Police tech for protecting kids

Not easy to read, but this article at NorthJersey.com provides a wide-angle snapshot of the downside of various technologies where child-exploitation is concerned. "The battle against child pornography on the Internet began more than a decade ago, when pedophiles began exchanging explicit pictures of children through e-mail. The rapid development of digital video cams, peer-to-peer file sharing and camera phones made the problem more complex. Now it's real-time gaming and mobile videos - mini-movies on wireless phones - that vex law enforcement." But cops are now, for example, using file-sharing technology to track file-sharers who traffic in child pornography. "The software has already identified 200,000 people who have downloaded child pornography, about 3,000 of them in New Jersey," NorthJersey.com reports. They also can now intercept pedophiles' Web cam photos and extract photos from camera phones "even after they've been erased." As for multiplayer games online: "Real-time gaming, which allows X-Box and PS2 players to compete against people across the world, may pose a new problem, law-enforcement authorities fear. Young players could become comfortable with a competitor they know nothing about and begin to divulge personal information, they said." (Thanks to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children for pointing this piece out.)