Video, Ben Halpert Presents - Cyber Threats: Teach Your Kids
How to Defend Themselves

A follow-up to his informative class, "Cyber Threats: Our Children are Targets, Know What They're Up Against" Ben Halpert will delve into what you as a parent or other adult caregiver can do to help the children in your life make smart decisions regarding technology use.

The Learning Annex
Inst: Ben Halpert, Savvy Cyber Kids

Ben Halpert Presents - Cyber Threats: Our Children are Targets,
Know What They're Up Against

"Today's children are growing up in a connected society. Rarely does a day go by without reports of cyber bullying, sexting, online predators, self-injury, privacy or other cyber related topics that impact our children. Learn about the threats your children are exposed to every time they pick up an iPhone, Smartphone, tablet, or other computing device."

The Learning Annex
Inst: Ben Halpert, Savvy Cyber Kids 

26 Charged With Using P2P to Swap Child-Sex Videos

NEW YORK — Law enforcement officials announced felony charges against 26 people on Tuesday for the possession and distribution of violent child pornography over the internet, in one of the most wide-ranging cyber-sex-crime roll-ups in recent memory.

“The defendants in these cases traded images of child sexual assault the way that others trade baseball cards,” Vance said at a press conference in lower Manhattan. “They were curators of their collections, who carefully labeled, sorted and shared their cache with others.”

Vance said that the images and videos go well beyond pornography, and depict rape and other sexual violence against young children.

“We cannot show you these images, but if we could, I can assure you that you would be shocked and disgusted and horrified by the images they contain,” Vance said. “These are babies, toddlers and children being brutally raped, sexually assaulted and exploited by adults on camera.”

Man Sentenced to 15 Years for Manufacturing Child Pornography

John Nelson Preston, Jr., 34, from Yale, Michigan, was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment for manufacturing child pornography, United States Attorney Barbara L. McQuade announced today. Joining in the announcement was FBI Special Agent-In-Charge Andrew G. Arena.

In February 2009, the Macomb County Sheriff’s Department received a “cybertip” from America Online that an individual utilizing the screen name “mjfrog” was transmitting child pornography. Authorities identified “mjfrog” as co-defendant David Bryan Blackman, 52, and searched his home, seizing a computer and a voice modulator. On the computer, authorities found chat transcripts between Blackman and Preston. In the transcripts, Blackman posed as a mother with two pre-pubescent daughters. Blackman agreed to allow Preston to engage in sex acts with his daughters if Preston would transmit nude images of himself and a 3-year-old in his care to Blackman via webcam. Preston did so. Although no images of the nude 3-year-old were recovered, federal charges were brought based on the substance of the chat transcripts as well as other child pornography found on both defendants’ computers.

Preston pleaded guilty before Judge David M. Lawson on March 8, 2010. In addition to 15 years’ imprisonment, Preston will serve five years of supervised release following his term.

Blackman pleaded guilty on February 11, 2010. He was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment and five years’ supervised release on June 2.

New York AG Suing Social Network Tagged.com for Child Porn

New York’s attorney general Andrew Cuomo accused the social networking site Tagged.com on Thursday of not responding to user reports of child pornography and sexual solicitation of minors, which has allowed the popular site to become a place where sexual predators can exploit children.

Cuomo sent a letter to the site, which claims 5 million users. The letter announces his intent to sue the site for violating trade laws by not adhering to its promises to keep the site safe.

With the pending suit, Tagged.com becomes the latest social network to be accused of not adequately policing their sites for sexual predators and inappropriate images. In its heyday, MySpace claimed it was too technically difficult to keep offenders off its site, a claim belied by Wired.com’s Kevin Poulsen, who wrote a computer script that identified 744 registered sex offenders’ MySpace accounts, leading to the arrest and conviction in New York state of a known sex offender Andrew Lubrano.

The attorney general had employees create accounts on Tagged and report child-porn images. Some of what they found included a bestiality-themed image involving a girl who looks younger than 10 and a picture of an adult performing oral sex on a girl younger than 10, according to the letter.