Our ICAC Investigators are looking at a 3 to 4 year old female, her eyes are enlarged. They displayed her surprise, pain, and shock as she was forced to perform oral sex on an adult male who had just ejaculated all over her face.

Welcome to the world of child pornography.

Click on the appropriate URL and you will be taken to a site with names that indicate graphic images no photos, just a list of images with names of what you will soon learn are of young females (3 to 13 years of age). You click on an image and one of these females appears being graphically raped by an adult male. The cameraman has her facing the camera. All of her, and his, genitalia are graphically displayed in the video close up, wide angle, overhead, side, a flash or special lighting was clearly being used and shone in her face to illuminate the graphic rape. The little girl was not only being painfully molested, she was forced to bear the additional humiliation of being filmed at the same time. Unable to stop the rape, she did the only thing she could do to protect herself: She shut her eyes.

Most parents understand this gesture. When our children are very young, they think that by closing their eyes they become invisible. They stand in front of us, thinking that if they can't see us, we can't see them. "Mommy, can you see me?" is the game of the day, and we all pretend that we can't. We call out to them, "Where are you? We can't see you!" pretending to look everywhere for them. The game ends with lots of giggling, tickling, laughter, and hugs. This little girl's attempt to be invisible would end very differently.

Each year thousands and thousands (probably hundred's of thousands) of children, girls and boys, lose their innocence and much more because of the atrocities forced upon them by pedophiles. There are graphic pictures/videos available of babies being molested at the age of 2 months. Infants not even old enough to sit up by themselves are being brutally raped or forced to perform oral sex on their molesters. Children that are just beginning to discover life have that life ripped away in just one heartbeat. Grade-school children lose their childhood in that same heartbeat. The pain doesn't go away. You can see it in their eyes. And, these images are on the Internet forever!

Members of Operation Blue Ridge Thunder see these images every day. It use to be just (God, how do we say just) one dimensional images, now its video streams, and if you look hard enough it can be live stream video. One of the most sought-after videos at this time is one of an adult male having sex with what appears to be a 2 to 3 year old female he removes her diaper at the start of the video.

Videos containing violence and cruelty to children over the Internet, as a rule, are carried out by well organized international criminal groups. An example: There is a 40 second video clip, according to Department R, Russian police, where two perverts have sex with a young girl (10/12 years old?) after which they stab her, cut off her ears and smash her face to a bloody pulp. This clip, as reported by the Russian police, was first noticed by the US authorities. US police experts assert that the video footage represents real activity, not imitation.

Child pornography is a $6 to10 billion dollar industry, probably more $20 to 30 billion as some agencies project. And, its growing! Some organized crime organizations have abandoned the drug trade for child porn notably, some Eastern Block countries.

While the computer age has opened a whole new world for our children to explore and learn from, the information superhighway, also has a dark side we all need to be aware of. Just as they prey on land, Pedophiles lurk on the Internet waiting to lure innocent children into their web of deviance, looking for their next victim.

These deviates meet others who claim children for their victims, share stories, pictures and encourage each other along the way.

The tricks they use on the Internet are a little different. They can hide behind the screen. No one can tell if they are 12, 20, 40, or any age. They know how to relate to children and find it easy to communicate on that level. They present themselves in areas children frequent and pose as children. They get to know the child they are communicating with and pass themselves off as a friend. Often, they will use smoking cigarettes, using drugs, talking about sex, or some activity they should not be involved with as an incitement to lure the child to meet them without anyone knowing.

The trap is then laid the adult will lure the child out to meet with them and thinking it's another child, they set off to meet their friend. What happens next depends on the plan of the predator. For some, this would be enough. The fact that they won their trust enough to get them to meet them may be all the ground rules they need to molest the child. Some may attempt a closer relationship by playing the con a little longer.

The key to all of this is that child predators are cons. Their goals are as varied as their egos. The limits for one may just be the beginning point for another. There is no way to predict how any given predator will react. Their personalities differ. Their needs are not the same in many ways. There is only one thing they have completely in common the fact that they find their thrill in luring a child into their well concocted plan of sexual molestation, kidnapping, and sometimes, murder!