Reports of online child sexual exploitation are on the rise

Posted on May 27, 2021
Attorney General Kwame Raoul projects a sixteen percent increase this year. (Photo courtesy Illinois.gov)

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – Reports of online child exploitation have gone up since the pandemic started.

The trajectory actually predates the pandemic. “Since 2017, our office has experienced a 117 percent increase in those reports,” Christine Fuller, a cybercrime investigator in the attorney general’s office, said at a news conference in Springfield Thursday. “In 2017 we had 2,383 reports that we received this past year in 2020 we received over 5,000 reports.”

Attorney General Kwame Raoul projects a sixteen percent increase this year.

1-800-THE-LOST

www.illinoisicac.org

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]

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