited five reasons for this phenomenon:

Children are plentiful and easily accessed;
Child pornography is easy and inexpensive to produce;
There is a huge consumer market for it;
It is enormously profitable; and
There is virtually no risk, far less than traditional commodities like drugs, guns, and tobacco.
Our challenge is to increase the risk and eliminate the profitability.

Yet, to do that, it is our task to make sure that policy makers and the public understand the problem. One official said to me, “isn’t child pornography really just adult pornography, 20-year-olds in pigtails made to look like they are 15?” Well, not exactly. We know that younger and younger children are being used and victimized, and that images are becoming more graphic and more violent. Of the offenders identified to date, 39% had images of children younger than six years old, 19% had images of children younger than 3.

We have set a goal: to eradicate commercial child pornography by 2008. We have created a Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography, including MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Bank of America, Citibank, Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo, Google and many others – 27 companies working together to follow the money, stop the payments, shut down the sites, block the images, and eliminate this insidious problem.

In most of the world, child pornography is not even a crime. In 95 of the 186 member nations of Interpol, there are no laws at all on this subject. Recently, I met with a group of Russian legislators to urge them to enact tough legislation in this area. A Russian Senator said to me, “we will help, but you need to do something about the demand. The people who are buying this stuff are Americans.”

She is right, and we need to do something about it. We need to arrest and prosecute those who are consuming it. We need to identify the children being used in its production and get them help. And we need to use every possible tool to keep this content from ever reaching the consumer.

We are trying to do that. For example, we are working with Internet Service Providers to block access to identified illegal content, again only after law enforcement has made its decision to investigate or not investigate.

Arrest and prosecution are always the first priority, but as in the war against drugs, it is not going to be possible to prosecute everybody. In those cases, we need to use every tool imaginable.

On Monday, the Attorney General laid out his vision:

Get the pedophiles and sexual predators off the streets;
Increase the penalties and keep them behind bars; and
Engage in what he called “old-fashioned communication.” He said, “we must speak and speak again and speak more loudly.”
This is a challenge we can and must accept, and this is a cause that we can win. So, in conclusion, let me challenge you to do more.

When the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children was created in 1984, it was officially opened on June 13, 1984 in a ceremony at the White House, hosted by the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan. President Reagan officially opened the Center with an old, corny poem by Helen Kromer, but I submit that it is as relevant and applicable today as it was 22 years ago.

One man awake can awaken another
The second can awaken his next door brother
The three awake can rouse the town
Turning the whole place upside down
And the many awake make such a fuss
They finally awaken the rest of us.

Congratulations on the extraordinary work you have already done, but it is time to do more. Help us wake up America.


Project Safe Childhood



Very good Information and satistics and very sad.................



CLOSING SPEECH
PROJECT SAFE CHILDHOOD CONFERENCE




http://www.missingkids.com:80/missingkids/servlet/NewsEventServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=2948

Vital Missing Person Information

Current as of the August 31, 2006 indexing

According to the FBI-NCIC there are (approximately) 109,968 Missing Persons

There are (approximately) 6,175 Unidentified Persons listed their system. Children and adult.

These numbers are better understood with the impact of our missing as follows:
Take the total number (right now) averages 9,164 per month of reported missing persons; which brings us to 58 planes per month crashing holding 158 passengers each.



Monica Caison
CUE Center for Missing Persons
PO Box 12714
Wilmington, NC 28405
(910) 343-1131
(910) 232-1687 24 Hour Line
Email: cuecenter@aol.com
Website: http://www.ncmissingpersons.org/

Ahren Benjamin Barnard

Ahren Benjamin Barnard
Disappeared from Boise, Idaho
on December 4, 2004

Today is the two-year anniversary of my son's disappearance from
Boise, Idaho. Please help us keep his memory alive until we find him
by forwarding this Candle of Hope to your friends, family and
business associates. Someone knows what happened to Ahren,
and your participation may be the key that unlocks the mystery in
some unknown way.

PLEASE take a moment to keep this email going by forwarding it to
as many people as you can, and encourage them to do the same.

If you have any information on Ahren's disappearance, please contact
me at info@HelpFindAhren.com or Sgt. Mark Barnett of the Boise
Police Department at 208-373-5401.

Please, before you delete this, think of what you would do if your
loved one didn't come home today. Most of us who have had a loved
one go missing never expected it to happen to our families, and yet a
child disappears every 37 seconds in our country. Adults go missing
at a similar rate.

Please take a moment on this special day to help us remember
Ahren by sharing his Candle of Hope. I am forever grateful for your
kindness! Thank you.

Vicki Barnard
Mother of Missing Ahren Barnard

Eva DeBruhl

Eva DeBruhl was like many teenage girls her age. There were some ways that she was different also. Eva was a very sweet, loving and beautiful 15 year old girl. She loved to sing gospel music at church. In fact, Eva, her father, and one of her sisters were always invited to other churches to sing together. The three of them even recorded tapes of them singing together. Eva loved singing with her father and sister. And they loved singing with Eva just as much. Little did they know, going back and listening to the tapes were going to be the only way they were ever going to hear the beautiful girl sing again. On June 29, 1977, Mr. DeBruhl had went to work that morning. Mrs. DeBruhl worked third shift at a local mill, so she had came in from work that morning and had laid down to rest for a while. With her father at work and her mother lying down to get some rest after work, Eva decided she was going to cut the grass for her parents. She did just that. At some point after cutting the grass, Eva was going to take a bath and make herself a glass of tea. Mrs. DeBruhl awoke from her nap a few hours later. She looked and looked for Eva but saw no sign of her. She only found the glass of ice sitting on the counter that Eva was going to fill with tea and a bath tub of water that Eva never bathed in. The recliner in the living room was also stretched out as if someone had been stretched out in it watching TV with the PTL Club, a Christian based TV program with Jim and Tammy Baker, playing. Mr. DeBruhl was home by this time and the two of them searched around the house and called friends to see if Eva was at their home by chance. Eva had always asked her parents about going to a friends house before. She had NEVER just left without telling anyone. Mr. and Mrs. DeBruhl could not find any trace of Eva so they called the York County Sheriff's Department to report her missing. The Sheriff's department filed a report and performed a search of Landsford Canal State Park. Still, to this day, there has been no sign of Eva, nor has anyone heard from her. Over the years, Mr. and Mrs. DeBruhl tried many times to have Eva's case re-opened to no avail. Even up to one week before Mr. DeBruhl passed away in 1997, he was at the Sheriff's department trying to get answers into his daughter's disappearance. The family has now been in contact with Monica Caison, founder of CUE Center for Missing Persons out of Wilimington, NC. We can't thank her enough for everything she has done for our family and Eva's case. To know that there are still wonderful people such as herself and the people associated with her organization is truly awesome. Each of them are gifts from God himself. Since Monica and her team have been involved, there has been more movement in Eva's case than there has been in the past 28 years.

CUE's - COLD CASE FILE



If you have any information about Eva's disappearance please call:

YORK COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPT. - 803-628-3059

Detective Jerry Hoffman

OR

CUE CENTER FOR MISSING PERSONS

Monica Caison

910-232-1687

24HR. LINE

Please help us in supporting a very special lady!! Monica Caison has been nominated for the Volvo for Life Award. Go to the link below and click VOTE! Monica lives in North Carolina

Monica has been an inspiration to our family. We cant thank her enough for all that she has done with getting Eva's case back out to the public eye. We would also like to thank Monica's family for sharing her with us.



http://www.volvoforlifeawards.com/cgi-bin/iowa/english/heros/hero2004/5070.html

Jason Jolkowski

Our then 19 year old son, Jason Jolkowski, disappeared from our Omaha, NE home on Wednesday, June 13, 2001. The story of his disappearance has been covered by the local media & a reward fund has been established by our employers for information leading to his safe return home. There are no leads at this time. We are asking the general public to assist us in getting posters placed. If each family were to place 5 posters each, the impact would be tremendous. You can print posters from your own computer by clicking on the "printable poster" link below. We always think tragedies like this happen to someone else, but it can happen to any family, anytime.

Please help our family.

"Click Here for a Printable Poster of Jason." http://www.projectjason.org/downloads/JasonJolkowski0613.pdf







The family of Branson Perry would like to thank Project Jason for their

assistance.



We encourage you to place posters of the founder's missing

son, Jason Jolkowski, as well as Branson's poster.

Branson Kayne Perry

Missing Since: April 11, 2001 from Skidmore, Missouri
Classification: Endangered Missing
Date Of Birth: February 24, 1981
Age: 20
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 155 lbs.
Hair Color: Blonde
Eye Color: Blue
Race: White
Gender: Male


Distinguishing Characteristics:
Small faint scar on upper
right cheek.
Small scar on left knee. Normal teeth; wisdom teeth
had been pulled.
Right handed.
Black belt in Hopkido, lifted weights.

Medical Conditions: Racing heart condition. Allergic to Penicillin.

Clothing: Shorts (size 32) and a T-shirt (size medium to large).




Branson was last seen by his friend on April 11, 2001 at approximately 3:00 p.m.

They were cleaning house for his father before he came home from the hospital. He told his friend he was putting jumper cables in the shed & would be right back. He has not been seen since. He left behind his van and personal belongings.



The family of Branson Perry would like to thank Project Jason for their assistance.

We encourage you to place posters of the founder's missing
son, Jason Jolkowski, as well as Branson's poster.

Becky Marie (Kraemer) Marzo

There is a $100,000.00 Bounty Offered
For the safe return of Becky Marie (Kraemer) Marzo, or the recovery of her remains and the conviction of the person or persons responsible for her disappearance

Hi everyone,

I have finally put Becky's Vigil and Memorial service together. I am sending this out in hopes that you can all come and share in the celebration of her life with our family.

Click here for the Press Release and info about the vigil

Becky has yet to be found, as always we have not given up hope. We do feel it is time that we allow our family and friends to share in our loss and hopefully also share in the celebration of her life. This is a way for us to remember Becky and start the grieving process. Over the last couple years I have dedicated myself to my search for answers and justice. It has taken a toll on me and my family, yet they all continue to support me and I will never stop looking for the answers. I need to know the truth and I'm sure in time I will have the closure but until that time, this will serve as a symbol of my Hope, Faith and Need to allow Becky the freedom to reach up and allow God to take her safely into his arms.

Thanks to my wonderful support team I have come to realize that there are so many people who care and I need to thank each and everyone of you.

Thanks,
Karren Kraemer


http://www.doenetwork.us/nampn/cases/marzo_becky.html

http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/gallery/ncmaprofile_all.php?A200402014S

Allison Jackson Foy

For more information, contact: December 4, 2006 CUE Center for Missing Persons
PO Box 12714 Wilmington, NC 28405
Monica Caison – (910) 232-2687

Raleigh – Durham May Hold Information to Wilmington Missing Woman
Woman Missing Over Four Months


Wilmington, NC. – Allison Jackson Foy encountered three Raleigh - Durham woman visiting the Wilmington area and they might have been the last people to have seen her before she vanished. Witnesses say Allison spent time with the females that night and exited the pub at the same time, briefly speaking in the parking lot before they got into a cab, returning to their lodging at Carolina Beach, NC.

All we know in addition to the information, is that one the Raleigh females came to Wilmington to visit her boyfriend of the area and all were here for the weekend, “said, Monica Caison, CUE’s Center’s Founder”; we are hopeful that we can locate the females as they might have seen something to aid the case.

Allison’s family and friends have returned to the area repeatedly
to look for her and information in regards to her disappearance.
The trips are becoming an emotional roll a coaster, “said Lisa Valentino, Allison’s sister”.

Last month a new reward of $3,000 in addition to the crime stoppers reward, Wilmington offers remains in place. Allison vanished on July 30, 2006; she has not been seen or heard from since. The reward is offered to any person that can provide the direct location of Allison’s whereabouts and tipsters can remain anonymous.

Allison Foy was last seen at the Junction Billiards Sports Bar located at 5216 Carolina Beach Road in Wilmington, NC; she was employed at the Holiday Inn Hotel as an assistant manager. Days later the vehicle Allison was driving was located in the parking of the billiard pub.

The family will hold a press conference and be available for interviews Tuesday, December 5, 2006 at 10:00 am; 1801 North Harrison Avenue, exit 287 in Cary, NC. We need to find these females so we can move on if they do not have any information, “said Lisa Valentino’, and through the press is our only hope to reach out to them”.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Wilmington Police Department at 910-343-3600 or 24-hour tip-line at the CUE Center for Missing Persons: (910) 232-1687. Tips can also be emailed cuecenter@aol.com or visit

http://www.ncmissingpersons.org/