Warning: Beware of Child Sexual Abuse Material Being Displayed During Zoom Meetings

FBI Warns of Child Sexual Abuse Material Being Displayed During Zoom Meetings

During the last few months, the FBI has received more than 195 reports of incidents throughout the United States and in other countries in which a Zoom participant was able to broadcast a video depicting child sexual abuse material (CSAM)...The FBI is committed to apprehending any individual who produces or distributes child sexual abuse material and is seeking the public’s assistance to identify the person or persons responsible for these egregious crimes.

• If you are the administrator or host of a Zoom meeting in which CSAM was broadcast, please contact the FBI; do not delete or destroy any of your computer logs without further direction.
• If you recorded a Zoom meeting in which child sexual abuse material was broadcast, please contact the FBI for assistance in removing the CSAM from your device.
• If you believe you are a victim of a child sexual abuse material broadcast during a Zoom event, as defined above, please contact the FBI to learn about your victim rights and possible victim assistance.
• If you know who is committing these most recent egregious crimes, please contact the FBI.
• Do not make meetings or classrooms public. In Zoom, there are two options to make a meeting private: Require a meeting password; Use the waiting room feature and control the admittance of guests.
• Do not share a link to a teleconference or classroom on an unrestricted, publicly available social media post. Provide the link directly to specific attendees.
• Manage screensharing options. In Zoom, change screensharing to “Host Only.”

For more information, click here.

New York enacts Bill of Rights for Sexual Assault Survivors

Schuyler County Attorney Steven Getman wants all survivors of rape and sexual assault to know about New York State’s new “sexual assault survivors' bill of rights.”

“This new law will require state government to establish a bill of rights for purposes of informing survivors of their rights under the law,” Getman said.

According to Getman, the bill of rights will include the victims’ right to:

• Consult with a rape crisis or victim assistance organization;
• Appropriate health care services at no cost;
• Receive updates on their sexual offense evidence kit and the status of their case; and
• Be notified before sexual assault evidence kits are destroyed

Under the law, Getman explained, all law enforcement agencies must adopt policies to help communicate with survivors and enable a survivor to request information on their sexual offense evidence kit from the police agency or prosecutorial agency with jurisdiction over the crime.

“Advising victims of their legal rights will help ensure they can navigate complicated medical and criminal justice systems and receive necessary assistance and treatment,” Getman said.

The measure was signed into law Friday (December 21) and is scheduled to take effect in June 2019.

The complete text of the new law can be found here.

The Schuyler County Attorney is the legal advisor to the county legislature and other county officers, including the Sheriff, the District Attorney and the Department of Social Services. The County Attorney prosecutes and defends civil actions and serves as the primary prosecutorial agency for cases presented in Schuyler County Family Court.

New York wins big victory in locking up sex offenders

Syracuse.com:

New York's top court this month delivered a big victory to state prosecutors who want to remove some of the worst sex offenders from society -- possibly forever.

The court allowed the combination of two non-sex-related mental illnesses -- anti-social personality disorder and borderline personality disorder -- to form the basis for locking up sex offenders after their release from prison. The court had ruled previously that anti-social personality disorder (ASPD) could not be used alone to keep a sex offender confined.

The ruling strengthens the legal grounds to remove the worst sex offenders from the streets.

The complete decision can be found here.

New national protocol for pediatric sexual abuse examinations

The U.S. Department of Justice has released a national protocol for Sexual Abuse Medical Forensic Examinations-Pediatric (Pediatric SAFE Protocol).

The protocol is designed for health care providers who conduct sexual abuse medical forensic examinations of prepubescent children and other professionals involved in an initial response to child sexual abuse. It has three main goals: "address the health care needs of prepubescent children who disclose sexual abuse or for whom sexual abuse is suspected; promote their healing; and gather forensic evidence for potential use within the criminal justice and/or child protection systems."

The protocol notes that "in the case of prepubescent children who display problem sexualized behaviors, examinations should be done by health care providers as these children may also be victims of sexual abuse."

More information about SAFE examinations is available here and here.

Report: Thousands of sex offenders to disappear from New York registry

Fox News:

The names of thousands of New York State sex offenders are due to come off a public registry, prompting demands for a change in the law.

State law requiring Level 1 offenders to report their whereabouts to the registry for a 20-year period was up Jan. 1….

The Level 1 designation can include child molestation, rape in the first degree and sodomy, according to the station.

Level 2 and Level 3 sex offenders are required to register for life.

More information on the New York State registry can be found here.