February 11, 2009 4:01 PM
- Text
Fighting To Hunt Predators Online
(CBS)
Six years ago Alicia Kozakiewicz lived through what she says was nothing less than hell.
"I am that 13-year-old girl who was lured by an Internet predator, transported across state lines to Virginia - in fact not so very far from here - and enslaved by a sadistic pedophile monster," Kozakiewicz, now 19, told Congress in a Wednesday hearing. She moved members of Congress to tears, CBS News correspondent Chip Reid reports.
She told of the four days she was chained, raped and tortured in a Virginia townhouse.
Her captor sent her image over the Internet. One viewer tipped off police leading to her rescue.
Her abuser is now in prison and Alicia, who believes she was saved for a reason, now tours the country warning children and parents of the perils of internet chat rooms.
"A lot of kids aren't going to be as lucky as me," she said. "A lot of them ... you know are dead."
Kozakiewicz told Congress it can happen to any child looking for a new friend on the Internet. Her predator, she says, posed as a 14-year-old girl and knew all the tricks.
"He had it all down to the abbreviations, the music, the slang, the clothes. He knew it all," she said. "I never had a chance."
A map shows the traffic in child pornography in just one day: 4,500 separate computers. Experts say at least 350,000 Americans actively trade in images of the abuse of children.
Law enforcement officials told Congress today it's outrageous that they now have the technology to find the perpetrators - but don't have the resources to go get them.
"We are overwhelmed and underfunded and drowning in a tidal wave of tragedy," said Flint Waters, of the Wyoming Internet Crimes against Children Task Force. "And we don't have what we need to save these children."
Thousands of children - many who aren't as lucky as Alicia Kozakiewicz.
"I am that 13-year-old girl who was lured by an Internet predator, transported across state lines to Virginia - in fact not so very far from here - and enslaved by a sadistic pedophile monster," Kozakiewicz, now 19, told Congress in a Wednesday hearing. She moved members of Congress to tears, CBS News correspondent Chip Reid reports.
She told of the four days she was chained, raped and tortured in a Virginia townhouse.
Her captor sent her image over the Internet. One viewer tipped off police leading to her rescue.
Her abuser is now in prison and Alicia, who believes she was saved for a reason, now tours the country warning children and parents of the perils of internet chat rooms.
"A lot of kids aren't going to be as lucky as me," she said. "A lot of them ... you know are dead."
Kozakiewicz told Congress it can happen to any child looking for a new friend on the Internet. Her predator, she says, posed as a 14-year-old girl and knew all the tricks.
"He had it all down to the abbreviations, the music, the slang, the clothes. He knew it all," she said. "I never had a chance."
A map shows the traffic in child pornography in just one day: 4,500 separate computers. Experts say at least 350,000 Americans actively trade in images of the abuse of children.
Law enforcement officials told Congress today it's outrageous that they now have the technology to find the perpetrators - but don't have the resources to go get them.
"We are overwhelmed and underfunded and drowning in a tidal wave of tragedy," said Flint Waters, of the Wyoming Internet Crimes against Children Task Force. "And we don't have what we need to save these children."
Thousands of children - many who aren't as lucky as Alicia Kozakiewicz.
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