293 – Investigating Child Exploitation, with Erin Burke

This episode is brought to you by Vanguard University and the Global Center for Women and Justice, who offer an incredible anti-human trafficking certificate. Whether you're a frontline responder, a social worker, in the ministry, a healthcare provider, or simply a community member who wants to help, this program is built for you. Head over to gcwj.org/ahtc to take the next step and apply today. ---Dr. Sandie Morgan is joined by Erin Burke from Homeland Security to discuss federal investigations into child exploitation crimes. They discuss the public-private partnership between HSI and NCMEC, the difference between child exploitation and human trafficking, and the rise of sextortion amongst our youth. Erin Burke Erin Burke is the Unit Chief for the Child Exploitation Investigations Unit (CEIU) at Cyber Crime Center (C3) with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). CEIU is comprised of three sections, the Victim Identification Lab, Intake and Operations, and Angel Watch. As a Special Agent, Erin has worked investigations related to child exploitation, human trafficking, national security, transnational narcotics, gangs, and financial crimes for over fifteen years. Erin earned a master’s degree in Forensic Science from The George Washington University. Key Points The Child Exploitation Investigations Unit (CEIU) is the primary unit addressing child exploitation within HSI and partnering with other law enforcement around the world. Sextortion is becoming a growing trend in exploiting children for sexually explicit images and money. Kids are growing up in a digital age which requires us to understand the technology kids use and create safety barriers to protect them. Child exploitation is sexual abuse against a child perpetrated by a trusted individual. Child sex trafficking is the sexual exploitation of a child for monetary gain. NCMEC is the national clearinghouse for child exploitation and partners with federal agencies to investigate child exploitation crimes. Resources National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) iGuardians | Home Security Investigations NetSmartz | NCMEC CyberTipline for Online Exploitation | NCMEC Take It Down | NCMEC Sextortion: The Hidden Pandemic film Anti-Human Trafficking Certificate Love the show? Consider supporting us on Patreon! Become a Patron Transcript Sandra Morgan  00:00 You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode 293, Investigating Child Exploitation, with Erin Burke. Sandra Morgan  00:27 Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. And for many of you in our last episode, you learned that my founding co-host, Dave Stachowiak, has sent me out of the nest solo and this is my first solo hosts to podcast. So, I am especially delighted to have such an amazing guest today. Erin Burke is unit chief for Child Exploitation Investigations at the Cyber Crime Center, Homeland Security Investigations. And she is an amazing and diligent investigator. She has, as a special agent, worked investigations related to child exploitation, human trafficking, national security, transnational narcotics, gangs, and financial crimes for over 15 years. Erin has a master’s degree in forensic science from The George Washington University. Thank you so much for joining us today, Erin. Erin Burke  01:53 Thank you so much for having me. I’m really excited to be here today and to talk to you. Sandra Morgan  01:57 So tell us, first of all, what the Child Exploitation Investigations Unit at Cyber Crime Center, also known as C3, what does it do? Erin Burke  02:11 So the Child Exploitation Investigations Unit, I might also refer to it as CEIU, is basically Homeland Security Investigations headquarters element that focuses on all types of child exploitation and abuse crimes. So we are comprised of three units, there’s intake investigations, and that unit is where we work with our domestic and international partners to actually work on cases and large scale operations to combat predators online. The other section is Angel Watch. And that is an initiative that we have to basically protect the world’s children. So it’s an initiative where we have to make sure that individuals who are leaving the United States with the intent to harm and abuse children elsewhere, that we can target them and prosecute them as necessary. Then our third is the victim identification lab. And this is a cutting edge laboratory, our main mission is to identify and rescue children of abuse and exploitation. So they use some really amazing technology combined with traditional investigative tools to focus on finding those kids who are being abused, and their images are posted online, who are being abused, and they’re being caused to travel around the country, they’re going to focus on identifying who those kids are, rescuing them...