INDIANAPOLIS — Around Indiana, there's a group of local and state agencies helping to keep Hoosier kids safe online, through the Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
But in recent years, their workload has been growing after huge spikes in cybertips continue to pour in.
Behind all the texting, posting and sharing happening on your child's devices every day, there's a team working to ensure any potential threats or exploitation of kids online are fully investigated. That's where the ICAC comes in.
"The biggest part of what our ICAC does is try to rescue children, trying to stop them from victimizing themselves and try to stop people who are having sexual conduct with a child," said Indiana State Police First Sgt. Chris Cecil, commander of the Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
But tracking down predators online and protecting kids from sharing things they shouldn't isn't always simple. New technology, new apps and sites can make it hard to keep up.
"With technology, law enforcement is always behind. We're always trying to learn what the latest and greatest thing is and a lot of us have our own kids, and we hear from our kids what they're using but at the end of the day, we're always behind," Cecil said.
And the number of cybertips coming into ICAC are skyrocketing.
“The tips are not just where kids are doing things," Cecil said. "This is even where bad guys, bad actors are doing things, so we’re finding out where service providers are reporting things, where people are sharing and reporting things that get flagged and that gets reported to law enforcement."
In 2008, there were 405 cybertips coming in from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to the ICAC team here in the Hoosier State.
Ten years later, there were more than 3,500. In 2021, that number rose to more than 7,500. And in 2022 more than 14,000 cybertips were reported in for ICAC to investigate - everything from potential abuse to a child facing immediate harm.
"The hair on the back of your neck is raising and you're reviewing that tip very quickly," Cecil said.
So far in 2023, they've gotten more than 2,600 tips to investigate. It can be hard for investigators to keep up.
"It is," Cecil said. "The people I supervise and then, the other agencies that comprise the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, they have unmanageable amounts of work to go through and look at."
Part of that increased demand, Cecil said, started when more kids were home in 2020 during the early days of the pandemic. But even with kids back in class, these increased tips and potential threats on Hoosier kids aren't going away.
"No. No, it's not," Cecil said.
It's why he and his entire team are so passionate about doing everything they can to find predators lurking online and get them off the streets so they can keep kids safe.
"But at the end of the day, when you rescue a child, you know you did good work," Cecil said.
What can parents do? Cecil recommends the following actions:
Regularly monitor your child's apps, devices and social media
Know who your child is talking to online and what they're sharing
Sit down with your children and have open discussions with them about what's OK to share and what's not
If something happens, support your child and let them know you're there to protect and help them.
For more tips on how to keep your child safe, visit the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's website.