Camille Cooper, Vice President for Anti-Human Trafficking at the Tim Tebow Foundation, testified before the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance Wednesday in a hearing titled, “A Voice for the Voiceless.”
The hearing focused on CSAM (child sex abuse material). Cooper cited a database from Interpol that lists over 50,000 children who are currently being trafficked and abused while their images are published online.
According to Cooper’s testimony, there is an “illicit market demand” for child pornography that is spread throughout the United States. The issue has been addressed through previous legislative action, but Cooper told the subcommittee that investigations, cyber-tips and forensics capabilities have increased. A Five Eyes Alliance (FVEY) database has “millions of new images and tens of thousands of new victims.”
“For the first time in history, we don’t have to just rely on children’s outcries,” Cooper said. “We can follow the digital trail right to these children’s doorstep.”
Cooper said that in many cases the primary abuser is someone the victim knows, often fathers or uncles, or members of a child’s community, neighbors or friends. Victim identification is crucial for these investigations.
Cooper told the subcommittee about the International Child Sexual Exploitation (ICSE) image and video database, which according to its website, is a vital tool for investigators combating child sexual abuse globally. It facilitates data sharing on abuse cases,and enables instant connections between victims, abusers, and locations through image and video analysis software.
The database prevents duplication of efforts and saves time by identifying previously discovered images or similar features across countries, according to Cooper. It facilitates collaboration by investigators from over 68 countries. By analyzing digital content, including visual and audio elements of media, experts can retrieve clues, identify overlaps in cases, and coordinate efforts to locate victims of child sexual abuse, Cooper reported in her testimony.
Tim Tebow, who also testified, said there are only 10 specialized investigators working on cases where unidentified children are being abused. Tebow said collaborations between Interpol and other organizations found at least 50,000 unidentified children in a database who are being abused, and whose images are circulated on the internet.
