Expert discusses predators and producers, victims of child porn

Everything about child pornography is illegal, but it's become more rampant as technology has made it easier to produce, pass around to other people and victimize those portrayed in it, experts say.

No region is immune to the destructive effects of child pornography.

Blaine County Undersheriff and Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force agent Frank Billmayer II said, in an interview Tuesday, that child pornography crimes around the country have "absolutely" increased, with "hands-on" offenses being the most reported and online victimization being the most unreported crimes against children. And although these types of crimes aren't an everyday occurrence - they're certainly not as common as other crimes - in north-central Montana, Billmayer said he investigates multiple cases at all times. He is glad Detective Brian Cassidy of the Havre Police Department has joined the ICAC Task Force.

Billmayer pointed out a common lie when it comes to child porn.

"For a long time, it was perceived as a victimless crime, that it's just someone looking at a photo and that it's pure fantasy," he said.

That's false, he said.

Billmayer cited a 2006 report that says the connection between people who watch child pornography and those likely to be hands-on offenders is strong.

The specific 2006 study was done with prisoners in the North Carolina's Butner Federal Prison who had been convicted on child pornography charges and had exhausted all appeals. The convicts were interviewed and their answers checked with a polygraph.

Billmayer said the study found that 85 percent of the offenders convicted on child pornography charges admitted to hands-on offenses; 13 percent who denied hands-on offenses failed the polygraph test; and the remaining two percent, although they hadn't committed any hands-on offenses against children, said they had intentions to do so.

The authors, U.S. Marshal Michael L. Bourke and Andres E. Hernandez, a psychologist, wrote another report two years later, "The 'Butner Study' Redux: A Report of the Incidence of Hands-on Child Victimization by Child Pornography Offenders."

The latter report reinforced what the first said. It concluded that men whose known sexual offense history at the time of sentencing was limited to having, receiving and sharing child pornography were "significantly more likely than not to have sexually abused a child via a hands-on act."

Billmayer said people who watch child porn do so because they have a sexual interest in children, much the same way heterosexuals who watch heterosexual adult porn engage in or are interested in heterosexual adult sex.

There are three groups of child pornography offenders: those who have images or videos, those who distribute those images, and those who produce them, he said. The producers are prosecuted more severely than the distributors and the distributors receive harsher sentences than those who simply possess it.

He said some people have gotten creative and try to skirt the law by producing anime, or cartoon child porn. Others create more realistic-looking child porn.

Self-produced child pornography is one of the most common ways child pornography is being manufactured, usually by sexting.

Sexting is when young people take sexual photos of themselves, usually to send to their girlfriends or boyfriends. It's illegal for anyone younger than 18 to take naked pictures of themselves and send it to others, he said.

Predators prowl sites like Skype, Twitter, Kik, Myyearbook, Snapchat and Facebook, where their goal is to befriend kids, usually under a false identity, for the purpose of preying on them.

Billmayer said Montana ICAC did a study to find out how likely young people are to friend complete strangers on Facebook. A detective created a fake profile, without a picture, and reached out to 30 teenage girls. The fake identity with no picture was automatically approved by more than half of the girls, he said.

Once these predators begin dialogue, they start grooming the children. They act friendly toward them, they compliment them - all part of an effort to get the kids to let their guard down. Grooming leads to the predators asking the children for sexual images.

Once a photo is taken, it can never disappear.

Billmayer said the cyber world is filled with satellites and providers and servers. So deleting an image off one phone, and a friend deleting it from theirs, does not mean it disappears. Once it's out there, it's out there, Billmayer said, and hackers and predators can get ahold of it.

Other times, predators have groomed and sexualized children to the point where the kids perform sexual acts willingly, he said.

"It's a learned behavior from them. They feel comfortable doing those things," Billmayer said.

Once these images are out, they get passed around and even traded, like baseball cards - "They don't care the color or even the gender of the child, because if it's not their thing they can just trade those images."

The illegal images can end up in the hands, or computer drive, of someone in the community. Billmayer said child predators can be anyone. Men, women, moms, dads, friends, family members, complete strangers - "the internet has allowed anyone in the entire world to contact most anyone else."

"It's happened where husbands have been downloading child pornography, and their wife has no idea what's going on," he said. "There's been wives that have been doing the same thing."

As the study at the beginning mentioned, there's strong evidence that suggests those who look at child pornography are likely to commit hands-on offenses.

Billmayer said parents or loved ones who suspect a young person they know is being groomed or targeted should take action immediately. It's important, he emphasized, not to delete any texts, emails, messages or videos from the potential pervert to the child.

"Don't reach out and contact that individual. I especially like to tell dads, don't say, 'Hey, leave my little Suzie alone.'" Billmayer said. "Just stop it. Don't contact them any more. Contact law enforcement and we'll come take a look at it."

Speaking as someone who's seen a lot while investigating sex crimes against children, Billmayer said, for predators, it's not personal. They'll victimize any child.

"It's really important for parents to remember that it's not just your child - this is a numbers game - it's somebody else's," he said. "These predators just move on down the line. They don't care who it is."

The "worst part of all of this," Billmayer said, is the aftermath.

"Once a child's innocence is robbed, it can never be returned," he said.

While some victims have gone on to live normal lives, many have had to live with deep psychological problems the rest of their lives.

Justice, Billmayer said, is a big reason he joined the ICAC Task Force. He said the vindication for him is holding predators accountable, getting them off the streets and protecting the next child from them.

Billmayer is encouraged that children are learning to report inappropriate enticement and solicitation more, and he hopes to team up with other ICAC officers in the area to continue teaching kids and parents about the dangers of child sexual predators.

The investigation into suspected child predators starts with a third party whose goal is to monitor the known underage accounts of that particular social media's content, Skype for example. Once verified as child pornography - skin tone-sensing tools and live people monitor the sites - the information is sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. From there, it is packaged, geographical location included, and sent to the proper local ICAC Task Force to take over the investigation.

Proactive policing is another method used to catch predators. In child sex stings, agents pose as children and predators contact them to meet for a hands-on offense, he said.

There's no slowing technology down, and the best thing to do, Billmayer said, is for parents to get involved.

"Number one, be a parent," he said. "Talk to your kids about what's going on online. 'Oh - who are you chatting with? What's going on?' A phone these days is a doorway to the world," he said.

"We have to be proactive as parents. We have to ask what our children are doing and be involved. And if you don't know, ask somebody," he said. "Don't be embarrassed that you don't know what's going on."

People can contact Detective Brian Cassidy at the Havre Police Departmentat 265-4361 or Undersheriff Frank Billmayer at 357-3260.

"If you're not sure," he said, referring to whether the concern is legitimate, "it doesn't hurt to ask. That's what we're here for."