Justin Fitzsimmons, associate vice president at the National White Collar Crime Center, joins us to raise the alarm about the way in which technology companies, social media outlets, and online privacy advocates are now purposely pitting adult privacy rights against the protection and safety of children. Think end-to-end encryption is totally innocuous? What if that means that pedophiles can endlessly trade child sexual abuse images online with impunity? And how do we—as advocates for children—keep issues of child protection front and center for policy makers, for tech and social media, and ultimately for all Americans?

Topics in this episode:

• Origin story (1:43)
• Trends in technology-facilitated crime (2:45)
• The privacy problem (6:56)
• Our tech-driven lives (14:22)
• What law enforcement needs (18:55)
• What parents need to know (27:17)
• What child abuse professionals need to do (34:23)
• Don’t let technology scare you (41:40)
• For more information (45:52)

Links:

Justin Fitzsimmons is associate vice president at the National White Collar Crime Center (nw3c.org), former president of the Board of Directors at National Children’s Alliance, and an expert on technology-facilitated crime.

CACs: Children’s Advocacy Centers

CSAM: child sexual abuse materials

ICAC: Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program

New York Times articles “The Internet Is Overrun with Images of Child Sexual Abuse. What Went Wrong?,” “How Laws Against Child Sexual Abuse Imagery Can Make It Harder to Detect,” and “Tech Companies Detect a Surge in Online Videos of Child Sexual Abuse”

NCMEC: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

NDAA: National District Attorneys Association

Common Sense Media

The Connected Parent

HealthyChildren.org

See also our previous episode, “Predators in Our Pockets: The New Digital Hunting Grounds”

For more information about National Children’s Alliance and the work of Children’s Advocacy Centers, visit our website at NationalChildrensAlliance.org. Or visit our podcast website at OneInTenPodcast.org. And join us on Facebook at One in Ten podcast.

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