'UnMasked' Program Targets Online Sexual Exploitation of Children

VIRGINIA — The U.S. Department of Justice has created an outreach and prevention program in Virginia to raise awareness about online sexual exploitation of children and young adults.

The program, called UnMasked, was announced Friday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia and will include partnerships with local, state, federal and nonprofit entities. The program name alludes to the hidden nature of online sexual exploitation.

“Online predators target some of the most vulnerable members of our society and can cause a devastating impact on our communities and loved ones,” Raj Parekh, acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in a statement Friday.

“The first step to fighting back is awareness — educating our youth and parents with information on how to prevent these crimes from happening,” Parekh said. “UnMasked will help achieve these goals by establishing a community-based program that is designed to raise awareness and combat the often-hidden scourge of cyber abuse.”

The program will seek to educate middle school, high school and college students, along with parents and teachers, about the potential dangers of the internet. UnMasked presentations will use real-life case examples of online sexual exploitation, as illustrated by law enforcement agents, prosecutors, and victims of the crimes.

The core curriculum is provided by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s NetSmartz program. Participants and others in the audience will hear personal stories by victims of online sexual predators, along with presentations from experts in the investigative, forensic and mental health fields.

These events, which are set to begin during the 2021–2022 school year, will include interactive components, as well as live and video testimonials from survivors cautioning students about the dangers of online communications.

According to NCMEC, online exploitation increased in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic as social isolation and online activity increased. NCMEC’s “CyberTipline” received more than 21.4 million reports of child sexual exploitation from electronic service providers in 2020, as well as more than 303,000 reports of online sexual exploitation from the public, a 27 increase from 2019.

The U.S. attorney’s office’s partners in the program will include the Washington, D.C., Richmond, and Norfolk Field Offices of the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations; the U.S. Department of Defense’s Naval Criminal Investigative Service in the D.C., and Norfolk field offices; and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

To report an incident involving online sexual exploitation, call 1-800-843-5678 or submit a report at report.cybertip.org. The CyberTipline is operated by NCMEC in partnership with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.

To request an UnMasked event at a school or organization, contact the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia Community Outreach Coordinator at USAVAE-UnMasked@usdoj.gov.