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MCMASTER DISCREDITS FAULTY INTERNET PREDATOR REPORT, WITHDRAWS SC FROM NAAG
A study released today by Harvard University’s Internet Safety Technical Task Force that claimed a decreasing trend in online threats to children from sexual predators is bogus, according to South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster. And he has withdrawn the state from the group that commissioned the report.
“Ask any law enforcement officer, and they will tell you – the Internet is full of predators seeking to sexually harm our children – here and across America,” said McMaster. “To deny the seriousness of this problem presents an even more horrible risk to the children.”
The Harvard study, which was commissioned by a working group of the National Association of Attorneys General, found that the percentage of children solicited online fell from 19 percent to 13 percent between 2000 and 2006.
But in a letter written to the NAAG working group chairmen, McMaster and Attorneys General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Roy Cooper of North Carolina said the report’s findings “are as disturbing as they are wrong, and the conclusions in this report create a troubling false sense of security on the issue of child Internet safety.”
McMaster cited very convincing evidence produced by his Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force that illustrates a tremendous problem posed to children by predators seeking to engage them for sexual exploitation, or worse.
The Internet Predator problem is so widely recognized in South Carolina alone, McMaster wrote, that it has prompted 43 law enforcement agencies — including SLED — to join the ICAC task force since its creation in 2004.
Those efforts have so far resulted in 147 total arrests and 66 convictions – most by guilty plea. The rest are pending and none of the cases have been lost.
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UPDATE: For “Bob Z” looking for more info, here you go.
“McMaster cited very convincing evidence produced by his Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force that illustrates a tremendous problem posed to children by predators seeking to engage them for sexual exploitation, or worse.”
Why don’t you say what the convincing evidence is? This article is poorly written and does nothing but confuse the reader. Is the study somehow flawed? Did McMaster not get the data he wanted/needed? Or is it just pouring perverts in SC, NC and CT?
Uhhh so what happened to teaching your children the good sense to not talk about sex with random people that contact them on the internet?
Ohhhh, right. That’s hard. Mommy government, please do it for me, thanks.
Actually, when it comes to collecting and analyzing data, I think I’ll trust the trained researchers at Harvard over a “get tough on crime” hack who’s trying to advance his political career. Your “proof” that you left for Bob Z. was actually disagreeing with the study’s final recommendation, not any of it’s findings.
McMaster’s entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts. If Republicans want to get back to being the party of thinking people, it’s going to have to start listening to actual data instead of phrases like “ask any law enforcement officer” when making policy.