AST Digital Magazine June 2017 Digital-June | Page 35

Volume 13
June 2017 Edition
Robert Lowery, vice president of the Virginia-
based agency’s Missing Children Division, said
reports of brazen abductions have gone down
significantly over the years, largely replaced by
online predators.
“Offenders are still there and the threat still ex-
ists,” said Lowery. “Now they’re online enticing
children.”
“That’s why this worked so well,” said Timothy
Slater, special agent in charge of the Criminal Di-
vision at WFO.
“We leverage our 56 field offices across the
country—and our 64 legal attachés around the
world—to work as a force multiplier.”
“The amount of resources we bring to bear is in-
trinsic to solving these cases quickly.”
“If we develop information that is outside our
area of responsibility, we can contact our agents
there to assist.”
“There are bad people out there trying to prey on
children,” said Bornstein, adding that advances
in technology, including encryption, are making it
harder to find the bad guys.
Parents, meanwhile, just want to keep their kids
safe while “there are more and more ways for
parents not to know what their children are up
to,” Bornstein said.
This underscores the importance for parents to
know who their children are communicating with,
what they are posting, and what they are looking
at on the Internet.
The number of reports of missing kids last year
rose by about 5,000, according to NCIC figures.
Investigators said the confluence of kids using
cell phones and their easy access to social me-
dia has made them more susceptible to preda-
tors.
The number of children reported missing has
declined significantly since NCMEC was estab-
lished in 1984 following the 1981 abduction of
Adam Walsh, founder John Walsh’s 6-year-old
son.
NCMEC encourages responsible use of social
media—rather than fully restricting it, which may
have a counter-effect—and honest communica-
tion between parents and their kids.
“The key to that is we want parents to not be
judgmental with their children if they bring some-
thing to their attention,” Lowery said.
“Sometimes there’s a propensity for parents to
be judgmental and blame the child for inappro-
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